CONTENTS
December 2003
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Should we ask of the birth stories about Jesus: Did it happen like this? Ian Boxall, who teaches New Testament in the University of Oxford, shows how the more important questions the evangelists were posing are: Who is this Jesus of Nazareth? Where has he come from? And, perhaps most significantly, Where is he going?
How did the theologians of the early centuries understand Christ? Thomas Weinandy, the warden of Greyfriars in Oxford, who teaches theology in the university, describes three principles worked out by the early Church and applies them to some contemporary questions.
How do modern theologians help us to draw out the meaning of Christmas, so that we can use it in our teaching and parish preaching? Anne Inman, who teaches theology at Birkbeck College, London, shows how Karl Rahner and Jon Sobrino help us to appreciate three Christmas themes: the need to communicate the true meaning of the feast, the need to feed the hungry, and the need to experience the joy of Christmas.
How does the liturgy deepen our understanding of the Incarnation? Stephen Dean, who is music adviser for the Diocese of East Anglia, explains the reasons for the origins of the Christmas liturgical cycle and shows how the history of the liturgy reflects that of the gospel.
Robert Esdaile, a priest of the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton and Roman Catholic Chaplain to the University of Sussex, reflects on how to make sense of the Incarnation in contemporary culture. The Incarnation has not attained its purpose until we have embraced it.
Kevin McKevitt, formerly Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Newbury College, is married with two children and is a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Portsmouth. Here he offers some reflections on the lectionary readings for the Sundays of January 2004 and the Epiphany.
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