This is a great book to read over Christmas (or during Advent). And while I'd like to say that's what I did, it would be a lie. It was my PLAN to read it during Christmas but well, you know what they say about plans.
So I read it after Christmas. And it was still fantastic. Scott Hahn is a really gifted author. He has a way of conveying a lot of great information in a way that can be understood by the average person. This book is no exception. It's easy to read. It isn't a book that feels like work or something that you have to 'get through'. It's just a nice, easy, enjoyable read. There is a lot of great information laid out in an understandable, logical way. It's focus is on the first Christmas and the Holy Family and how the family is the key to Christmas. It is a lovely book, whenever you read it.
The chapters break down like this:
A Light Goes On in Bethlehem
What Happens in Bethlehem
A New Genesis
The Counterfeit Kingdom
Mary: Cause of Our Joy
Silent, Knight, Holy Knight
Angles: Echoing Their Joyous Strains
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Do You Believe in Magi
Shepherds, Why This Jubilee?
The Glory of Your People: The Presentation
Flight Into Joy
Blessed Trinities: Heaven And The Holy Family
Joy To The World
Book Synopsis
What could be more familiar than the Christmas story -- and yet what could be more extraordinary? The cast of characters is strange and exotic: shepherds and magicians, an emperor and a despot, angels, and a baby who is Almighty God. The strangeness calls for an explanation, and this book provides it by examining the characters and the story in light of the biblical and historical context. Bestselling author Scott Hahn who has written extensively on Scripture and the early Church, brings evidence to light, dispelling some of the mystery of the story. Yet Christmas is made familiar all over again by showing it to be a family story. Christmas, as it appears in the New Testament, is the story of a father, a mother, and a child -- their relationships, their interactions, their principles, their individual lives, and their common life. To see the life of this "earthly trinity" is to gaze into heaven.
I received this book from Blogging for Books for an honest review.
This sounds like a really interesting book. I also had an advent book called Today in a Manger. I am just finishing it this week, happily. It has been useful to concentrate on and think more about what God did in sending Jesus, even if I didn't read it all before the Big Night.
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