Jesus Christ

Cultivating the garden of world order includes tending to the tasks that uphold public safety, execute justice and promote human flourishing.

Christians must always have a tentative relationship toward nation-states. They are finite entities that came into being out of historical contingency and, barring Christ’s return, will fade back into the annals of history. It is Christ and his Kingdom alone that are everlasting.

Christmas is important to Christians because from their point of view the Baby Jesus is the meaning of Christmas, and the meaning of Christmas is the meaning of life.

History turned a corner with the birth of Jesus Christ, and while the written reports of that event don’t tell me everything I want to know, they do tell me everything I need. The Gospels occupy a kind of center point in human culture as a whole: products of a particular time and place, but comprehensible to all.

To get any insight at all into what Jesus’ childhood and upbringing were like, you have to do something that sometimes makes Protestants uncomfortable: study Mary.

The flawed human race, trapped in a cycle of cascading pain and wrong, is what and who God is bound and determined to love. The question is, how can He do it?

The Christmas story suggests that we can somehow try to be loyal members of our nations, our families, our tribes—and to reach out to the broader human community of which we are also a part.

The specifically Christian idea of the Virgin Birth is one of the most controversial and confusing theological concepts around. But it is central to the Christmas story, and there is no way of getting around it. So, what does this concept mean, and why do Christians care that it’s true?

As we start to look at this whole Christmas phenomenon, it makes sense to begin with the basics. The first questions any sensible person asks about Christmas are pretty straightforward: What event is this holiday supposed to commemorate, and do we know that it actually happened?