There is a strong streak of Protestant distaste when it comes to questions of Mary the Mother of Jesus. The strength of the Marion cult which emerged in the 11th and 12th centuries, not incidentally when some of the first courtly romance ballads appeared, can be a problem for taking Mary's role seriously. Too much …
Continue reading Hail Mary Full of Grace: The Significance of the Mother of God
"We three kings of orient are..." unless you were raised in East London like me in which case we sing "We three kings of ory n' tar..." In Matthew's version of the Nativity story, there are some characters who turn up who have captured Christian imagination over the years. This article is answering a simple …
Was Christmas originally pagan? The short answer is... No! Here's the longer answer. There is a fairly common claim that Christmas was originally a pagan celebration that Christians co-opted during the first four centuries to undermine and destroy pagan religion. This has been repeated in 'books' (I use the word book quite loosely here) such …
Continue reading Was Christmas Pagan? Sorting Fact From Fiction