This edition is sponsored by Prison Fellowship
weekend reads
This week at Christianity Today, we published our annual Book Awards list, as well as our editor in chief Russell Moore’s favorite books of 2024.
Our Book of the Year is What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church by Gavin Ortlund. Our Award of Merit goes to Brad East for Letters to a Future Saint: Foundations of Faith for the Spiritually Hungry.
Hear from both authors, plus Russell Moore and other members of our editorial team, next Thursday, December 12, at 8:00 pm ET on YouTube.
weekend listen
As we meditate on the incarnation and birth of Christ, nature writer Lucy Jones joins The Bulletin for a conversation about the neuroscience of pregnancy, the social dilemma of modern motherhood, and the power of collaborative care across communities.
“The vulnerability of early motherhood, the pungency, the dependency, the fragility … it really clashes with neoliberal ideas of hyperindividualism.” | Listen here.
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There are 1.5 million children in America with a parent in prison, and Christmas often amplifies the pain of separation. While other families gather to celebrate, they face empty chairs and missing voices. But through Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program, you can help bridge this gap.
When you give $30, a child receives more than just a wrapped present—they receive a personal message from their incarcerated parent and the hope-filled story of Jesus’s birth. This year, hundreds of thousands of children are waiting for someone like you to donate. Each gift delivers both tangible joy and the Gospel’s promise of redemption.
Will you help one child feel remembered this Christmas?
editors’ picks
Emily Belz, staff writer: This is a fun piece about companies rolling out Christmas early in the UK: “It Must Be October in Britain Because the Beans Taste Like Christmas.”
Kate Shellnutt, editorial director, news: The Holdovers, starring Paul Giamatti as the boarding school teacher watching kids stuck at school over Christmas break, was such a good addition to our holiday movie lineup when it debuted last year—wintry setting, layered characters, warm ending—that I can’t wait to watch it again this year.
Kara Bettis Carvalho, ideas editor: I recently read Wintering by Katherine May on a prayer retreat.
prayers of the people
- For the Christians advocating against new assisted-dying legislation in the UK.
- For opportunities to “share Christ’s love and wisdom about trans issues in ways that are actually a bridge to the gospel, rather than a barrier.”
- For clean creeks—even West Michigan’s most polluted waterway.
Compassion International helps Christian parents build bridges between their children and God’s global family. Learn more about raising kids who care for the least of these. When Jesus taught us…
more from CT
IN THE MAGAZINE
As this issue hits your mailboxes after the US election and as you prepare for the holidays, it can be easy to feel lost in darkness. In this issue, you’ll read of the piercing light of Christ that illuminates the darkness of drug addiction at home and abroad, as Angela Fulton in Vietnam and Maria Baer in Portland report about Christian rehab centers. Also, Carrie McKean explores the complicated path of estrangement and Brad East explains the doctrine of providence. Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt shows us how art surprises, delights, and retools our imagination for the Incarnation, while Jeremy Treat reminds us of an ancient African bishop’s teachings about Immanuel. Finally, may you be surprised by the nearness of the “Winter Child,” whom poet Malcolm Guite guides us enticingly toward. Happy Advent and Merry Christmas.
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