In this week’s episode of Mere Fidelity, Andrew, Derek and I discuss the relationship between the Christmas of history and the Christmas of faith. Many of our carols and Christmas hymns, our retellings of the Christmas story, and our Nativity plays contain details and features that jar with the events as they are recorded in the gospels. Is there any way to reconcile the two? Can ‘contextualization’ excuse factual and historical inaccuracies? The sentimental portrait of the events of the first Christmas that we inherit from the Victorians also seems rather alienated from the heat and dust—or was it cold and snow?—of first century Israel. Can we connect our celebration to the events that actually occurred? Listen to the podcast to find out what we think and share your own thoughts in the comments!

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