Christmas and a Condescending God

by Daniel C. Peterson

Overview

Abstract: As religious holidays go, Christmas has been domesticated unusually well — and effectively commercialized — among people and even whole cultures that don't accept (or even care about) the central theological claim that Christmas asserts. After all, who doesn't like cute little babies, at least when they're not crying? But that theological claim is stunning. Radical. It's radical in the strictest sense of that word, because it goes down deep, to the very root (Latin radix). Beyond the pleasant and comfortable sentimentality of favorite holiday foods, scenes of carolers in snowy villages, and warm family gatherings, Christmas dramatically distinguishes Christianity from every other major world religion.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940160708003
Publisher:	Interpreter Foundation
Publication date:	12/23/2021
Series:	Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship , #49
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	324 KB

About the Author

Daniel C. Peterson (PhD, University of California at Los Angeles) is a professor emeritus of Islamic studies and Arabic at Brigham Young University, where he founded the University’s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative. He has published and spoken extensively on both Islamic and Latter-day Saint subjects. Formerly chairman of the board of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) and an officer, editor, and author for its successor organization, the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, his professional work as an Arabist focuses on the Qur’an and on Islamic philosophical theology. He is the author, among other things, of a biography entitled Muhammad: Prophet of God (Eerdmans, 2007).