No Carols for You!
Of all the things seminary did to ruin Christianity for me, the worst was teaching me about Advent. To review: in the church calendar, Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas. In its original form, Advent was intended to be a lot like Lent, a season of preparing one's heart for the new life symbolized in the holiday that marks the season's conclusion. Christmas being a lesser holiday than Easter, the Big Daddy of them all, Advent's spiritual prep was more muted, less extreme. There was no "shriving" during Advent. It simply meant hopeful expectation. The lesser status of the Christmas holiday also meant Advent's hope could have a broader focus than the very specific arrival of a baby: one was looking for all sorts of ways for God's saving justice to break through into the world. And then came Dickens. To be fair, Charles Dickens was just one of a host of 19th century influences that caused Christmas to transform from a minor church holiday tha...