Longing, Waiting, Believing: Reflections for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany

by Rodney D. Holder

In the excitement of the weeks before Christmas, it is all too easy to overlook the fact that Christians have, down the centuries, regarded Advent as a season of penitence, a time of prayer and preparation for the great feast of the birth of Jesus, just as Lent is a season of preparation for Easter, when we remember his death and resurrection.

This book of daily Bible readings and reflective comment covers the weeks from 1 December through to Epiphany on 6 January. As well as considering the well-known events of the nativity story, it looks back to those who prepared the way - the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament and John the Baptist and Mary the mother of Jesus in the New Testament. The book also explores the traditional Advent focus on the 'four last things', death, judgment, heaven and hell. Rodney Holder shows how these sombre themes have their place in the build-up to the celebrations, because of another historic aspect of Advent: reflecting on the second coming of Jesus, when he will return, as Lord and King rather than helpless baby, to set the world to rights.

156 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 19, 2014

About the author

The Rev. Dr. Rodney Dennis Holder, DPhil (Astrophysics, Christ Church, Oxford, 1978; Theology, Oxford University, 1996), is an Anglican priest and a Fellow of Cambridge University. He was Course Director of the Faraday Institute, 2006–2013, and remains a Bye Fellow of St. Edmund's College and a Faraday Associate. He completed his ministerial training in 1997, then worked for four years as a curate in South Warwickshire, spent a seven month sabbatical period as chaplain of the English Church in Heidelberg, and was then Priest in Charge of the Parish of the Claydons, Diocese of Oxford, 2002–2005.

Holder is Reviews Editor of Science and Christian Belief and is on the national committee of Christians in Science. He is a member of the International Society for Science and Religion, the Society of Ordained Scientists, and the Science and Religion Forum.