Word: christianly
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Politically correct holiday greetings are all the rage this year, so much so that Christian groups are slamming each other--not to mention our born-again President--for insufficient reverence. Can Christmas merchandise heal the rift...
...recently, he has had company in that exercise. Even without that much imagination, a Christian curious about Joseph can take some sturdy, basic inspiration from the carpenter who is, at a minimum, humanity's stand-in, a lunch-pail hero not born to holiness but who, by his hard-won and steadfast belief, finds a role in salvation. This season two big-name writers have taken Joseph's story a step further. He is a major supporting character in erstwhile vampirologist Anne Rice's current best seller, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. And he has a lead role...
...whatever we want him to work for, as long as we stay within the intent of Scripture," says Jenkins. In fact, Edington, Rice and Jenkins are just the most recent participants in a lively and long-standing tradition. From almost the moment the Gospels were set down, early Christian communities, church fathers, Pontiffs and random laity have colored in the lightly sketched character of Joseph, and in some cases extended his contour considerably. At first they elaborated his story to buttress embattled doctrines like the virginity of Mary. Later interpreters repurposed him to respond to crises in the church...
...Early Christian art, notes Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, a religious-art specialist affiliated with Washington's Georgetown University, sometimes omitted Joseph from the Nativity. When present, "he's either disinterested or separate, a doddering old man with a bald head or gray beard, a stock character," she says. The Rev. Michael Morris, an expert in art and Catholic theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., says Joseph was occasionally painted sleeping through the event. This may have been a nod to his prophetic dreams, but Morris notes that even among Catholic clergy today, "if someone says he's going...
...rocked a sleepless infant or grasped a bedridden father's hand--as well as a tingly intuition of the special nature of those particular players. When the young Joseph muses that "when You settled into my arms it felt as if I were holding heaven," the Christian reader is meant to realize that he actually...