THE telling of stories is an essential part of Christmas. As families or groups of friends gather to celebrate, it is, perhaps, an opportunity to remember and to retell stories of something that happened long ago and yet may still be very present. And, of course, there is the story, the old, old story, that is told every year, familiar, all too familiar, perhaps. But what is it about and whose story is it?
In this beautifully produced Advent and Christmas book, Paula Gooder, biblical scholar and author of two novels on early Christian women, invites her readers to discover within the familiar story the voices of women and to reimagine some of the female characters in the Christmas story, be they named in the Gospels or not.
The book provides a companion for the time from the beginning of Advent to Candlemas, the official end of the Christmas season. There are nine stories to read, and notes and questions are provided at the end of the book, explaining some of the theological and historical background and inviting readers to make connections with their own lives in our own time. The book is an invitation to stop and listen, to re-enter the story that we hear year after year through a different door, to let our own imagination join that of the Evangelists.
© ally barrett 2024In Ally Barrett’s illustrations, the cloth is a motif: here, in Mary’s story, the towel that Joseph uses to dry her swollen feet prefigures Maundy Thursday
And it is more than words about the Word Made Flesh. Ally Barrett’s colourful paintings open another door to reimagine and to prepare, to move beyond the familiar nativity scenes mass-produced on Christmas cards, to look back and look forward, as the season of Advent and Christmas invites us to do.
The focus on individual characters, rehearsed in many a Lent book, may not itself be a new idea, but it is creatively and beautifully reimagined here, and thus perhaps an invitation to join Gooder and Barrett in telling the stories of those whose voices can so easily get drowned out by what we think we already know.
Dr Natalie K. Watson is a theologian and writer based in Peterborough.
Women of the Nativity: An Advent and Christmas journey in nine stories
Paula Gooder
Ally Barrett, illustrator
Church House Publishing £10.99
(978-1-78140-460-7)
Church House Bookshop £9.89