It is time to think about Christmas in the Western world. Even if you are a hardcore atheist you cannot deny that Christmas is about to happen again. You see it in the amount of stuff you are urged and even willing to buy and you see it with all the decorations of gold glitter and candles and wrapped up packages.
This is the expression of Christmas in our times, but it hasn’t always been like this. The idea of God and the way religions are seen and practiced have changed during history and they will change further when we go ahead in our human evolution.
Tilman Haberer has written a book together with two colleagues in which they explore the evolution of Christmas from the beginning of Christianity and before. (Get the book here) It is not by chance that we celebrate Christmas after the winter solstice. This always has been a time of celebrating the return of the light when the days begin to get longer again. And therefore the birth of Christ has been placed right into this period of new hope for new life.
We shouldn’t forget that the era of reason started only a few centuries ago. Before nobody was worried about exact dates and facts, but the concern was about understanding the world by symbolism and myth. What was relevant for the society was certainly relevant to how people saw and lived religion, not only in Christianity, but all over the world. It is interesting to trace back the development of the concept of God and especially the concept of Christmas through the past 2000 years.
In our conversation with Tilman Haberer we did exactly that. Here in this post you can watch an excerpt.
The full conversation is available HERE.
Find a related conversation in GERMAN “Die Bedeutung von Weihnachten im Wandel der Zeiten” here.
The book is based on “Integral Theory” and “Spiral Dynamics”, roadmaps to understand better what is happening in our world from the beginning on.
You can find relevant books on Amazon. Click on the book covers below.
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