Christmas is a time for peace on earth, a time for favorite carols, family dinners, and familiar traditions. It's about a beautiful story of a lovely babe in the manger. Or is it?

A Not-So-Silent Night is a revolutionary book thatreveals the darker side of Christmas, a side that exposes pain, humiliation, fear, and danger. Though we usually choose to ignore them, these elements-in their cultural and historical context-reveal the true meaning of Christmas where the shadow of the cross is inseparable from the manger. Author Verlyn Verbrugge maintains that until we see the dark side of Christmas, until we shed tears with Mary and Joseph, until we experience the fear that war is on the horizon, we will never truly understand the awesomeness of what happened in that little town of Bethlehem.

Timely and provocative, A Not-So-Silent Night is perfect for pastors looking for a new approach to their traditional Christmas sermons and for anyone who wants to get past holiday commercialization and get back to the reason for the season. Paperback.

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Customer Reviews for A Not-So-Silent Night: The Unheard Story of Christmas and Why It Matters

Review 1 for A Not-So-Silent Night: The Unheard Story of Christmas and Why It Matters

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5 out of 5

Date:December 6, 2009

Judy Matkins

A very, very different look at the Christmas story - well written and very thought provoking - a little on the "dark" side of Christmas - for instance, looking at the shame that might have been Mary's because she was pregnant out of wedlock in an "honor-shame" culture. This book forces us to turn our thoughts to the part of Christmas that perhaps we would rather ignore - the heartache, fear, discomfort and danger that went along with the obedience of Joseph, Mary and the others.

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