Detecting Christmas December 8 Devotional

ECCLESIASTES 3:11 | ¹¹ He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

The unique reality of the Roman Empire’s reach and character also provided two other new elements crucial to the rise of Christianity. For the first time local dialects existed alongside nearly universal languages throughout the Empire. Greek and Latin became the basis of a shared Greco-Roman culture. This meant communication could occur across previously impossible barriers of language and custom. Further, it provided a powerful intellectual challenge to Christian thinking, because it fostered an encounter with the thought of the classical world, including its philosophers like Aristotle and Plato. These engagements helped Christian theology develop and evolve and differentiate, bringing biblical and Jewish resources into conversation with other intellectual traditions.

How well do you communicate the faith?

Gracious God,

Thank you for the history of encounter between the faith and other traditions. Deepen my understanding of the truths of Christianity and what they mean for current intellectual debates. Amen.