The Challenge and Promise of Advent

Ted Jennings, author of "Transforming Atonement: A Political Theology of the Cross," was interviewed recently by Tripp Fuller of Homebrewed Christianity Unfiltered at the AAR/SBL conference in Chicago.

Here are Jennings' surprising comments on Advent:

"What we do is pretend that we have hope and joy and love. What we yearn for is what stands under those names ... Advent is a time when we have a chance -- if we want to take the chance -- of getting in touch with what we deeply yearn for and do not have ... for bodies to be healed, for the brokenness to be brought into wholeness, for the disasters of our world to turn into actual peace. ...

"It is only if we really enter into Advent that we can be surprised, astonished, blown away by the coming of that which so far exceeds what is possible, what is programmable, that we can actually break loose in tongues, in rejoicing that has no words. ... Can we? Dare we? That is the challenge and promise of Advent."

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