Everyone is familiar with the general nativity story of Christmas, but what were the political and social conditions of Jesus' time?

Here’s the origin of Christmas as we know it, when it’s estimated Jesus might have been born and when Christians started celebrating his birth.

To some people, Christmastime is nothing more than a season of generosity, joy, dressing up evergreen trees, waiting for Santa Claus and buying gifts for your loved ones. To others, Christmastime is ...

Jesus is a faithful Son of Israel. If his people are summoned, then so is he. What will become a basic pattern of our ...

Slate’s archives are full of fascinating stories. We’re republishing this article on Easter weekend because it remains a reader favorite. It was originally published April 9, 2009. A central statement ...

As for the name “Palestine,” it was not used in any widespread way to describe the land of Israel until 135 AD – in other ...

A high school theology teacher writes: I had a student ask me quite blunty “was Jesus ugly?” He cited some early Fathers quoting Isaiah 53:2, and gave me several other sources that expanded on this ...

Christena Cleveland spent much of her childhood in an evangelical church surrounded by traditional images of a porcelain-skinned and flaxen-haired Jesus. But one day she came across a portrayal of ...

Politicians demonstrate uncanny memories for selected Bible passages trumpeting secular economic platforms. The Left’s emphatic opposition to intermixing church and state rarely precludes recitation ...

An ordained minister on a CNN panel said people should choose their words carefully when discussing immigration, because even Jesus was "an undocumented immigrant." The Rev. Ryan Eller, executive ...