Why Dec. 25? Why so much Christmas conflict & controversy in Christianity's history? Why is Christmas so important to Christianity? And to America? In this episode, I ask my guest, Dr. Carey Roberts, the following questions: ►Why is Christmas such a grand celebration? What does this tell us about Christianity? ►Did it take a while for Christmas to take a central role in Christianity ►What's the difference between recognition and celebration of Christmas ►Did Christmas piggyback on existing Roman pagan traditions? ►How did Christmas enter America's culture? If not the Puritans, then which immigrant group introduced Christmas to America? ►Were there any regional differences in the celebration of Christmas? ►When did U.S. businesses begin to capitalize on Christmas? ►Would President Grant have witnessed a similar Christmas celebration in Boston and Savannah? ►Would George Washington recognize our Christmas? How about Andrew Jackson? Abraham Lincoln? Teddy Roosevelt? ►What happened to Christmas after WWII? ►Is it a bad thing that non-Christians and/or non-practicing Christians celebrate Christmas? 🚩About My Guest: Dr. Roberts is a Professor of History and Online Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Liberty University. His research interests include early American intellectual and economic history. He has lectured and published widely in the fields of the American Founding, monetary and banking history, American intellectual life, and Southern literature. He has been a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church of America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Here is his academic homepage. Also, watch my interview with Dr. David Silverman about the real history of Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy these interviews about the history behind our news. Adel Aali, host & producer History Behind News podcast & on YouTube Scholars Unravel Middle East: An in-depth history and analysis of the Middle East available on Spotify, Apple, Castbox, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music or Radio Public. SUPPORT: Click here and join our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you. 🎵 attribution, links and license for the theme music in this podcast: The Success by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon. Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Scholars in Your Inbox? 125 scholars and counting! So don't miss HbN guest scholars’ weekly takes on the history behind our news. Santur: Arpegio performed on a Persian santur, recorded with an oktava mk012 mic. This piece has been edited into shorter segments, its volume adjusted, and played in different parts of this podcast. https://freesound.org/people/nsmusic/sounds/259692/ Music available on https://freesound.org/ Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0 DEED) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
