From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college

to listeners across the country.

God himself breathes the same air that we breathe, and he is there present with us, and all

of those in the nativity are looking to him and praising God for what he is doing there.

You know, that to me is a great symbol.

This is your host, Scott Bertram.

Welcome to the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network.

That was Dr. Ken Calvert, professor of Ancient History here at Hillsdale College.

He's back this week to talk about the meaning of Christmas.

And later on in today's program, Dr. Timothy McDonald from Hillsdale's music department will tell us all about the Christmas hymn, Good Christian Men Rejoice.

First, we're joined by Dr. Ken Calvert. He is professor of ancient history here at Hillsdale

College. Dr. Calvert, thanks for joining us. Thank you, Scott. Great to be here. I'm really excited

to have you here as we have an in-depth conversation special for this part of the year. The meaning of

Christmas is what we start with today.

Yeah, it's a great topic. And one of my great pleasures as an ancient historian and particularly

ancient historian interested in the early church is to run across topics like this and be able

to bring them to the attention of my students and then be able to really

work out some of the confusion that has developed over the centuries about Christmas.

Let's start with the basics.

Okay.

From a historic Christian perspective, what's Christmas really about?

Right.

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