Book Radiates Advent

With the arrival of Advent, Paul Willis, professor emeritus of English and former Santa Barbara poet laureate, has co-edited an anthology of readings A Radiant Birth: Advent Readings for a Bright Season. Madeleine L’Engle, Marilyn McEntyre, Eugene Peterson, Tania Runyan, Luci Shaw, Jeanne Murray Walker, Walter Wangerin, Lauren Winner, and Philip Yancey contribute to the book, which provides daily readings for the four weeks of Advent and two weeks of Christmas.

Willis joined contributing writer Paula Huston for a reading December 4 in Westmont’s Hieronymus Lounge, where they signed copies of the book, which is published by InterVarsity Press on behalf of the Chrysostom Society. 

The Chrysostom Society, a collection of published writers, is named after a man who was generally considered the greatest of the Greek fathers of the Church who delivered the first Christmas sermon preserved in church history in 386 A.D.

“We reflect on Advent and Christmastide as a bright and meaningful season of anticipation and glory,” Willis said. “We enter slowly so that the familiar can astonish us and become wondrous once again.”