Sightings Articles
René Girard and the True Meaning of Christmas
“What’s all this violence? It’s Christmas…”...
December 19, 2023
Everything’s on Sale: Appropriations of Religion
A sighting of the unseen forces of religion at work during the holidays and what they tell us about this age...
December 23, 2019
Christmas Movies and the Religious Dimensions of Story Structure
Can religion help settle the debate about whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie?...
December 2, 2019
A Season of Myths, Part Two
Come what may, the Christmas season is inescapable in America this time of year. ...
December 24, 2018
Charities Feel Christmas Fear
“Charities Fear Tax Bill Will Cut Giving” is the kind of headline leaders of churches and charities hate to read about trends that they don’t like to face, as face they must. The subhead in a story reflecting on the current tax bill in The New York T...
December 18, 2017
Handel's Messiah: A Christmas Oratorio? -- Emily C. Hoyler
The Christian season of Advent abounds with traditions that have been upheld, invented, and reimagined over the centuries. In the West, one such tradition is attending Handel’s oratorio, Messiah (1741), with its famed “Hallelujah” chorus. Every Decem...
December 25, 2014
Post-War on Christmas -- Martin E. Marty
Now that the “War on Christmas” is over—its publicist, Fox News Bill O’Reilly, announced this finding last week—we can survey the post-war terrain. We consider it to be one episode in the ongoing unfolding of what Sightings keeps citing as a “religio...