Listen to The First Christmas: A Story of New Beginnings by Stephen Mitchell

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/495195 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The First Christmas: A Story of New Beginnings Author: Stephen Mitchell Narrator: Stephen Mitchell Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 3 hours 58 minutes Release date: November 9, 2021 Genres: Religious Fiction Publisher's Summary: “I love The First Christmas. What a charming way Stephen Mitchell has found to tell my favorite story of all, the Nativity, character by character (I love the donkey and the ox), with wise and thrilling interludes about God, reality, truth.” –Anne Lamott In The First Christmas, Stephen Mitchell brings the Nativity story to vivid life as never before. A narrative that is only sketched out in two Gospels becomes fully realized here with nuanced characters and a setting that reflects the culture of the time. Mitchell has suffused the birth of Jesus with a sense of beauty that will delight and astonish listeners. In this version, we see the world through the eyes of a Whitmanesque ox and a visionary donkey, starry-eyed shepherds and Zen-like wise men, each of them providing a unique perspective on a scene that is, in Western culture, the central symbol for good tidings of great joy. Rather than superimposing later Christian concepts onto the Annunciation and Nativity scenes, he imagines Mary and Joseph experiencing the angelic message as a young Jewish woman and man living in the year 4 BCE might have experienced it, with terror, dismay, and ultimate acceptance. In this context, their yes becomes an act of great moral courage. Listeners of every background will be enchanted by this startlingly beautiful reimagining of the Christmas tale. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Essentials