Review: A King James Christmas edited by Catherine Schuon & Michael Oren Fitzgerald

I wanted to love A King James Christmas edited by Catherine Schuon & Michael Oren Fitzgerald. The King James version of the Bible is a little old-fashioned and can be tough to understand, but I love the poetry and the traditional verses, like in Luke, chapter 2.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

I love it. And I could picture reading this book every December. The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. The paintings, sculptures,  illuminated manuscripts, and stained glass windows from around the world are amazing, both in beauty and diversity. These illustrations include several works by Fra Angelico and Giotto as well as more modern illustrations from the 20th century include two Coptic paintings, two Chinese works and several contemporary paintings by Schuon, a Swiss-born artist who is one of the volume’s editors.

I wish the book had just stuck with Christmas and maybe the visit from the Wise Men. It loses me when it strays from Christmas. I appreciate the passages from Jesus’ childhood and the Sermon on the Mount, but I don’t feel they fit in A King James Christmas. They’re not part of the Christmas story. If the book were titled differently I wouldn’t have the same complaint, but it’s not. I can totally picture sitting down and shring the Christmas story, but the rest just seems to be filler in this case. I wish the text were shorter with more illustrations, then it would be a perfect read to share with family expecially on Christmas Eve. As is, I have my doubts about how often it would actually be pulled out of the stack.

2 out of 5 stars

Category: Holiday – Christmas

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Published October 16, 2012 by Wisdom Tales
80 pages

Book soure: For review