A Dickens Christmas: Hearing the Gospel through Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol”

Each year at Advent, Christians everywhere revisit a certain old Victorian moral story. The images of snow-covered English cobblestone streets, the sentimentally-portrayed ragged poor, and the ever-more familiar plot line don’t seem to grow tiresome through the years. Charles Dickens’s preachy little tale A Christmas Carol holds us captive like the returning relative we have come to expect—even yearn—to see every holiday season. During this season of Advent during our Sunday morning Adult Education hour, we will look at the Advent lessons through Ebenezer Scrooge’s eyes. We will learn the traditional Advent lessons of Hope, Faith, Peace, and Joy, and we will also observe how Dickens shows us how Scrooge needs the lessons of Advent in his life. For Christians, when Christ comes into our lives and is born in our hearts, He becomes the Lord of our past, present, and future. Keeping this thought in mind, Charles Dickens’ spirits of Christmas past, Christmas present, and Christmas future take on a new meaning in our lives. Suggested reading for this study: The Redemption of Scrooge by Matt Rawle. Facilitated by Linda Lanam, Priscilla Andre-Colton, and Rev. Dr. Shelly Wood