The Bible For Normal People [Faith] Episode 69: Diana Butler Bass - Resisting Christmas (And Why the Christian Calendar Still Matters)
Dec 1, 2025
Diana Butler Bass, an award-winning writer and scholar focused on contemporary Christianity, explores the significance of the Christian calendar. She discusses how it counters capitalist timelines and provides spiritual grounding. Topics include the structure of liturgical seasons, the dangers of linear time, and consumerism's impact on Advent. Diana shares personal stories and practical tips for observing the calendar, emphasizing community and ritual as pathways to deeper meaning in faith.
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Liturgical Time Grounds Spiritual Life
- The Christian calendar offers an alternative sense of time that grounds spiritual life outside consumerist rhythms.
- Diana Butler Bass says this rhythm shaped her theology, activism, and community across decades.
Use The Full Six-Season Calendar
- Follow the six seasons of the Christian year: Advent, Christmas (12 days), Epiphany, Lent (ending in Holy Week), Easter (50 days), and Pentecost/Ordinary Time.
- Diana Butler Bass notes the year usually runs roughly Dec 1 through Nov 30 with Christ the King as the final feast.
Easter At The Center, Not The End
- The Christian year centers Easter in the middle, creating a spiral rather than linear narrative.
- That curved timeframe resists Western linear histories that drive power-seeking and triumphalism.
