Christmas is just round the corner, so we’ve invited Professor Kyle Roberts to help us ponder the idea of Jesus’s virgin conception. Kyle helps us wrestle with questions like, where did Jesus get his Y chromosome from? What’s so great about virginity? And can Jesus stand in solidarity with humanity if he came into the world in a way that no other human has before or since?

After the interview, Nomad hosts Tim Nash and Anna Robinson talk about the understanding of the virgin birth they inherited, and how their evolving faith has reshaped it, along with their views on bodies, sex, the gospels, and all manner of other things.

Interview starts at 15m 23s

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BOOKS

A Complicated Pregnancy: Whether Mary was a Virgin and Why It Matters

QUOTES

“All theology is contextual, perspective-oriented, and therefore limited.”

“I tend to think of these stories as not ‘myth’ with no truth involved, but more as the term ‘legend’ – a mixture of historical truth and elaboration.”

“We’re always doing some interpretation; we’re always doing some imaginative reconstruction. And I think we just have to be okay with that fact.”

“If we weren’t spending time deconstructing, then I think it would mean we’ve given up.”