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Books

The Star of Bethlehem finds a new dedicated follower

But the astronomer Marek Kukula wonders whether Colin Nicholl’s exhaustive treatment of ‘the Great Christ Comet’ may miss the whole point of the gospel story

12 December 2015

9:00 AM

12 December 2015

9:00 AM

The Great Christ Comet: Revealing the True Star of Bethlehem Colin Nicholl

Crossway Books, pp.368, £26, ISBN: 9781433542138

It’s hard to imagine Christmas without stars. They perch at the top of fir trees, glitter from greeting cards and dangle festively over shopping precincts. This year, even the John Lewis advert and Selfridges’ Oxford Street window display — two of the holiest icons of our modern, commercialised Christmas —both have astronomical themes.

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Marek Kukula is Public Astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £22. Tel: 08430 600033

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