Letters to Jonny

What may we say with confidence to our children about the state of the world this Advent? What true message of hope can see us through to Christmas, in a way that does justice to the reality of human experience? What can inspire us to live fully and love meaningfully in the face of terrorism and war? These are some of the questions that two friends explore through these daily meditations for Advent: a Christian writing with responses from a Muslim. The meditations take the form of letters addressed by a father to his youngest son, nine year old Jonathan, and they emerge from visits to Tanzania, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan, Kenya and Sri Lanka. Weaving narratives from the visits around an exploration of the first few chapters of Matthew and Luke's Gospels, the letters set out to 'discover how to be human now', in the words of WH Auden written in the midst of the Second World War. Across faiths and world views, the letters chart a journey that faces tough realities yet finds humans also at their most resilient even when they are often at their most vulnerable. Responding to this, a Muslim perspective seeks to enhance the fabric of a journey that embraces such a rich diversity of human experience.