ENDORSEMENTS

“There is something so enticingly refreshing about the perspective and conversation of advent through the feminine lens. Scott Ericksons reflection of the Advent season through the connection of the misrepresented women in the Savior story, is not only healing and restorative but also brings us back into the story, where the feminine and the divine have always been.”

Arielle Estoria, Poet, Author, Speaker 

“Scott does a perfect job of removing the current taste of stale, commercialization, and male centered-ness out of the advent. He then brings back in the beauty, mystery, and wonder that this season was meant inspire. If you want an advent made for our moment of social and racial awakening, and that doesn’t oversimplify, this is it!”

Propaganda and Dr Alma Zaragoza-Petty, The Red Couch Podcast 

“When I was an evangelical, I thought Christmas took too much emphasis away from Easter. When I was an atheist, I thought Christmas reinforced an absurd fairy tale. Me and Christmas, well, it’s complicated. That’s why I love Honest Advent. As a meditation on the vulnerability of God through the strange mystery of Christ’s Incarnation, Scott invites us not to master that mystery, but to experience it.”

Mike McHargue, Author of You’re a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass) and host of Ask Science Mike 

“Beautiful. Evocative. A wake up call to the mystery of life.”

John Mark Comer, Author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry “

“I’m no Scrooge, but the last thing I want to read is another book on the Christmas story. Luckily, that’s not what this book is about. Scott Erickson’s beautifully crafted book helped me see God-With-Us with fresh eyes. Honest Advent is no shallow seasonal gift book; it’s an invitation to explore the divine flourishes of everyday human vulnerabilities. A transformative read regardless of the time of year.”

Jonathan Merrit, Author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch and contributing writer to The Atlantic 

“Through striking visuals and conversational prose, Erickson has created a doorway between foreign and the familiar, simple and the complex, holiday and everyday. On any day of the year, but especially through Advent, land on any page in this book to find a prayer, a bridge, an invitation into what is coming and out of the boxes we put around God. “

Hillary McBride, PhD, RCC, Therapist, researcher, author, speaker, podcaster “

“Scott’s iconographic works serve as portals to the ‘kingdom of heaven within us.’ In this collection of art and reflection, we’re reminded what makes our hearts that heaven—the God who comes nearer than we are to ourselves. I’ll be opening these doors with wonder and gratitude. Thanks Scott, you’re such a good doorman!”

Brad Jersak, Author of “IN: Incarnation & Inclusion, Abba & Lamb” 

"We know of few other voices who so powerfully bring back the luster to tarnished, sacred things. Scott's Advent meditations will be an evergreen gift for the weary soul, calling out fresh and upending wonder at the incarnation, what it meant then and how we are to be now."

Katherine & Jay Wolf, Authors of "Suffer Strong" and "Hope Heals” 

“Readers on a quest for information can sometimes find themselves devouring books too quickly without taking time to chew, not fully tasting the words and their meanings. Scott’s drawings force you to slow down and open up to truth in a new way. Advent is a season for slow contemplative reflection, and this book will be a tasty treat to savor and reflect on the greatest wonder of all—God becoming one of us. “

Peri & Brian Zahnd, Authors of Every Scene By Heart and Postcards From Babylon 

“There are so many things I love about Scott Erickson, and this advent book brings them all together. I sense that he is always doing his own work, learning how to live in the body and mind he’s been given, making sense of the world through all of the means - psychology, sociology, art, science, spirituality, and wonder, so that when he turns his lens towards something, anything, out come these well-formed, beautifully connected scenes. This lens, turned towards Mary, Jesus and incarnation helps me break through the incredibly solidified narratives of Christmas into something that moves me again, and helps me connect with the real earth, blood, sweat and tears - this happened here, on this earth, in our way, through human birth.”

Sara Groves, Recording Artist, Advocate 

“As a follower of Jesus, who has spent the majority of my professional life (30 yrs) working alongside my Jesus-following, Jewish wife within very dark, hostile Islamic regimes, we have celebrated many Christmas/Hanukkah seasons hidden away with curtains drawn and doors locked, lighting candles and reading the scriptures. If Honest Advent had been available then, I would have handed the book out to the Muslim community and walked through the Season with them. What a beautiful timely work of art.”

Jamie Winship, Co-Founder of Identity Exchange 

“In the specific audacity and humility of an artist, Scott's captivating words and images flip, spin, and reconsider the reality of God with us and the transformative notion of that presence in, with, and through our humanity. He invites us to look afresh and find newness and wonder in the Advent story through the female body— not through its typical maligning but as a way God chose to be with us.”

Marlita Hill, author of Defying Discord: Ending the Divide Between Our Faith and "Secular" Art Career 

“Honest Advent unearths the beauty and power of life’s deepest truths woven in the ancient Christmas stories. Through his gorgeously provocative illustrations, and authentically insightful teachings, Erickson rescues us from the commercialization of Christmas by breathing much needed new life into Advent's themes and ideas. The most wonderful time of the year now has the most wonderful piece of art to go with it.”

Colby Martin, author of The SHIFT and co-host of The Kate and Colby Show 

“As an often flustered mom in the throes of raising 4 young kids, I connected so deeply with “Honest Advent,” because it reveals the nearness of God through a painful but beautiful mess I am very familiar with - pregnancy, birth and motherhood. Though 2020 will be remembered for a lot of hardship and trauma, this book helped bring me closer to “Immanuel” - what a gift.”

Susie Gamez, speaker, writer, & an okay mom 

“The primary job of an artist is to see. And while a great deal of the excitement around Scott has had to do with his talent for (and with) imagery, what has made his work vital and unique has always been his vision; a vision for God in the world, for people in the shadow of God and for people in relationship to one another. This beautiful book is the fullest expression of the kind of vision that makes Scott a gift. Good artists have a knack for clearly and engrossingly letting us in on how they see their world. Great artists change the way we see ours. Scott is becoming a great artist.”

Justin McRoberts, author of It Is What You Make of It 

“As someone who has been in the work of shedding the layered baggage of my religious past, I have also been looking for opportunities to reclaim what is good and beautiful and true. This book is a reminder for us of everything good and beautiful and true about Advent. Not necessarily easy or pretty but good and true and our world certainly needs more good and true these days. I am grateful for the reclamation this work will bring to so many people for advent and beyond.”

Brit Barron, author of Worth It 

“This beautifully crafted piece of art explores immaculately the invasion of the best that Christmas means: Presence in our Present.”

Paul Young, The Shack 

“Scott’s work is both a blaring anthem and a gentle whisper. He takes the untouchable and makes it familiar. Scott’s modern artistic interpretation of the heard-a-million-times Christmas story invites both the skeptic and the Christ-follower into transformative vulnerability. This is a book not just for the holiday season but for everyday awakening to the sacred unknowns we each carry.”

Joy Prouty, Photographer, Storyteller 

“In this personal and deeply-felt collection, Scott Erickson offers a thoughtful, contemplative exploration of the wonder hidden just beyond the popular portrayal of the Christmas narrative. Through 25 images and essays, Erickson illuminates a deep and personal appreciation of the central story in the Christian tradition and approaches it not as a creed to be accepted or even a question to be answered but rather as a mystery to be explored and embraced.”

Nate Staniforth, author of Here Is Real Magic