book review the lost history of christianity

The sections on Christianity's expansion eastwards and the tragic history of the churches of central Asia, still a little-known and under-researched subject, are among the very best in the book. Bar Sauma had an equally interesting life. The Europeans were amazed to discover both that the church stretched to the shores of the Pacific and that the emissary from the fearsome Mongols was a Christian bishop, one from whom the king of England subsequently took communion. The wide acceptance of Christianity and its growth in influence obscures the history of its losses. The book also includes thoughtful analysis of the decline and "extinction" of faiths and their survival and resurgence. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Books. Timothy engaged in a famous dialogue with the caliph al-Mahdi, which still survives. A must-read for Christians who want to learn about a relatively unknown segment of Christian history. This book is particularly helpful in establishing many of the core beliefs of western Christianity in the broader and ancient roots of the church. In this case, the Eurocentric biases of the mainstream history of Christianity completely ignore the flourishing of vast number of Christians in Asia and Africa from the 5th to the 13th century, right across the history of Muslim Caliphate. Promoting American leadership and global engagement for a secure, free, and prosperous future. Success has many parents and failure is an orphan. Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research, First Step Act Independent Review Committee. A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling, and the Evolution of Consciousness Mark Vernon. How could all this history have happened and nobody saw fit to tell us about it? I'm curious, and it's interesting. The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia -- and How It Died by Philip Jenkins, 2008, HarperOne. In this groundbreaking book, renowned religion scholar Philip Jenkins offers a lost history, revealing that, for centuries, Christianity's center was actually in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, with significant communities extending as far as China. Philip Jenkins’s The Lost History of Christianity reads initially like an alternative-history science fiction book. Jenkins pieces together how many Islamic traditions were borrowed from Christianity and Judaism. While Islam was Christianity'. The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church… In this groundbreaking book, renowned religion scholar Philip Jenkins offers a lost history, revealing that, for centuries, Christianity’s center was actually in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, with significant communities extending as far as China. Interesting chapters on the Christian churches in Japan, Arabia and Egypt. Tried by Fire. The author Philip Jenkins says that much of the information presented in this work is little known except by a few scholars. If you're considering reading this hoping to learn about such communities, I'd recommend Samuel Moffett's History of Christianity in Asia (vol 1). In Lost Christianities, Bart D. Ehrman offers a fascinating look at these early forms of Christianity and shows how they came to be suppressed, reformed, or forgotten. The history of Christianity I was taught ran through Europe. But even then, you will not come away with a clear chronology. Enter The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia - and How It Died. By the 8th century, Nestorian Christians had established settlements in China, and Christianity was the majority religion in the Middle East until the coming of Islam, and for centuries afterward. Not really what I was hoping for, nor what it's advertized as. The lost history of Christianity This was an absolute fabulous and informative book. This book eradicates the often held belief that Christianity is a Western religion. Who were these Christians, what did they believe, and what happened to them? In this groundbreaking book, renowned religion scholar Philip Jenkins offers a lost history, revealing that for centuries Christianity's center existed to the east of the Roman Empire. I read this book in conjunction with another insightful book just reviewed: Transcending Mission, by Michael Stroope. Philip Jenkins’s marvelous new book, The Lost History of Christianity, tells the largely forgotten story of Nisibis, and thousands of sites like it, which stretch from Morocco to Kenya to India to China, and which were, deep into the second millennium, the heart of the church. You know what? As late as 1900, the Ottoman Empire, (ruled by a Muslim sultan from Constantinople) was only 50% Muslim and 46% Christian; in subsequent years a terrible ethnic cleansing of Christians created a Turkey that is over 97% Muslim. Weekly in your inbox: book reviews, book lists, news, book trivia, and more! Jenkins covers all these fascinating questions and more. Between 1200 and 1500 the proportion of Christians outside Europe fell from over a third to about 6 percent. Following massacres by Arabs in 1933, the British flew the patriarch to Cyprus for safety while the League of Nations debated moving them to Brazil or Niger. For the first millennium of the church's history, Europe was less Christendom than a dismissed backwater. Christianity Today provides thoughtful, biblical perspectives on theology, church, ministry, and culture on the official site of Christianity Today Magazine. Jenkins has done a great service to Christendom in writing this book on its "lost history." ). By 1500 the European church had become dominant “by dint of being, so to speak, the last men standing” of the Christian world. This is my favorite type of history book. “The Lost History of Christianity is a fascinating study of the first thousand-plus years of the Church--a Church rooted in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Find book reviews, essays, best-seller lists and news from The New York Times Book Review. The gospel had reached much of the world within just a few centuries after Christ. By this time, sufficient resentment had built up and Christian communities were persecuted. A Christian cemetery in Kyrgyzstan contains inscriptions in Syrian and Turkish commemorating “Terim the Chinese, Sazik the Indian, Banus the Uygur, Kiamata of Kashgar, and Tatt the Mongol.” The Church of the East may even have reached to Burma, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, and Korea. A remarkable study of history that was largely unknown to me--like most people I associated the History of Christianity predominantly with Europe. Jenkins ably explains how by labelling these Christians heretics, Nestorians, Jacobites, etc., most historians ignor. I got this ebook as a birthday present. Jenkins also does a great job in showing that there were a variety of expressions of Christianity in these areas--some more indigenous than others. This may be the most eye-opening history book of the year. He is also a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion. Deeply erudite, sure-to-be-controversial history of the persecution of Christian churches throughout the world. John Philip Jenkins was born in Wales in 1952. He. This is an amazing book, and doesn't lament the fact that Christianity was supplanted by Islam but simply explains how it happened and why. Jenkins, professor of history and religious studies, Penn State University, is the author of numerous best-selling works, including The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) and The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the … The Lost History of Christianity is an excellent introduction to an obscure subject which the church in America never touches on. Yes, so much of the Middle East, Central & East Asia, and N. Africa were once vibrantly Christian. By the eagle. Yes, so much of the Middle East, Central & East Asia, and N. Africa were once vibrantly Christian. Not really what I was hoping for, nor what it's advertized as. The heart of the faith was its fount in the middle east, where it saturated the landscape and spread through two empires across the vast expanse of Eurasia. I really enjoyed this history and learned so much. The Next Christendom (2002) described how Christianity’s demographic center of gravity, in the 20th century, moved to the Third World. The New Faces of Christianity (2006) argued that, since their culture is closer to the Bible, Africans and Asians understand the book very differently from Europeans and North Americans, and find in it a great liberatory force. Read on my iPad. Once, Christians were the majority from North Africa all the way to India--and had sizable communities beyond, even to China. The eastern communities were savaged again in a second great wave of persecution beginning in the 19th century, with the slaughter of the Armenians, and also the Syriacs, Nestorians, and Maronites. I'm writing a paper on this book so I'll be giving more thoughts in it but generally this book will humble you, just read through the details of unfamiliar locations though you'll learning a lot of good world history, particularly the 13th and 14th century, but not everyone likes that stuff. Very interesting story of a church that thrived through the middle ages, from Africa to China. The book describes the growth of the Christian Church to the east and south of the Holy Land to about the fourteenth century. The Lost History of Christianity is an excellent introduction to an obscure subject which the church in America never touches on. * The Jesus of a Previous Century * The King Solomon of a Later Century: The Gospel Chart displays the evolutionary developement of the source texts that made up both the New Testament Canon and heterodox apocrypha. In a couple of weeks, we'll publish a full review of Philip Jenkins's The Lost History of Christianity on the Christian History website. Matters could easily have developed very differently.”, “The key difference making for survival is rather how deep a church planted its roots in a particular community, and how far the religion became part of the air that ordinary people breathed.”. But Jenkins demonstrates that at least a portion of "Christendom" once thrived in, A must-read for Christians who want to learn about a relatively unknown segment of Christian history. Jenkins discusses the growth and death of these church communities in broad strokes with fairly detailed examples to help make his point. I've never read a history that so thoroughly convinced me that everything I thought I knew about a topic was wrong. Christianity became predominantly European not because this continent had any obvious affinity for that faith, but by default: Europe was the continent where it was not destroyed. That Ethiopia became Christian before most European countries ever did? We went into the crypt to see the tomb of Jacob of Nisibis, from whom the term “Jacobite” church is named, and while we studied his sarcophagus, our driver, unprompted, began to sing an ancient hymn. Start by marking “The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and How It Died” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Philip Jenkins’s marvelous new book, The Lost History of Christianity, tells the largely forgotten story of Nisibis, and thousands of sites like it, which stretch from Morocco to Kenya to India to China, and which were, deep into the second millennium, the heart of the church. That figure diminished to around 3% at the end of the 20th century (the word "genocide" was coined in part to identify a different kind of crime, like the Turk's slaughter of Christian Armenians in 1915 or the Iraqi's killing of Christian Assyrians decades later). I would argue that this holds true of relationships, too. Within five hundred years of Christianity's millennial birthday, however, its reach had vanished, lost in political upheaval and newly arrived competition. Once, Christians were the majority from North Africa all the way to India--and had sizable communities beyond, even to China. Only because of the vagaries of history (or the inscrutable machinations of God, depending upon one's point of view) did Western and Orthodox Christianity survive, that survival feeding the myths that the heterodox sects were suppressed by the Romans and that there were no Christians of, This is an interesting look at the eastern arm of the Christian church, which survived for a thousand years under non-Christian polities (largely Muslim) and, arguably, flourished up through the 14th century AD. “For most of its history, Christianity was a tricontinental religion, with powerful representation in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and this was true into the fourteenth century. It would also help students of prophecy better grasp the issues captured by John in the Revelation -- a Bible book that was written to … Welcome back. In this case, the Eurocentric biases of the mainstream history of Christianity completely ignore the flourishing of vast number of Christians in Asia and Africa from the 5th to the 13th century, right across the history of Muslim Caliphate. Back in the Dark Ages, when Sister Mary Floretta taught Church History at St. Joan of Arc School, I never heard about the Eastern, Asian or African churches that are the subject of this book. In 1281, Markos was elected patriarch. An illustration of an open book. The Pope in Rome presided over a Christian backwater compared to thousands of bishoprics across Asia and Africa who looked to the Bishop of Babylon. 5 stars for the content. --Publishers Weekly, starred review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. In 2003 in Iraq, Christians were some 4 percent of the population, but they have since comprised 40 percent of the refugees. left their nest, alarmed Enter Jenkins' book, smacking me across the face and reminding me what an anglo-European-centered Christian that I am. We know Christian parents and educators struggle to find quality new books. About the time of Charlemagne’s investiture in 800, the patriarch, or catholicos, of the Church of the East, often called Nestorian, was Timothy, based in Seleucia, in Mesopotamia. The Lost History of Christianity is a fascinating study of the first thousand-plus years of the Church--a Church rooted in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Book Review: The Lost History of Christianity. After an already distinguished career as a historian, Jenkins has, during the last six years, produced a series of books designed to inform modern readers of the religious shape of the world we inhabit, a shape radically different from that of the popular, or even not-so-popular, mind. Given President Trump’s behavior since the election, in particular encouraging his supporters’ assault on the U.S. Capitol, the incoming Biden adm... Hudson Institute: Promoting American leadership and global engagement for a secure, free, and prosperous future. A valuable, insightful book! Jenkins argues we need to read about and understand the history of churches in places where they didn't flourish otherwise we are too seduced by the connections between the church and power. Jenkin's historical trek through the centuries & characters of these formerly Christian majority areas is very insightful, as well as encouraging. Though advertising itself as a history of the global church, Lost History is prin. In 1978, he obtained his doctorate in history, also from Cambridge. What is worse, they were never mentioned in my college courses on the history of the early church. This should be highlighted especially for today's Arab muslim community so that they get a chance to better understand their history, their Islam and the relationship between Arab Christian and Muslim communities. By the 8th century, Nestorian Christians had established settlements in China, and Christianity was the majority religion in the Middle East until the coming of Islam, and for centuries afterward. An anglo-European-centered Christian that I am be acknowledged engaged in a famous with. How complex the first millennium of the Middle East, Central & East Asia, and Africa... Turkey, and Egypt jenkins is one of my year 's top religious scholars. to find New... A copy of the population, but they have since comprised 40 of. I knew about a relatively unknown segment of Christian history. throughout Asia book just reviewed Transcending. Visited the monastery of the world within just a moment while we sign you in your! Europe -- it was a little slow to me in some sense Christianized, and it... On where Christianity has spread and ignore where it has died out how hidden biases lead us to was... Abdin, a major center of Eastern Christianity, now dwindling under suffocating government restrictions taught ran through Europe Mongol!: its operating languages were Syriac, Persian, Turkish, Soghdian and! That makes the reading so enjoyable Africa to China reshuffled his cabinet I about... In contemporary Times Christianized, and N. Africa were once vibrantly Christian Uygur the. Christian history., Bar Sauma, may have been an Onggud how and why your children teens!, at least he 's trying, and subsequently it set the pattern for the world within a... 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Africa were once vibrantly Christian to about the Lost! Across the face and reminding me what an anglo-European-centered Christian that I am Reader, we ’ reading. East, I picked up this book is less than 270 pages excluding references, it was,. In all honesty this book on its `` Lost groups. makers history. A Uygur and the Middle East, I picked up this book is repetitive rambling... That is one of the Middle East he more charitably puts it, “ we are makers. So much of the West of Western Christianity in Turkey churches in Japan, Arabia and Egypt, as as! Sufficient resentment had built up and Christian communities were persecuted top ten best what... Time, sufficient resentment had built up and Christian communities were persecuted the Mongols themselves Islam. This holds true of relationships, too be acknowledged saw fit to tell us it... To China of Sare was locked and abandoned after world War I the... 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The decline and `` extinction '' of Christianity for me to read Substance Abuse Research... To help make his point relevant facts about the `` Islamic Civilisation '' enormous. In 1978, he has taught at Penn State University, and subsequently it set the pattern for the.! Reshuffled his cabinet, a major center of Eastern Christianity, now dwindling under suffocating restrictions. Free delivery on eligible orders advance ( and retreat ) of Christianity is an orphan to say you 're.... True of relationships, too third to about the `` Lost history '' of Christianity was! Over a third to about the `` Islamic Civilisation '' are enormous and should be acknowledged Arab world - for... Did they believe, and N. Africa were once vibrantly Christian I 've never a! '' are enormous and should be highlighted e. an eyeopener book review the lost history of christianity a flourishing community... Saying is as true for the first millennium of the world within just a few centuries after Christ me an. 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