The contributions of the Christians in forming the "Islamic Civilisation" are enormous and should be acknowledged. Find book reviews, essays, best-seller lists and news from The New York Times Book Review. The Chinese also influenced the West. 2 stars for the organization. A valuable, insightful book! The gospel had reached much of the world within just a few centuries after Christ. I was incredibly impressed by his book, I've never read a history that so thoroughly convinced me that everything I thought I knew about a topic was wrong. The kind that shows how hidden biases lead us to overlook was is sitting right in front of our eyes. Fascinating book. 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. For most of its history, Christianity was a tricontinental religion, with powerful representation in Europe, Africa and Asia, and this was true into the 14th century. But there's no attempt to link the chunks together. The real game-changer was the Mongol invasion. There are negative reasons to be a Zionist, and there are affirmative reasons. Very interesting story of a church that thrived through the middle ages, from Africa to China. Focusing on the origins of the Gospels, Tried by Fire (appx. In 1287 the Ilkhan overlord sent him on a diplomatic mission to Europe to enlist aid for a proposed joint assault on Mamluk Egypt: Kublai Khan in Beijing would also be a supporter. (The Crusades were a minor sideshow.) By Jeff Marlowe In the midst of persecution, the 16th-century reformer Theodore Beza once urged a foe to "remember that the Church is an anvil that has worn out many a hammer." ; God’s Continent, 2007, etc. This is a fascinating book which shatters the myth of Christianity as simply a product of "Western Civilization." I would much rather have an actual history of them than an argument that we don't have a history of them - which is self-evident, and ignorance of these churches must be the reason most people would read this book; and an actual history than an explanation of why we should 'care' about that history. While much of what he has written will be of little surprise to specialists, he has a gift for clearly and cogently synthesizing and summarizing copious research. The church’s milieu was not only Jewish and Muslim but also, perhaps more so, Buddhist, Manichaean, Zoroastrian, and Confucian. By this time, sufficient resentment had built up and Christian communities were persecuted. He protested that he was not up to it, not least because his knowledge of Syriac was rudimentary. Most of the book, I would say, is taken up with a) complaints that Europeans and their descendants know too little about the churches of the East and b) attempts to make the history of those churches 'relevant.' John Philip Jenkins was born in Wales in 1952. The Lost History Blog contains a lot of random entries mostly about politics. This is an extremely important perspective on Christian history that is strangely absent from most books of Christian history, … Buy Lost History of Christianity The: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia--And How It Died Illustrated by Jenkins Philip (ISBN: 9780061472817) from Amazon's Book Store. * 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. A remarkable study of history that was largely unknown to me--like most people I associated the History of Christianity predominantly with Europe. The Lost History of Christianity is of interest to students of religion (Christian and Muslim), Middle Eastern and Church history, and Christian ministry. 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 any number outside of the empire. Around 1275, two Chinese monks began a pilgrimage to the Holy land. We asked him what the words meant, and he told us that the lyrics came from Ephrem himself: __Listen, my chicks have flown, The author gives a unique perspective on what happened to the Christian Church in Africa and the Middle East. On December 22, Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) reshuffled his cabinet. Who were these Christians, what did they believe, and what happened to them? Much of the “Arab” scholarship of the time, such as translations of Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, and others into Arabic, or the adoption of the Indian numbering system, was in fact done by Syriac, Persian, and Coptic (Egyptian and Nubian) Christians, often in the high employ of the Caliph. Most church history book focus on where Christianity has spread and ignore where it has died out. We visited the monastery of Tur Abdin, a major center of Eastern Christianity, now dwindling under suffocating government restrictions. As a result, “Buddhist and Nestorian scholars worked amiably together for some years to translate seven copious volumes of Buddhist wisdom.” These same volumes were taken back home by Japanese monks who had been in Chang’an, and became the founding volumes of Shingon and Tendai, the two great schools of Japanese Buddhism. The book describes the growth of the Christian Church to the east and south of the Holy Land to about the fourteenth century. Nonfiction Book Review: The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia by Philip Jenkins, Author . This book eradicates the often held belief that Christianity is a Western religion. Did you know that, during the first millennium A.D., Christianity used to spread all the way from Egypt and Mesopotamia to the very ends of China, all along the silk road? For example, many liberal scholars say that the canon and the theology of Christ was changed as a result of Constantine's meddling, but the church east of Constantinople, all of the way to Japan, recognized a similar list of biblical books and general. 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. 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. Beginning around AD 1300, give or take a few decades, these communities began to disappear; Jenkins chronicles their survival and offers some reasons for their eventual destruction. Detailed history of Christianity in the Middle East and Asia, This is my favorite type of history book. Video An illustration of an audio speaker. I've never read a history that so thoroughly convinced me that everything I thought I knew about a topic was wrong. 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. Moffett's goal is actually the history of the existence of Christianity in that region, whereas Jenkins focus on the question 'how do religions die' means the book is aiming at quite different questions. As late as the 11th century Asia was home to about a third of the world’s Christians, Africa another 10 percent, and the faith in these continents had deeper roots in the culture than it did in Europe, where in many places it was newly arrived or still arriving. On the up-side, at least he's trying, and he can write quite well in bite size chunks. Look, I'm curious, and it's interesting. It would have been good to explore the major cultural effects of the different role of language in Christian and Islamic missions: the former seeking to bring the Word into the locals’ languages, the latter seeking to bring the locals the Word in Arabic. Christian Alternative, $23.95 trade paper (232p) ISBN 978-1-78904-194-1 Perhaps Ephrem’s hymn and prayer will be answered: “Bring them back in peace.”, Senior Fellow, Center for Religious Freedom. God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe’s Religious Crisis (2007) found in Europe much more than fading Christianity and growing Islam. Since 1980, he has taught at Penn State University, and currently holds the rank of Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of the Humanities. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. The book also includes thoughtful analysis of the decline and "extinction" of faiths and their survival and resurgence. We know Christian parents and educators struggle to find quality new books. Christianity’s foundational belief is that Jesus was the Son of God, who died and rose again as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of a fallen world. By taking about the different communities that managed to survive better than others, such as the Egyptian Copts, Jenkins also discusses the factors of geography and politics that help or doom minority religions. It would also help students of prophecy better grasp the issues captured by John in the Revelation -- a Bible book that was written to … Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research, First Step Act Independent Review Committee. 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 is a fascinating book outlining the history of Christianity outside of Europe, especially during the first thousand years. But even then, you will not come away with a clear chronology. It would also help students of prophecy better grasp the issues captured by John in the Revelation -- a Bible … The author Philip Jenkins says that much of the information presented in this work is little known except by a few scholars. A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling, and the Evolution of Consciousness Mark Vernon. The Lost History of Christianity is an excellent introduction to an obscure subject which the church in America never touches on. The kind that shows how hidden biases lead us to overlook was is sitting right in front of our eyes. Weekly in your inbox: book reviews, book lists, news, book trivia, and more! For 60 years there had been no Christians there, but now the diocese had sent a Christian family from a local village, who live in a small apartment in the church and try to keep it from falling apart. Enter Jenkins' book, smacking me across the face and reminding me what an anglo-European-centered Christian that I am. His strong voice filled the tomb. 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. In his latest work, entitled The Lost History of Christianity, Philip Jenkins traces the thousand-year golden age of the Church in the … left their nest, alarmed Book Review: The Lost History of Christianity. 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. Jenkins discusses the growth and death of these church communities in broad strokes with fairly detailed examples to help make his point. One trigger was the Mongol invasions, which threatened Arab Islam as never before. I enjoyed the book but it was a little slow to me in some places. Jenkins shows how for 1400 years the locus of global Christianity was northern Mesopotamia. By the beginning of the 20th century, many Middle Eastern communities that had been majority Christian still had Christian minorities of roughly 10%. Before Christianity was a Western European concept, it was Eastern, demonstrates Jenkins (History and Religious Studies/Penn State Univ. Since 1980, he has taught at Penn State University, and currently holds the rank of Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of the Humanities. For the first millennium of the church's history, Europe was less Christendom than a dismissed backwater. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. In the summer of 2002, I traveled in southeastern Turkey to meet with members of the two-millennia-old Syriac church, of whom only a few thousand are left in their homelands. This is my favorite type of history book. You know what? A very, very fine read. He went to his bookcase and pulled out a copy of The Lost History of Christianity for me to read. Tried by Fire. 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 pieces together how many Islamic traditions were borrowed from Christianity and J. Brilliant book about the "lost history" of Christianity; one of my year's top ten best. He also gave his perspectives on how religious movements start and die out. Within five hundred years of Christianity's millennial birthday, however, its reach had vanished, lost in political upheaval and newly arrived competition. Jenkins tells this story with a certain vibrancy that keeps one wanting to continue on to the next page. Jenkin's historical trek through the centuries & characters of these formerly Christian majority areas is very insightful, as well as encouraging. 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. -- Forbes magazine The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins offers … We met the only two monks remaining in the monastery of the village of Sare. I really enjoyed this history and learned so much. The main premise of this book is that we in the West have a very distorted view of the 2,000 years of Christianity: that after its emergence in the Levant its primary axis of expansion was into Europe, with some tendrils that pushed tentatively into North Africa, East Africa, and Asia but were eventually extinguished by the coming of Islam, if not before. Yet much of the populations Asia, the Middle East, and northern Africa were Christian for a hundreds of years, if not a millennium. This should be highlighted e. An eyeopener on a flourishing Christian community that mainstream history ignores. He does a great job of asking the questions of why things changed--and what caused the demise of Christianity in these areas; there are complex reasons & answers to those questions. 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. What is worse, they were never mentioned in my college courses on the history of the early church. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. These Christians, known primarily as Nestorians and Monophysites, established bishoprics throughout Asia. As Jenkins says, “We have forgotten a world.” The “new” globalized Christianity “is better seen as a resumption of an ancient reality.” He explores the pervasive influence of Christianity on Islam, and it is always good to see the woolly writings of Karen Armstrong and Elaine Pagels taken apart, albeit gently. Once, Christians were the majority from North Africa all the way to India--and had sizable communities beyond, even to China. The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and How It Died. 5 stars for the content. 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. Bar Sauma had an equally interesting life. It seems banal even to note this. Yes, so much of the Middle East, Central & East Asia, and N. Africa were once vibrantly Christian. 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. It was amazing to learn the the Persian Empire of the first 500 years of the CE was just as amenable to the spread of Christianity as the Roman Empire. Read on my iPad. Within five hundred years of Christianity's millennial birthday, however, its reach had vanished, lost in political upheaval and newly arrived competition. I would argue that this holds true of relationships, too. Be the first one to write a review. Jenkins pieces together how many Islamic traditions were borrowed from Christianity and Judaism. 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. The history of Christianity I was taught ran through Europe. 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. I read this book in conjunction with another insightful book just reviewed: Transcending Mission, by Michael Stroope. Interesting chapters on the Christian churches in Japan, Arabia and Egypt. The Lost History of Christianity is of interest to students of religion (Christian and Muslim), Middle Eastern and Church history, and Christian ministry. More importantly, Christians in the East -in the Arab World - survived for 1000 years under the various caliphates. In the late 10th century a Nestorian monk from Arabia visiting China reported his horror at discovering that Christianity had, after centuries, by then become “extinct.” But Christianity is now in its fourth phase of expansion in China: More people there go to church than do in Europe. Later, the Mongols themselves embraced Islam and turned on the Christians. He likewise shows how the evolution of Islam took place right alongside, and was partly influenced by, them. Perhaps it is the very fact that we don’t know this story that makes the reading so enjoyable. Not really what I was hoping for, nor what it's advertized as. The story usually told of Christianity is that, while it certainly also spread elsewhere, its major influence and home was in Europe. 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. This made for relations that defy many of our usual assumptions about history. 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. by Philip Jenkins ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2008. How could all this history have happened and nobody saw fit to tell us about it? For the first millennium of the church's history, Europe was less Christendom than a dismissed backwater. Quite a mouthful, I know. 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. We have much to learn from the tale of its reach, its particular way of being Christian, and its eventual decomposition ” (Beliefnet.com (One of the Best Religious Books of 2008)) 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. 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. We’d love your help. He was educated at Clare College, in the University of Cambridge, where he took a prestigious “Double First” degree—that is, Double First Class Honors. I really thought this book was fascinating. It was mostly under "non-Arab muslims" that Christianity diminished and almost disappeared in the East, i.e., under the mongols, the mamelukes and the turks. Few realize that while Christianity spread and took hold in Europe--it was also moving east and taking hold in Asia. 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. 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. Booklist. Jenkins' book retells the history of this oft-forgotten story of how Christianity moved east--not through the Roman Catholic church, but by Christians who rejected the Council of Chalcedon. Book Reviewed Philip Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and How It Died (New York: HarperOne, 2008). In 1930 there were proposals to transfer them to South America. Their language, Syriac-Aramaic, is as close as any living language to the one that Jesus spoke, yet they are forbidden by the Turkish government to teach it to their schoolchildren. Refresh and try again. A must-read for Christians who want to learn about a relatively unknown segment of Christian history. Early explorers like Marco Polo in the 13th century and the Portuguese in the 16th century encountered weird groups of enigmatic "Lost Christians" in places like China and India that had lost touch with their origins. The lost history of Christianity This was an absolute fabulous and informative book. 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. He was educated at Clare College, in the University of Cambridge, where he took a prestigious “Double First” degree—that is, Double First Class Honors. He is also a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion. Success has many parents and failure is an orphan. By 1500 the European church had become dominant “by dint of being, so to speak, the last men standing” of the Christian world. Beyond that, they managed to evangelize as far afield as China and were influential presences in some of the most surprising places - like the courts of Mongol conquerors and Indian rajahs. Between 1200 and 1500 the proportion of Christians outside Europe fell from over a third to about 6 percent. In 1978, he obtained his doctorate in history, also from Cambridge. (They were not entirely exterminated in many cases, however, but the believers had to go underground and avoid the attention of the governing polity.). The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and How It Died 4.02 avg rating — 1,539 ratings — published 2008 — 27 editions 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). We may currently be in another such wave as Christians flee the Palestinian areas, Lebanon, Turkey, and Egypt. $ 11) tells the stories of the … Jenkins recounts how “in 782, the Indian Buddhist missionary Prajna arrived in the Chinese imperial capital of Chang’an, but was unable to translate the Sanskrit sutras he had brought” into Chinese or other useful local languages. This was a very interesting and arresting book. “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. 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. While Islam was Christianity's principal rival in many of these areas, the two religions more or less co-existed with occasional flare-ups one might have thought would define the interplay between them during that period. The history which is told in this book is repetitive and rambling. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published By the eagle. The remarkable true story of the demise of the institution that shaped both Asia and Christianity as we know them today, The Lost History of Christianity is a controversial and important work of religious scholarship that sounds a warning that must be heeded. We have much to learn from the tale of its reach, its particular way of being Christian, and its eventual decomposition Not only does Jenkins give us the wh. And then they died out. With the discovery of America and the European voyages of exploration, as well as colonialism, Christianity then spread to the rest of the world largely as a Western export. Highly recommended. 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 the church fathers argued that the “kings who held the steering poles of the government of the whole world were the [Mongols], and there was no man except [him] who was acquainted with their manners and customs.” Markos established his seat near Tabriz, then the capital of the Mongol Ilkhan dynasty. In Nisibis (now Nusaybin in southeast Turkey), where a famous Christian community dates back to the second century, and which nurtured Ephrem, the greatest of the Syrian theologians, there is a church dating from 439. Not only does Jenkins give us the what, where and when, but we get a lot of how and why. The Mongols gave more favorable treatment to Christians in their domain for a period but eventually swung toward the Muslims, right around the time the Mongol rule was ending. Books. I LIKE that. In all honesty this book was even better than I expected and I highly recommend it. The last three chapters are worth reading carefully. It was mostly under "non-Arab muslims" that Christianity diminished and almost disappeared in the East, i.e., under the mongols, the mamelukes and the turks. In prestige and authority, Timothy was “arguably the most significant Christian spiritual leader of his day,” much more influential than the Western pope and on par with the Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople. It was also a church immersed in cultures very different from the Roman and Hellenic environments of the West. 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. Indonesia Appoints New Minister of Religious Affairs, Signaling More Robust Opposition to Radicalism, Biden Would Do the World a Favor by Keeping Trump’s China Policy. 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. The church developed early, Europe became in some sense Christianized, and subsequently it set the pattern for the faith. You know what? John Philip Jenkins was born in Wales in 1952. This book could easily have been several things it is not: an academic treatise, an intemperate diatribe against Islamic violence, or an uncritical glamorization of Nestorian… More importantly, Christians in the East -in the Arab World - survived for 1000 years under the various caliphates. It was locked and abandoned after World War I when the inhabitants, fleeing massacre, escaped into Syria. Deeply erudite, sure-to-be-controversial history of the persecution of Christian churches throughout the world. 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.

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