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The Lost History Of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age Of The Church In The Middle East, Africa, And Asia--and How It Died (2008)

by Philip Jenkins(Favorite Author)
3.95 of 5 Votes: 1
ISBN
0061472808 (ISBN13: 9780061472800)
languge
English
publisher
HarperOne
review 1: I was very excited when I started reading this book. The topic is very interesting; namely, that, though the Western model of Christianity is currently dominant, for a thousand years after the flowering of Christianity, the Christian churches of Asia & Africa were as powerful & influential as the Western church, simply put Christianity spread East as well as West.Unfortunately the author (Jenkins) writes from a secular, pluralistic perspective--which assumes religions belong to the private sphere, & must make no claims to exclusivity.I was surprised to learn that, in relative terms, the Middle East is only recently "Muslim" (less than 125 years). This was accomplished in very recent history "by carnage on a massive scale." Also & not surprisingly alliance with political po... morewers of the day came back to bite Christians by hastening the extinction of their churches.It was also interesting to see that for a significant period, after Islam spread through the region, the Eastern faith & Islam coexisted. However, over time, oftentimes violently, at times, in measured ways, Islam displaced Christianity. The book leaves you wanting to do more research, it is a great book to cause one to think differently about the history we have been given. Not that what we have been given is wrong but that there is clearly more.
review 2: Philip Jenkins, though trained in Cambridge, teaches at Penn State. This book gives the history of the development of Christianity in the Middle East, Persia and the rest of Asia. It is readable and provides a new and different look at part of Christianity that has been forgotten. It's footnotes show its academic base, and it reads like the magazine article writer he is, so it can be easily picked up and dipped into.what bumps this up from a four to a five is the way that, though frequently tempted to suggest that this may be the future for the English and European future, he allows the reader to connect the dots, rather than using eye catching headlines. Whether your introduction to Middle East history was Winston Churchill or Grant Jeffreys, try this book! less
Reviews (see all)
Rena
Interesting book that dives into the Eastern arm of Christianity.
ilianag07
a well written look at a forgotten piece of church history
windMoon
I have assigned it, so I suppose I should read it.
iamstef1471
Great -Informative
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