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 John Philip Jenkins

Dec 22, 2008 Terence rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Terence by: New shelf at the library

Shelves: religion-general, history-general, religion-christianity

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. 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...more 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. 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. In fact, there were any number of Christians outside of the empire and in those darks days when Western Europe lay under the hands of the "barbarians" and the Eastern Romans were busy just trying to survive the Saracen onslaught, they enjoyed a vibrant intellectual life and greatly influenced the early Islamic empire both politically and theologically. 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. 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. (They were not entirely exterminated in many cases, however, but the believers had to go underground and avoid the attention of the governing polity.)

This is a very slim volume (only 262 pages of text) for the amount of ground it covers (over a 1,000 years of history and lands stretching from Gibraltar to Japan) so the reader is often left hungry for more information for just about every era Jenkins touches upon, especially as to causes since Jenkins is quite good at recognizing the variety of events that nurtured or killed Christian communities. For example, the disappearance of the North African church after AD 700 involved no large scale massacres of believers or serious persecutions but by 800, it's as if Augustine and Tertullian had never existed. In contrast, the Coptic church in Egypt commanded the alliegiance of a large minority of the population for centuries. It was finally broken only after generations of discrimination, persecution and the occasional pogrom.

The chapters "How Faiths Die" and "The Mystery of Survival" are provocative examinations of how beliefs live and die. For the believer of any stripe, some of Jenkins' conclusions may be a bit uncomfortable: There is no guarantee that any religion will survive no matter how successful it may appear at a given moment and some religions that appear "dead" can rebound spectacularly (consider that in AD 800, no one would have predicted that Western Europe and Christianity would be the dominant culture and faith a thousand years later; based on political and intellectual success alone, it should have been Islam).

The chapter "Ghosts of Faith" is an equally provocative look at the eastern Christian roots or influences on Muslim practices and beliefs, particularly among the Sufis. Jenkins even brings up the extremely tendentious argument that the Quran derives from Syriac Christian liturgies and gospels. While I have no brief for any particular scripture, I should note that Jenkins does seem to go out of his way to emphasize, perhaps overemphasize, the Christian influences on Islam.

On the whole, though, Jenkins is very balanced in his treatment of the various religious traditions. He is, after all, chronicling Christian disasters and the "villains" are often Muslims but he's careful to point out that some "deaths" stemmed from non-religious causes and that every religion has been guilty of discrimination and massacre.

While not, perhaps, a "must read," Jenkins is a welcome and interesting look at yet another aspect of history largely ignored in our assessments of the past and especially apropos considering current relations between the self-proclaimed children of Israel and Ishmael.(less)

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Jun 13, 2012 John David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: religion, history-of-ideas, medieval-or-renaissaice-history

To speak of Christianity is almost necessarily to turn our imaginations toward Western Europe, where Christianity flourished for centuries in the midst of religious wars, social turmoil, and even Islamic competition for economic and military power. However, the “thousand-year Golden Age” referred to in the subtitle of Philip Jenkins’ book refers not to the West, but the various Christianities that arose all over northern Africa, the Levant, the Middle East, and the far East. Instead of the Latin...more To speak of Christianity is almost necessarily to turn our imaginations toward Western Europe, where Christianity flourished for centuries in the midst of religious wars, social turmoil, and even Islamic competition for economic and military power. However, the “thousand-year Golden Age” referred to in the subtitle of Philip Jenkins’ book refers not to the West, but the various Christianities that arose all over northern Africa, the Levant, the Middle East, and the far East. Instead of the Latin that dominated the West, Christianity in the rest of the world was conducted in a number of languages, including Syriac and the Koine Greek of Saint Paul. While Jenkins looks at Christianity in various parts of the East, he largely clumps them together as “Syriac-Nestorian,” referring to the language and Nestorianism, a brand of Christian theology long considered a heresy in the West but that held on in the East.

Jenkins spends most of his time talking about Christianity in different parts of the Eastern world, instead of, as the subtitle hints, telling us “how it died.” This is much more a book, in fact, of how these communities flourished and lived side-by-side with people of other religions. We get vignettes of how, in the East, Christians lived next to Jews and especially Muslims for centuries. Around the thirteenth or fourteenth century, however, Muslims – who almost always were the power-holding elites in these regions – began to grow increasingly intolerant toward religious minorities. Why? Jenkins never really says. He offers a number of explanations, which I believe were meant to be the heart of the book, including the marginalization of certain languages, and the rise of a powerful, political Islam, but he never makes it seem like he is convinced of any of them.

I found this to be a confusing, or rather confused, book that wasn’t aware of what it wanted to say. It would have been much better with a different (sub)title, and a thesis – any thesis. Instead, the reader gets a mishmash that tries to convey the importance of Christianity in the East and to some extent succeeds. But if you want an explanation of why Christianity survived in the West, but was nearly totally decimated in the East, you won’t find much of an explanation here. I might suggest this to someone for whom the Christian East is a wholly new concept, but there are sure to be better resources out there than what this book has to offer.(less)

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Nov 27, 2008 Kathyred rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult, nonfiction

Very different view of the history Christianity than is commonly learned in the US and Europe. As Roman/Latin Christianity followed the contours of the old Roman empire, so Nestorian and Jacobite (and other types) followed the contours of the old Persian empire all the way along the Silk road into India, China, and even Japan, and also down the Nile into Ethiopia. For the 1300 years after Christ, Christians were more numerous, more organized, more scholarly, and even more successful missionaries...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Mark Sequeira added it

A great book. While it poses some controversial ideas about the universality of the visible church and about heresy, there is much to learn and to hold your attention. A pretty quick read for a 'history' book. Always puzzles me why we would call Mary the 'Mother of God' as that seems ludicrous and close to blasphemy even though as a defence of Jesus' deity, I get it. Less so how the whole iconoclast controversy ended with the church's approval to use/pray to icons considering our connection to J...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars

Success has many parents and failure is an orphan. Jenkins shows how this saying is as true for the world's religions as it is for most anything else. The wide acceptance of Christianity and its growth in influence obscures the history of its losses. I like, many others, have not given much thought about how in the birthplace of Christianity it happens that Islam is the dominant religion.

The book begins with a description of how much of the world was Christian in the first millennium. Jenkins am...more Success has many parents and failure is an orphan. Jenkins shows how this saying is as true for the world's religions as it is for most anything else. The wide acceptance of Christianity and its growth in influence obscures the history of its losses. I like, many others, have not given much thought about how in the birthplace of Christianity it happens that Islam is the dominant religion.

The book begins with a description of how much of the world was Christian in the first millennium. Jenkins amplifies the strikingly illustrative map on pp. 12-13, (showing a heavy Nestorian Christian presence in the Middle East, India and even a presence in Beijing) with a description of how many churches were associated with each central unit, how they were staffed and their operations in general. They were clearly substantial institutions for their times. While the Nestorian branch of Christianity still exists, large areas of its former territories are now predominantly Buddhist or Islamic.

The next part of the book deals with the co-existence of religions in the first millennium, how they met, converged, adapted and fought. Interestingly, where the religions adapted to their communities and each other there was peace and permanence. The last part, all too short, covers why Christianity lost the ground it did.

It's been a few days since I finished the book and the ideas presented have been turning in my mind. Jenkins shows how religions, once they achieved dominance, could and did control and persecute non-adherents. If persecution could, and most likely would, follow dominance, the bigger issue becomes how dominance is achieved.

The most thought provoking factor, for me, was language. Once you know which religion had its texts, prayers and liturgy fully in Arabic and which in Latin it takes no mental energy to project which one would take hold in the Middle East and which in Europe. Similarly, Jenkins writes about how the religions' abilities to integrate local customs and marriage and death rituals, and to build visible structures and monuments were also factors in their implantation and growth (or lack thereof) in new locations.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in this topic. Its clarity makes it excellent for the layman. I presume the content and its documentation also make it an important contribution for scholars who know these issues.
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Apr 12, 2013 John Alt rated it 3 of 5 stars

In The Lost History of Christianity, Philip Jenkins reveals aspects of the religion that are far from popular knowledge. If widely understood, this Christianity would show the televangelists in their limitations.

Here are a few comments made by Jenkins in an interview, which I noted and am offering here.

Religions really do die. We think of ancient religions like those of the Aztecs or Mayas, which had millions of followers, not to mention copious scriptures. Also, something like the Manichaean fa...more

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May 09, 2012 Steve Cran rated it 5 of 5 stars

Today many people associate Christianity with Europe as that is the stronghold of Christiandom. Most devout Christians will note that Christianity was born in the land of Judah and more particularly in Jerusalem. What most people do not know is that Christianity was the major religion of the Middle East before Islam and even some hundred years after it's rise. Of course now there is barely a trace of Christianity left in the lands where it was born and in the lands it used to dominate. This book...more Today many people associate Christianity with Europe as that is the stronghold of Christiandom. Most devout Christians will note that Christianity was born in the land of Judah and more particularly in Jerusalem. What most people do not know is that Christianity was the major religion of the Middle East before Islam and even some hundred years after it's rise. Of course now there is barely a trace of Christianity left in the lands where it was born and in the lands it used to dominate. This book examines the factors that lead to the demise of Christianity in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Christianity was spread all over North Africa and was prevalent among the city dwellers. The Nestorians or Assyrians spread Christianity through Iran, India and all the way to China and Japan. Monuments and church building attest to this. When the Romans adopted Christianity the Nestorians being Christians were associated with Rome and looked at as internal allies of the enemy. This lead to a persecution in Iran which wiped out most of the Christians there. In China there was intense nationalism which drove the Christians away. Persecution also followed in Japan.

With the coming of Islam things went rather smoothly for the Christians of the Middle East. They were allowed to do their own thing and even debate with Muslims. Yet they dhimmi and did not have the same rights as Muslims. For a protection tax called a jizya they were allowed to live their lives unmolested. Many Christians converted voluntarily to the new faith. It was better from a financial point of view. However, as time progressed things got worse. The persecutions would grow terms of life would get harsher. This was especially so in Egypt and North Africa.

The Christian churches dwindled to a fossil of their former glory. Let us not forget that Christians were persecuting Muslims in Europe, especially in Spain. The Crusaders killed Christian, Muslims and Jew alike. Sometimes the Christians allied with the wrong people like the Mongols. When the Mongol adopted Islam things got really difficult for the Christians. Let us not forget that the Mongols almost became Christians and many had Christian wives.

But did Christianity really disappear. I think not as many would practice their religion under ground and in secret. Christian customs would seep into Islam and influence the religion. There were also syncretic sects that combined both religions.

Summing up a Christian amy look at this and ask if it is really god's plane to spread Christianity all over the globe especially after such defeats. One could say that maybe the Christianity that was eradicated somehow did not live up to God's plan. Or maybe that our view is so narrow that we cannot forsee the changed that will happen in the future.
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Jul 30, 2011 James (JD) Dittes added it

Jenkins brings to light important details about a worldwide Christianity far different from that known by Evangelicals today: Nestorians, Jacobites, Copts and Japanese kakure krishitan (hidden Christians) emerge from the mists to tantalize with tales of their glory...and their demise.

Jenkins is most concerned here with the organizational arcs of these religions (there is not much about unique spiritual practices or inspirational texts). He is looking at a past where Christianity managed to endur...more

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May 22, 2011 Franz rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely fascinating look at Christian communities ignored by traditional histories of Christianity. Christian communities that developed east of Jerusalem (or, for that matter, east of Constantinople) contained not only more area filled with Christians but also a greater number of adherents than those Christian communities established in Europe, which came comparatively late to Christian beliefs. While they adopted the creed established at the Council of Nicea, they were expelled from the Lat...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Interesting introduction to the non-Western churches in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia for the first 1000 years. The author tries to acquaint the reader with these churches, and to explain their overall demise as well as their continued cultural impact. His overall argument is that Christianity started out as a worldwide movement, later was confined to Europe because of reversals elsewhere, and during the past half-century has become a world religion again. Unfortunately, the organization of...more

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Nov 20, 2009 David Bales rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 52-books-in-52-weeks

Brilliant book about the "lost history" of Christianity; one of my year's top ten best. Once, Christians were the majority from North Africa all the way to India--and had sizable communities beyond, even to China. 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. Jenkins pieces together how many Islamic traditions were borrowed from Christianity and J...more

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Aug 21, 2010 Justin Evans rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-etc

Not really what I was hoping for, nor what it's advertized as. 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.' You know what? 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 b...more

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Jan 22, 2010 NieuCommunities rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nieucommunities, san-diego

from John: Reading this book was a "why has no one ever told me this before?" kind of experience!

For starters, Jenkins makes the point that those who want to get as close to what the original church was like need to study the Churches of the East (Jacobite, Nestoria, Syriac, Coptic...). These churches were at the council of Nicea, pursued missionary ventures around the world, and were extremely influential - and they weren't Greco-Roman! In fact, they flourished for hundreds of years on the same...more

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Jul 23, 2011 David Sarkies rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian

A pretty interesting book that explores the Middle Eastern, African and Asian churches from the birth of the church through to the modern day. It was interesting in that we generally do not think of the church beyond European expansion, but in this book, we see a middle eastern church flourishing until the 14th century when the mongol rulers at the time switched to a form of Islam that did not tolerate other religions, but even then, despite huge persecutions, the church still survived until th...more

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Jul 20, 2012 Ian Carmichael rated it 4 of 5 stars

A superb telling of the tale of the churches of Asia and Africa. In particular, I found the story of the missionary extent of the church into the east and up to Mongolia fascinating, and the story of the atrocities of EVERYBODY simply appalling. (Let's not be cute that there was a wonderful and generous group. ALL have their inclusive moments, ALL engage in barbarous slaughter) I haven't yet got to the Armenian genocide.

I need to deepen my understanding. Traditionally Western Church history dum...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Lost History of Christianity turns the common view of history portrayed by Tertullian’s famous quote about “the blood of martyrs being the seed of the church” onto its head. For it was Tertullian’s own church tradition that all but vanished before the Muslim invaders (p 34). I enjoyed this book for several reasons:

1) I was surprised to learn that, in relative terms, the Middle East is only recently “Muslim” (less than 100 years). This was accomplished in very recent history “by carnage on a...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Geoffrey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: church-history

Philip Jenkins' book seeks to balance our perspective of church history. Certainly the church history I learnt largely followed the book of Acts - from Jerusalem westward to Rome - and then into Europe. This was the most relevant history for understanding the church I serve within. There were snippets from other parts - namely, north Africa where Augustine was based. Jenkins seeks to take us east from Jerusalem, across the Middle East, India, and into China. This was history I was eager to learn...more Philip Jenkins' book seeks to balance our perspective of church history. Certainly the church history I learnt largely followed the book of Acts - from Jerusalem westward to Rome - and then into Europe. This was the most relevant history for understanding the church I serve within. There were snippets from other parts - namely, north Africa where Augustine was based. Jenkins seeks to take us east from Jerusalem, across the Middle East, India, and into China. This was history I was eager to learn.

This book really is an introductory level book on the topic. It's size means it can only skim over thousands of miles, hundreds of years and dozens of issues. It contains a few footnotes for those interested in further exploration, but hardly sufficient for serious study of any of the topics touched on. As someone who was hitting this for the first time, I felt like I needed a lot more background knowledge (or at least a refresher!) on the theological differences between the Orthodox and Nestorian churches, etc. I needed a few more maps to give context to place names. A few more clear character sketches would have helped aid the memory of who the Apostle Timothy was, for example.

I learnt lots. I didn't realise that when the Aussies were battling at Galipoli about one third of the city of Istanbul were still Christians (Orthodox). The city of Allepo in Syria - at the time of Jenkins writing in 2008 - was one quarter Christian - a population probably decimated or dispersed by the civil war in 2012. It is only in the last 100 years that Christianity was purged from much of the Middle East.

Jenkins doesn't seek to just give the history, though. He is also interested in helping us apply it. That is a noble sentiment, but I found his theological background (Catholic converted to Episcopalian in the US) sufficiently different that I disagreed with enough of his applications to make this a little frustrating, especially when I wanted more facts on which to base my own applications.

Still, I found his last chapter had some good things to say - particularly about the perspective of time, the warning of associating the church too closely with any secular power, and the danger of relying too heavily on easily targeted institutional structures.

I recommend this book to any believer who wants to expand their perspective of church history, is prepared to wrestle with some tough questions (esp. the question, "what is your theology of destruction?") and wants to put their own faith and church life in a broader perspective.(less)

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Bill Thanks Geoff. How significant do you think the theological distinctions are between these ancient Eastern churches and orthodox historic theology? (Co...more
Jan 01, 2013 03:14pm

Geoffrey Bill,
Yeah, I thought about how their theology affected their decline as I was reading and concluded that I needed to get a better understanding of it...more
Jan 03, 2013 03:28am

Bill Thanks Geoff, don't know why I didn't see this reply before! I agree that obscure theology is not going to effect the average Christian in the moment,...more
Jan 18, 2013 01:47am

Jul 14, 2009 Bishop rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found this book to be a very good introduction and survey of the little known history of what was one of the most important centers of ancient and medieval Christianity, Asia. For almost a thousand years Asian Christianity was vital to the growth and developement of the Christian Faith and not only rivaled but often surpassed the West in both population and influence. But it was a faith that has struggled continiuosly for survival in a Middle Eastern world that became increasingly dominated by...more

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Dec 03, 2009 Litchick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 26-books-for-2009, religion-and-philosophy

I enjoyed learning about this "lost" Christianity, the Christianity that thrived in Africa, the Middle East and Asia during the first millennium. In spite of the fact that much of the records have been lost, the author did a good job of painting a picture of this early and truly Eastern (not just Eastern Orthodox) Christianity. I was so intrigued to learn how much mixing there was in this early time among the different religions and languages, and how much Judaism, Christianity and Islam influen...more

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Jan 27, 2010 Ed Cyzewski rated it 4 of 5 stars

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. 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...more

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Mar 22, 2009 Dan Kearns rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, religion, history-sub-global-history

I'm certainly glad that I read this book, but, as often these days when the internet has changed my writing ideals, I found it too long and repetitive and thought that it could have been boiled down into a nice long essay. I found the real value in the provocative ideas rather than in the historical details which didn't flow in either a coherent chronological or geographical way. The real miising piece for me, though, was that Mr. Jenkins did not connect his ideas to the developing school of glo...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Brian rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book shocked me with how little I knew about history. It definitely provokes a desire for more familiarity with the Christian East. There was also a good bit of reasoned thought on why this world collapsed.

The unsatisfying part was that Jenkins doesn't divide Christians from Nestorians and all his talk about east v. west is superficial, not involving any sort of interesting character. He also says that losing any religion is bad, which it ain't: thank God we have no Montanists. He also seem...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Bill rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Filled a massive hole in my church history -- the early church spread to the east as well as the west and thrived there for 1000 years. Because that part of the world is so different now, and because the book of Acts focuses on Christianity's spread west, we have an overly Euro-centric view of church history. Some helpful thoughts also on how Christianity takes root in some cultures and why/how it died in others. Jenkins is often referenced by Christian authors, but this is a history work not a...more

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Oct 28, 2012 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've never read a history that so thoroughly convinced me that everything I thought I knew about a topic was wrong. The history of Christianity I was taught ran through Europe. Yet much of the populations Asia, the Middle East, and northern Africa were Christian for a hundreds of years, if not a millennium. And then they died out. Jenkins discusses the growth and death of these church communities in broad strokes with fairly detailed examples to help make his point. While Islam was Christianity'...more

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Mar 13, 2009 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: about-history, about-theology

A welcome overview of ancient Christianity outside the Roman Empire, covering a history that most in the West simply don't know. At one time, Christian churches thrived throughout the Middle East, in Egypt and further south in Africa, and as far away as India and China; these churches looked to bishops in what is now Iraq and Iran for leadership and aid. Their language was not Latin or Greek, but Syriac.

I recommend reading it in conjunction with Martin Palmer's "The Jesus Sutras," an account of...more

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Jan 12, 2009 Jason rated it 2 of 5 stars

As with other books he has written, Jenkins writes this book with flair. Yet apart from style, the actual content of the book is nothing new. It's value lies in reminding us of the ancient Christian movements in Asia and Africa, but the value is mitigated by Jenkins bias toward relativism. Reminiscent of Bart Ehrman, Jenkins treats orthodox Christianity as a mere historical accident, while treating Nestorianism as a fully legitimate expression of the faith. There are certainly things to be learn...more

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May 11, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

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. The Lost History of Christianity unveils a vast and forgotten network of the world's largest and most influential Christian churches that existed to the east of the Roman Empire. These churches and their leaders ruled the Middle East for centuries...more

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Jan 10, 2012 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

A more accurate title might be "The Ignored History of Christianity." Philip Jenkins isn't breaking new ground here, but he is bringing attention to a huge chunk of Christian history that many of us know precious little about. "How It Died" is perhaps an overstatement. As the author points out in his final chapter, Christianity never completely died in any of these places. And as he has reported in other works, Christianity is now experiencing an unprecedented resurgence in Asia and especially i...more A more accurate title might be "The Ignored History of Christianity." Philip Jenkins isn't breaking new ground here, but he is bringing attention to a huge chunk of Christian history that many of us know precious little about. "How It Died" is perhaps an overstatement. As the author points out in his final chapter, Christianity never completely died in any of these places. And as he has reported in other works, Christianity is now experiencing an unprecedented resurgence in Asia and especially in Africa.
Probably 80 percent or more of what I read in this book was new to me; if only I could remember it all! It was particularly interesting to learn how much of the practices we associate with Islam were adapted from Eastern Christianity. Prostration, for one thing. The distinctive architecture of mosques for another. Some of those mosques were originally Eastern Christian churches.
And according to one author, Christoph Luxenberg (not his real name, for reasons of self-preservation), even the Quran was "a confused translation from earlier Syriac Christian texts," Jenkins reports. If Luxenberg's highly controversial interpretation is correct (for example), those 72 virgins that martyrs are supposed to receive on entry to paradise would more accurately be translated as an exotic fruit: white raisins. Imagine the letdown!
An earlier passage on the Syriac Bible points out that it rejected all of the same alternative scriptures that were rejected by the Western church, and additionally discarded 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude and Revelation. This, Jenkins suggests, calls to question the idea that the gnostic scriptures were excluded simply for the political convenience of the emperor Constantine.
"The problem with all this is that the Eastern churches had a long familiarity with the rival scriptures, but rejected them because they knew they were late and tendentious," Jenkins writes.
This is one of those books that probably would yield even more understanding with a second read, and it's definitely one of those library books that had me itching to use a highlighter.(less)

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Apr 05, 2012 Justin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: religion

I have to say, I am not as blown away as I was hoping. There are probably a few reasons for this that I list below.

disclaimer: I have only made it 20% of the way through. I am shelving this book for now until I can get a hard copy. All the weaknesses in eBooks and Kindle books are the ones that are driving me nuts in this particular book.

The content is fascinating, eye-opening, and very intriguing. Someone says they have a different way to look at everything I've been told? I'm down with that....more

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Jun 23, 2012 Ian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: academia, history, politics, religion, society, war, summer2012class

I have a complicated relationship with Philip Jenkins. I was incredibly impressed by his book The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, but his books on pre-Reformation history contain some difficult and distressing errors. Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way contains a few out-of-left-field examples of his antipathy towards Mormons, Shakers & other non-Protestant, non-Catholic Christian groups. This book, "The Lost History", is likewise plagued by some odd i...more I have a complicated relationship with Philip Jenkins. I was incredibly impressed by his book The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, but his books on pre-Reformation history contain some difficult and distressing errors. Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way contains a few out-of-left-field examples of his antipathy towards Mormons, Shakers & other non-Protestant, non-Catholic Christian groups. This book, "The Lost History", is likewise plagued by some odd ideological quirks, such as his insistence on referring to Egypt as an entity distinct from Africa and his dismissal of non-Protestant, non-Catholic African Christians as relevant or important. He also huffily decries the use of terms like "Nestorian" and "Jacobite" by scholars because they were originally pejorative, yet he himself insisted on referring to "Mormons" and "Shakers" -- which are themselves pejorative titles imposed upon members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing. And he adopts a superior, scolding tone when discussing Western Christianity's general ignorance of Eastern Christianities, but does his best to gloss over the Eastern Christianities' analogous ignorance of Western Christianity.

However, this work is also one of the best introductions to the topic he is tackling that I have ever encountered, frankly and honestly assessing the collapse of Christianity in the Middle East and Asia. Of particular note is his open and un-censored discussion of Islam vis-a-vis Asian and Middle-Eastern Christianity; his similar discussion of Buddhism & Christianity in Asia is also notable, but nowhere near as brave as his decision to confront how Christians have been treated in the Muslim world. He offers a refreshingly honest take on Islamic/Christian relations, free from both sentimental white-washing of Muslim atrocities and hysterical hyperbolizing of Christian suffering.

Likewise, his discussion of how backwards and intellectually stunted Western Christendom seemed when compared to Eastern Christendom is extremely effective in introducing to readers the historical reality of Christian life and thought beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. He doesn't deal with as many of the fine details as, say, the authors who contributed to A World History of Christianity, but he gives enough information to get the points across and includes plenty of references and footnotes.

I was particularly impressed with his careful debunking of modern academic (*cough*Pagels*cough*) claims that there were originally numerous equally-authoritative and powerful Christianities which were subsequently crushed by a repressive and narrow-minded Roman Catholic Church; by examining the paucity of works which were considered "Scripture" by the various Eastern Christian churches, he demonstrates that, by comparison, the Roman Catholic Church was actually run by hyper-inclusive, freewheeling "hippies". Almost all of the texts now cited as emblematic of "alternative Christianities" were unknown among Eastern Christians, or were wearily dismissed as well-known pious frauds of demonstrable falsity -- the Eastern Christians even rejected some of the documents which we now consider part of the "traditional" New Testament canon! These "alternative Christianities" were, Jenkins demonstrates, never anything more than late fringe movements which arose well after the canonical-NT documents were composed, and their "alternative" texts were usually written as sect-specific responses to or critiques of those earlier documents.

Of special interest is Jenkins' discussion of the origin of the term "genocide" and the list of atrocities committed well before World War II which are by-and-large ignored by the West.

Overall an excellent work marred by some curious decisions and assertions. If not for his persistent claims that Africa and Egypt are somehow distinct, I would have given it 4 stars.(less)

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