Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 years

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Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 years

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 234 ratings · 62 reviews

Jesus Wars reveals how official, orthodox teaching about Jesus was the product of political maneuvers by a handful of key characters in the fifth century. Jenkins argues that were it not for these controversies, the papacy as we know it would never have come into existence and that today's church could be teaching some-thing very different about Jesus. It is only an accide...more

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published March 9th 2010 by HarperOne

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Nov 21, 2012 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, religion

Honestly, I struggled a bit to get through this. The history is convoluted, involving dozens of religious, civil and military leaders over hundreds of years, and the intricate political machinations are dizzying and difficult to keep track of, not to mention the complicated theological disputes about the Trinity, Christology, and Mary. Dr. Jenkins includes maps at the beginning and several appendices that list the dramatis personae, briefly explain the outcomes of the several councils, and defin...more Honestly, I struggled a bit to get through this. The history is convoluted, involving dozens of religious, civil and military leaders over hundreds of years, and the intricate political machinations are dizzying and difficult to keep track of, not to mention the complicated theological disputes about the Trinity, Christology, and Mary. Dr. Jenkins includes maps at the beginning and several appendices that list the dramatis personae, briefly explain the outcomes of the several councils, and define the beliefs of various groups, but a more visual representation of the timeline would have been helpful, too.

In my simplistic understanding, I believed that the Council at Nicea was the main event where orthodox Christian theology was settled. In actuality, that council, held in 325, was just the first of several major councils that redefined "orthodoxy" in an almost constant back-and-forth between various centers of power and influence. Dozens of schisms multiplied the number of churches and belief systems within Christianity. "At least since the apostles left Jerusalem, at no point in Christian history has one single church plausibly claimed the loyalty of all believers to the exclusion of rival institutions. In the mid-fourth century, perhaps half of all Christians belonged to some group that the Great Church regarded as heretical or schismatic, and new splits continued to form." It wasn't at all a foregone conclusion that Rome would come out ahead; sees in Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople all expressed their claims for supremacy, too. In addition to the struggles within Christianity, there were external threats as well, from Attila the Hun, Zoroastrian Persia, and a brand new religion on the scene in the 600s: Islam. Early on, the influence of pagan religions and Judaism were also frequently felt.

The theological differences between the various factions sometimes seem like hair-splitting trivialities, but Dr. Jenkins explains that "the largest single mental marker separating the premodern or medieval world from our own was the belief that earthly error had cosmic implications...If, as they believed, errors arose from sinful pride or diabolical subversion, then tolerating them attracted God's anger, as expressed through different forms of worldly catastrophe: famine, drought, plague, floods and earthquakes, or defeat in war...A regime that tolerated heresy, immorality, and error would suffer, and nobody could complain against this fulfillment of God's essential justice."

And reverberations are felt today. "The history of Christian belief is a story of resurrections without end...Even when no conceivable connection exists between ancient and modern thought, the same ideas resurface unbidden." Many of the diametrically opposed arguments and schools of thought that caused such turmoil in the fourth and fifth centuries continue to show up in various denominations today. In closing, Dr. Jenkins suggests that "in an ideal world, free of the power struggles of antiquity, that dialogue can itself be a positive thing, a way in which Christian thought develops its own self-understanding. A religion that is not constantly spawning alternatives and heresies has ceased to think and has achieved only the peace of the grave."

For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.(less)

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Jul 30, 2011 James (JD) Dittes added it

Who was Jesus? Was he God? Was he a man? As a Christian, I tend to wait for "all of the above" before answering. Yet this Christology, which I take for granted, came at the cost of many lives and centuries of debate, schism and reconciliation.

Jenkins wades into 5th-century Christian history, a time at which the church should have been consolidated into the Roman Empire but was instead riven with factionalism over the nature of Christ. Eastern churches, based in Alexandria--and later Antioch--pre...more

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Feb 02, 2011 Starling rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bible, history, non-fiction

I've been reading a lot of books recently about the Bible and the early Church. This book talks about what happened after Constintine made Chritianity a legal religion within the Roman Empire and how it developed during the next 300 or 400 years. But mostly it is about the battles within the Church about what people were supposed to believe.

I'm a history buff, and for me this is a totally new era of history and a new subject.I wanted an overview and to some extent I got one.

There is a lot of rea...more

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Dec 14, 2010 Cornflower rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Christians in the pews

Recommended to Cornflower by: My Anglican priest

Jenkins has a very folksy way of going about describing the machinations of the 4-6th centuries, honing in of the religious controversy between mono- and dyophysitism within Christianity, and the political climate during those centuries. He does so by acknowledging the Christian struggles of the first threee centuries (when the question was whether Jesus was divine), and some of the consequences of those centuries (too briefly mentioning the relation between non-orthodox Christians and Islam in...more

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Jul 20, 2010 Richard Williams rated it 2 of 5 stars

the book brings up a big issue. organization. why do i read books? what do i expect to get out of a book? why is it important to organize your reading so that you can remember it?

from the top down.
big overall organization, in this book, chronological.
big take home themes, here, that doctrine is deeply effected by history, in particular: people, power, personalities.
the smaller themes, which build up the book: the major doctrinal disputes and the people who did them, the major cities.

the problem...more

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Jun 21, 2010 jordan rated it 5 of 5 stars

In the plethora of current works on non-orthodox early movements from the likes of excellent scholars such Bart Ehrman and Elaine Pagel (plus the absurd novels of Dan Brown and his imitators, which I shutter to mention in the same sentence), there has been precious little recent consideration of the establishment of Christian orthodoxy from a historical perspective. Into that breach steps Philip Jenkins with his interesting and readable //Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Em...more

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Aug 27, 2010 Libby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I can't praise Philip Jenkins enough! In Jesus Wars, he takes one of the most complex, abstruse questions in the history of the Western World and make it clear enough for the average joe in the fifth pew to understand. Wow! What an accomplishment! At the same time he clarifies the subject of Christology, he presents these dusty ideas and arguments with the passion and fascination that they held for the early Christians of Alexandria and Antioch. These concepts may seem trivial or overly academic...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Ron Tenney rated it 4 of 5 stars

I just finished this book. I saw Larry Larson reading in the cruise and it peaked my interest.
This is a part of history that has never held much interest for me. So I came in with zero background. I must say that the names, dates, councils and factions are a bit overwhelming. The author does put in a few appendices that are very useful. You might as well mark them as you will be going back to them often.

One Nature? Two natures? What was the nature of Jesus Christ? How was he actually related t...more

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Jul 01, 2010 Kathryn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

I had seen a review of this book, and duly checked it out of the library; who knew that Church controversies of the 5th century could be so interesting, and so much fun to read? If one thinks about how the Church decided what was normative in belief at all, one imagines conferences with debate teams, with everyone working out their differences amicably. Who knew that the process looked more like a poorly run political convention? But in a world where it was sincerely believed that believing the...more I had seen a review of this book, and duly checked it out of the library; who knew that Church controversies of the 5th century could be so interesting, and so much fun to read? If one thinks about how the Church decided what was normative in belief at all, one imagines conferences with debate teams, with everyone working out their differences amicably. Who knew that the process looked more like a poorly run political convention? But in a world where it was sincerely believed that believing the wrong thing could remove your hope of Heaven in the next world and your hope of Peace in this world, perhaps the process couldn’t have happened any other way. (For those not wishing to read further, I loved the book, although it’s hard to keep track who is what at a few points without a scorecard.)

After an introduction to set up the thesis that what happened at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 altered the Church into ultimately what it is today (with the seat of Catholicism firmly settled on the Pope in Rome), the rest of the book is divided into three parts. Part I: God and Caesar contains chapters on The War of Two Natures (in short, did Christ, who was both God and man, have one God/Man Nature, or two natures, one God, and one Man), Four Horsemen: The Church’s Patriarchs (at the time, the great centers of Christendom were Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople, with Rome insisting on the #1 rank among the Patriarchates, but finding itself increasingly isolated at the western edge of the Roman Empire) and Queens, Generals, and Emperors (there was a Western Emperor, with his seat in Ravenna, Italy, and an Eastern Emperor, in Constantinople, and they had varying degrees of interest in theological matters, as did the Royal Women (the wives and daughters of Emperors) and the Generals who commanded the armies).

Part Two: Councils of Christ has, again, three chapters. Not The Mother of God? details the controversy over calling Mary the Mother of God (Theotokos); it makes a difference if you do not believe that Christ was God at his birth), The Death of God (again, if Jesus was God, then did God die on the cross?), and Chalcedon. This part of the book especially goes into the back-room dealing behind the various Councils; in general, the Patriarchate of Alexandria would throw all of its powers (including rogue warrior monks) into deposing those Bishops whom Alexandria believed were not theologically correct on the various Christological issues, including deposing those Bishops who were Patriarchs of other centers of Christendom.

The final section is Part III: A World to Lose, which has two chapters. The first one is How The Church Lost Half the World (the Council of Chalcedon left many disaffected people in the Eastern Empire, who divided and subdivided the Church by setting up their own Churches, most of whom eventually collapsed under the rule of Islam). The final chapter is What Was Saved; in 451, just about the last thing anyone would have expected would be that the Church of Rome would emerge the final victor, and that the Church would set up a Holy Roman Empire based on the Germanic and Gothic descendants of the raiders who had overrun the Western Empire in the 5th century. The author notes how belief even now hearkens back to the various Christological debates. During most of the year, Christians need a Jesus who is very human, who walked the roads of Galilee and lived with the poor, but at Christmastime God is in the manger, being adored by angels and shepherds. Nothing is ever lost; and every time someone comes up with a ‘new’ idea of how to view Christ, one can find the same idea in the Christological debates that tore apart the 5th Century.(less)

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May 23, 2012 Lawson Stone rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: early-christian-exegesis-theology

I found this book engaging and stimulating. The writer takes a tone almost of the investigative journalist exposing scandal, and I feared I was about to be "Bart Ehrman-ed" but the writer uses this tone mainly to keep the reader's attention through some very…byzantine…narrative. Probing beneath the style, I found the discussion very helpful for sorting out the various currents of thought surrounding the debates between Nicea I and Nicea II (325-787). the shades of distinction among various appro...more

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Jul 14, 2012 William Poe rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: christianity

Another good read on the history of Western culture through the lens of Christianity. Jenkins covers a huge amount of information that I cannot keep straight without referencing the material. What struck me was just how violently Christians attacked one another over the smallest variation in whatever was the "orthodox" view of the moment. Any study of the history of Christianity will lead one to realize just what a human-constructed faith it is, and how detrimental it has been to the development...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Lucas rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: late-antiquity, byz-la-ema-owned

This is a good book. I admit that I was extremely skeptical when I first saw it, assuming it to be some sort of modern nonsense on how Constantine created Christianity or something like that. However, when I saw that the Philip Jenkins is indeed an academic historian with serious credentials, I decided to give the book a read. I am glad I did, because I now have a single volume popular history on the late antique church councils and the politics that surrounded them that I can pass on to others...more This is a good book. I admit that I was extremely skeptical when I first saw it, assuming it to be some sort of modern nonsense on how Constantine created Christianity or something like that. However, when I saw that the Philip Jenkins is indeed an academic historian with serious credentials, I decided to give the book a read. I am glad I did, because I now have a single volume popular history on the late antique church councils and the politics that surrounded them that I can pass on to others as a good book.

The essential premise behind Jenkins' work is that the politics that surrounded the church councils which took place from the early fourth century to the middle of the fifth played an enormous role in their outcome. At times it feels like Jenkins is trying to make his thesis sound more controversial than it is, despite the fact that this book is basically academic orthodoxy. That hardly detracts from the lively narrative, however, as Jenkins cogently discusses the relations between the great sees in the east, as well as Constantinople and Rome. While he does a very good job in summarizing the theological issues, the core of this book surrounds the politics that characterized the councils. Jenkins does not fall into the trap of disregarding the beliefs of the major actors just because politics are involved, and in fact he does a good job demonstrating how Eusebeian Christianity made the theological issues imperative for both churchmen and the rulers of the later Roman Empire. The section on Nestorius (chapter five: "Not the Mother of God?") is particularly well done, and Jenkins helps to rehabilitate his reputation as well as show the role that the squabbling Theodosian women played in his deposition. Interested readers should take a look at Holum's Theodosian Empresses: Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity, and Jenkins references to the similar deposition of John Chrysostom at the beginning of the fifth century are carefully placed inside their context. None of Jenkins' argument for Nestorius' orthodoxy is novel or controversial today in academic spheres, and Jenkins should be applauded for bringing it into the popular history sphere so smoothly. He demonstrates how the previous councils led to Chalcedon in 451, but then goes on to show that despite the importance of Chalcedon in the west, many of the matters were hardly settled.

Nonetheless, this is not a perfect book. For one, Jenkins wrote on the politics of the late Roman church councils, and yet I really wonder about his understanding of the late Roman world. It seems that everything has to be interpreted inside the religious sphere for Jenkins, and as such many of the momentous events of the fifth to seventh centuries are forced into a religious context that they do not necessarily belong to. For example, he states that the persecution of the "Nestorian" church drove them to expand in Persia. It is true that the Nestorian church was persecuted, but it was not done because they did not harbour Chalcedonian views: it was done because their Romanitas was questioned because of the group's success in Persia. The Persian element and the Roman fear of a fifth column in Syria lay behind the persecution of this group, but Jenkins never mentions it.

Most of the problems in this book belong to the penultimate chapter, "How the Church Lost Half the World" where this generally good book begins to unravel precipitously. The argument of this chapter is based around the emperors of the six century beginning to more consistently support Chalcedonian Christianity. His treatment of Justinian's subtle policy of allowing Theodora to have Monophysite views is very good and almost certainly correct. The idea that he is trying to push here is that imperially mandated Chalcedonian Christianity led to the establishment of separate churches in the east. There is no denying the fact that separate, Monophysite clerical orders were established in the east, but he downplays the attempts at reconciliation. Jenkins brings up Monotheletism, an imperial attempt to ignore the results of Chalcedon by arguing that Christ whether Christ had one nature or two, he had one will. This was not merely an attempt by a struggling empire to keep its provinces theologically "correct", but rather just one side of what the Monophysite provinces tried to do as well. To them, Constantinople and Rome were in error and they needed to fix that if the Roman Empire was going to continue to prosper. They did not try to secede from the Empire due to their religious differences, they fought for just what they had fought for at Nicaea, Ephesos, Constantinople, and Chalcedon: universal belief. It was the political separation that resulted from the Muslim conquest that forced the churches who were trying to work together to go separate ways. Even after this time reconciliation attempts were made by both sides. For example, in the ninth century the patriarch of Constantinople tried to settle issues with the Monophysite Armenian church. The arguments that he make surrounding the easy conquest of Syria by the Muslims are also highly flawed. There is insufficient space in this review to deal with them, so check out Kaegi's book instead: Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests.

Despite these long criticisms, I have to stress that this is a really good book, minus the penultimate chapter. Jenkins tells the story of both theology and politics at the late Roman church councils masterfully. It is very readable, and the dense theology is summarized nicely. This is a good history of the formation of Christian orthodoxy. (less)

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Aug 31, 2012 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book explores the history of Christianity in the 5th century, and particularly the debates over the nature of Christ that took place at that time. The author does a good job of presenting his subject matter, but he spends a lot of time discussing possible alternate futures that could have developed within the Christian church. However, he mentions that in most of the theological controversies, the side which started off weaker at the beginning of the controversy ended up prevailing. I thoug...more

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Aug 16, 2010 Dergrossest rated it 3 of 5 stars

While it is good to learn about the post-First Council of Nicea history of the Catholic Church (back when “Catholic” meant basically everybody who was Christian), with all its colorful clerics, Emperors, Princesses and barbarians who affected the development of same, as well as the various Christian Heresies which read like hair-splitting on the sub-atomic level, I guess I was looking for more of a philosophical exploration of the ramifications of the Heresies themselves. What does it really mea...more

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Apr 28, 2010 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

The formative years of Christianity, when malicious political maneuvering, murder, mob incitement, mayhem, martyrdom, and armies of militant monks split the church, and emperors and empresses helped determine the beliefs we take for granted today. This eye-opening read that would have horrified Jesus might serve, if we let it, as a warning about the deadliness (and the soul deadening effects) of our very human attraction to the fun and righteous sport of intolerance. hummm our current trend towa...more

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May 09, 2012 Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars

I would recommend this as a more popular introduction to the theology and politics of the Patristic Period of Christian church. If you have not read much about the first few centuries after Jesus, then this an approachable, accurate description of some of the struggles and conflicts that formed the creeds and theologies of the Christian church.

That being said, I found this a bit too popular for my tastes. My degrees were in this field, so this was more "old news" to me. While Jenkins does a gre...more

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May 26, 2012 William rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jenkins offers a good overview of the Christological controversies of the Fifth and Sixth Centuries with especially good emphasis on the Second Council of Ephesus (the "Gangster Council") and Chalcedon. The weak point of the book lies in Jenkin's virtually exclusive focus on the politics, intrigue, power-mongering, violence, and general nastiness that runs through this era of Church history. The book of written on a popular level and if "Jesus Wars" were the only exposure a reader had to this pe...more

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Apr 20, 2011 Robert rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a vigorously objective account of the fifth century ecumenical church councils, with the primary emphasis on Chalcedon. It is ecclesiastical history written in the way that a modern journalist would report the inside workings of a hard-fought political campaign. The author describes the Chalcedonian Council as it it were a particularly raucous Party Convention. Gives an "insider look" at the issues and personalities involved, at the forces that shaped and determined the outcome, that gav...more This is a vigorously objective account of the fifth century ecumenical church councils, with the primary emphasis on Chalcedon. It is ecclesiastical history written in the way that a modern journalist would report the inside workings of a hard-fought political campaign. The author describes the Chalcedonian Council as it it were a particularly raucous Party Convention. Gives an "insider look" at the issues and personalities involved, at the forces that shaped and determined the outcome, that gave us the Chalcedonian Statement of Faith, that created the orthodox understanding of orthodox Christianity.

Jenkins writes with great skill. His narrative is as dramatic and as vivid as fiction. He restores this period of church history to life - revives its over-sized personalities, the saints and patriarchs, the Emperors, the Empresses, and the Eunuchs - tells their stories - demonstrates their significance to the shaping of Western Civilization. But beyond being fascinating history, this work is also accessible theology. Church doctrine is so extensively discussed in this work, and discussed with such clarity, that the book might serve as an introduction to Christian theology. Jenkins' expositions of the various doctrines are always lucid and understandable. He makes even the most esoteric theological niceties understood. But this not a religious book. Whatever religious value it has lies in its elucidation of the 5th century conciliar "sausage making". He reveals the unfortunate truth that the theological debates were not simply pious endeavors to safeguard the faith from heresy, but were much more a power struggle by ambitious patriarchs for supremacy in the church and in the empire. He demonstrates the significant role that personal rivalries among the clergy, as well as the rivalries of the less than saintly imperial household, played in these councils, demonstrates the determinate influence they had on the final results. Reveals how many of the finely drawn dogmas in Christology (i.e. "the two natures in one person") were innovative claims used to discredit rival patriarchs, were used primarily for partisan advantage.

Jenkins is a historian, not a theologian. He is unbiased. He does not take sides . Does not regard the final results of the Councils as inevitable, as correct, as divinely sanctioned. The reader is left to his own judgments. However, one judgment that is inescapable is the negative consequence of the Christology adopted at Chalcedon. It led directly to the division of the church - to the permanent schism of the Monophysites and the Nestorians into competing, alternative Christianities. This weaken the church and the empire - made it less able to cope with barbarian invasions, less able to confront the subsequent rise of Islam. And the abstruseness of the Chalcedon creedal statement, its dependence on antiquated Greek metaphysics, continues to have a negative effect on the ability of modern people to understand, much less to accept, the traditional creeds - for them to embrace the orthodox faith.

This book is certainly not the history of the church as a community of the poor, the lowly, the oppressed. Here the church is no longer an equalitarian community of the faithful who long for the advent of Kingdom of God, but rather it is an imperial church, already rich and powerful, is an authoritarian church, drawing boundaries, deciding who has "correct belief", who is orthodox, who is worthy of imperial favor. Because of this, because this is far from being an edifying story, pious traditionalists may be upset by this book. They may find it hard to see the hand of God in the deliberations of these Councils. May have difficulty in accepting the possibility that the Christology learned in church, the one embodied in the Nicene Creed and the Chalcedonian Definition, is not the original apostolic faith - not the catholic, universal faith "held by all at all times" - but is rather the product of a bitterly contested, sometimes violent, struggle between ambitious clerics who were often motivated solely by personal, partisan advantage. But however upsetting this work might be to traditionalists, it is not simply a revisionist, anti-Christian rant. Jenkins' goal is to recover the past, to tell what actually happened, to disclose the truth. And truth is always liberating, even here. Breaking free from the idolatry of creedal statements, from the dead hand of traditional understandings, opens up new possibilities for faith, encourages one to think for oneself, to personally reconsider what God and Jesus mean spiritually, to find one's own understanding of the divine, to know God at a spiritual level deeper than can be expressed in creeds. (less)

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Sep 20, 2010 Lauren Albert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: religion, history-world, history-european

Well-written and surprisingly (especially for a non-Christian) interesting history of the early Christian debates over the nature of Christ. Having seen the titles of Jenkins' other books, it is clear that he is a practicing Christian. But he is very clear-eyed and honest about the darker side of church history. He also has a sense of humor that peeps out on occasion "In any theological struggle, the first thousand years are always the bitterest."

His conclusion (literally and figuratively):

"A re...more

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Jun 29, 2012 L.T. Getty rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, christianity

I'm honestly incredibly unfamiliar with this period of history - I've studied the bible and the Protestant reformation a fair amount, and I picked this up to gain a better understanding of the actual formation of the bible and specifically for the council of Nicea.

I enjoyed this as both a way of understanding the genesis of my faith and as a historical reference. Admittedly a book on the subject could be much longer and deal with one of the
many figures in greater detail, but I thought it gave a...more

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May 08, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

Jesus Wars reveals how official, orthodox teaching about Jesus was the product of political maneuvers by a handful of key characters in the fifth century. Jenkins argues that were it not for these controversies, the papacy as we know it would never have come into existence and that today's church could be teaching some-thing very different about Jesus. It is only an accident of history that one group of Roman emperors and militia-wielding bishops defeated another faction.

Christianity claims that...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Who was Jesus? Was he God? Was he man? Some kind of combination of the two? Just a couple weeks ago (while I was in the midst of reading this book), the worship leader at our church said, "Jesus, fully God and fully man." Before reading this book, I probably would have said, "Well, of course, obviously, terribly hard to understand how that is possible but true just the same." Now having read this book, I wonder how many other doctrines of the faith, we (I) just take for granted as having always...more

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May 05, 2011 Kent rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: religion

Jenkins reviews in great detail the history of Christian doctrinal infighting from the first century through the middle-ages, and even currently. The complex issues of Christology are addressed comprehensively by mashing up the various theological councils from the fourth though seventh centuries and their resulting creeds. It seems that one faction's heresies are another faction's orthodoxies. The winning and so called orthodox doctrines adopted by the church (or, at least the western half of t...more

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Apr 29, 2010 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, nonfiction, religion

This was a pretty interesting read, about a time period and subject that I didn't know a whole lot about. It was interesting to learn about the deception, deviousness, and violence that were involved with the differing beliefs between early Christianity's churches. It was also interesting to learn that Rome/the Pope was a minor seat of power during this time and didn't become the center of Christianity until much later. I didn't realize there were such divisions over things that are generally ac...more

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Jul 01, 2011 Glenn rated it 4 of 5 stars

A really good book about an era in history that I had sketchy knowledge of. The central event is the Council of Chalcedon of 451 which is one of the pivotal moments in the history of Christianity. The author does a really good job of explaining the conflicts over the doctrine of the Church and an equally good job of explaining the interaction/importance with the political issues of the era.

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Oct 06, 2010 Matthew rated it 5 of 5 stars

Some consider it bad form to write as one speaks, but having attended a lecture presented by Dr. Jenkins it's no insult. Philip Jenkins has a way of presenting history that is full of information, but at the same time is engaging. For me, reading Jenkins' Jesus Wars was like peering behind a curtain of Byzantine history. It makes for a good companion read for Norwich's Byzantium.

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Jan 14, 2013 Racheal rated it 5 of 5 stars

A history of early Christian councils on Christology and the schisms it led to in the church. Not a great title, Jesus Wars sounds like some hipster read on religion and it really wasn't. I enjoyed the author's writing style, I found him interesting and easy to follow. Particularly helpful were the many tables outlining the various people and events throughout the book. A great read.

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Mar 02, 2011 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: theology

Some dry spots when the history got too historical for me, but overall a fascinating account of just how much politics, power, and passion played such big parts in the church councils. Also a good reminder of just how unimportant Rome was compared to Africa and the Middle East for the first several hundred years of the church's history.

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Feb 13, 2013 Douglas rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a fine work of theological history, focusing on the sociocultural, political and religious factors that influenced the formation of the church's pluralform views of Jesus. It has very good appendices clarifying the principle players and views that emerged in the first seven centuries. Philip Jenkins is a good writer and wonderful scholar.

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May 29, 2011 Timothy L. is currently reading it

I am enjoying this book, as far as the read. The hardcover edition that I got was sheared top and bottom with dull knives and so the pages are ripped and shreaded. Plus I tend to mark up the books I read and the paper is such one can hardly use a ballpoint to do the marking... I am not real happy with HarperOne! :(

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About Philip Jenkins

Philip Jenkins was born in Wales in 1952. 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. In 1978, he obtained his doctorate in history, also from Cambridge. Since 1980, he has taught at Penn State University, and currently holds the rank of Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of the Humanities. He is a...more Philip Jenkins was born in Wales in 1952. 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. In 1978, he obtained his doctorate in history, also from Cambridge. Since 1980, he has taught at Penn State University, and currently holds the rank of Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of the Humanities. He is also a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion.

Though his original training was in early modern British history, he has since moved to studying a wide range of contemporary topics and issues, especially in the realm of religion.

Jenkins is a well-known commentator on religion, past and present. He has published 24 books, including The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South and God's Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe's Religious Crisis (Oxford University Press). His latest books, published by HarperOne, are The Lost History of Christianity and Jesus Wars (2010).

His book The Next Christendom in particular won a number of honors. USA Today named it one of the top religion books of 2002; and Christianity Today described The Next Christendom as a “contemporary classic.” An essay based on this book appeared as a cover story in the Atlantic Monthly in October 2002, and this article was much reprinted in North America and around the world, appearing in German, Swiss, and Italian magazines.

His other books have also been consistently well received. Writing in Foreign Affairs in 2003, Sir Lawrence Freedman said Jenkins's Images of Terror was “a brilliant, uncomfortable book, its impact heightened by clear, restrained writing and a stunning range of examples.”

Jenkins has spoken frequently on these diverse themes. Since 2002, he has delivered approximately eighty public lectures just on the theme of global Christianity, and has given numerous presentations on other topics. He has published articles and op-ed pieces in many media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New Republic, Foreign Policy, First Things, and Christian Century. In the European media, his work has appeared in the Guardian, Rheinischer Merkur, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Welt am Sonntag, and the Kommersant (Moscow). He is often quoted in news stories on religious issues, including global Christianity, as well as on the subject of conflicts within the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, and controversies concerning cults and new religious movements. The Economist has called him “one of America's best scholars of religion.”

Over the last decade, Jenkins has participated in several hundred interviews with the mass media, newspapers, radio, and television. He has been interviewed on Fox's The Beltway Boys, and has appeared on a number of CNN documentaries and news specials covering a variety of topics, including the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, as well as serial murder and aspects of violent crime. The 2003 television documentary Battle for Souls (Discovery Times Channel) was largely inspired by his work on global Christianity. He also appeared on the History Channel special, Time Machine: 70s Fever (2009).

Jenkins is much heard on talk radio, including multiple appearances on NPR's All Things Considered, and on various BBC and RTE programs. In North America, he has been a guest on the widely syndicated radio programs of Diane Rehm, Michael Medved, and James Kennedy; he has appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air, as well as the nationally broadcast Canadian shows Tapestry and Ideas. His media appearances include newspapers and radio stations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Brazil, as well as in many different regions of the United States.

Because of its relevance to policy issues, Jenkins's work has attracted the attention of gove(less)

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Books by Philip Jenkins

The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity

The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South

The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice

Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America

Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can't Ignore the Bible's Violent Verses

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“In any theological struggle, the first thousand years are always the bitterest.” — 1 person liked it

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title link	preview: Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 years
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Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 years

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