The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia--and How It Died Best Quality

Throughout this book Philip Jenkins gives us an incredible blow by blow account of the expansion and collapse of Christianity in Asia and Africa from the time of Christ's Apostles to the mid 20th century. Absolutely fascinating!!

Although this book has taken me over 6 months to read (it's been a background task behind my day job and reading other books), I've always come back to it because it has so much information that I had never heard anywhere else. Sentence after sentence is packed with fact and reference, all 5394 locations of it.

OK, so what does it say? That Christianity expanded East and South from Jerusalem faster, farther and deeper than it expanded West for 800 years. From the Maghreb to Japan, from the southern Nile to the tip of India. In the 7th century there more Christians in each of small regions across Iraq, Iran, Arabia, North Africa and China than there were in all of Europe. This was news to this Englishman, who was led to believe that Christianity hopped from the cities that the Apostle Paul visited to Rome, to Germany, to the UK and finally to the rest of the world. What does that tell you about Anglican theology?

Jenkins doesn't stop there. He describes the Christianity that grew up in the East, and how Biblical it was. He also recounts in detail how Christianity was overtaken across this major proportion of the world, mostly by Islam. The book then describes why this could have been so in fine detail, and ends with lessons for today's Church, especially missions. Jenkins also describes the very heavy influence of Christianity upon Islam, and then how Islam affected Christianity in the East through persecution, language, culture and many other ways. As I said, fascinating stuff.

I was not in a position to criticize any of Jenkin's recounting of history. I only assume that there was so much reference in the material (the last 25% of the book lists the references) that he couldn't have selected / revised history everywhere. However, I do take issue with one of his very few theological conclusions around location 3890. Jenkins suggests that, in time, Islam may be seen by Christians to fulfill "a positive role, and that its growth in history represents another form of divine revelation, one that complements but does not replace the Christian message". Now call me a stickler for detail, but when Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well." He wasn't leaving a lot of room for Islam as divine revelation. And, I've yet to find a Muslim who would say that this Biblical statement was compatible with Islam.

I loved this book (and I'm quick to say if I don't like a book). I recommend it to Christians and historians. I'm looking forward to reading Jenkins book "God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religions Crisis".Get more detail about The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia--and How It Died.