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

The Lost History of Christianity covers an area of Christian History that is sorely lacking attention. Jenkins reminds us that the so called "dark ages" were actually a time of flourishing and progress in the Eastern church. He also lines up arguments against modern criticism that Christianity is simply a white Eurocentric religion, by recognizing the roots and influence the Eastern Church had up till 1500. I was struck by the seeming evidence that we have romanticized that the Church is built on the blood of the martyrs. While this may be true in some or even many forms of Christianity, it is also evident that there are places where Christianity was crushed, burned, and persecuted almost entirely out of existence.

The overall tone is generally charitable, recognizing that while there is nothing inherent in Islam to cause it to be more brutal or persecutory, than Christianity or Judaism, there have certainly been mass exterminations in the name of Allah, perhaps the most brutal during the Armenian Genocide in the early 1900's. Jenkins, however, is an equal opportunist and shows where the Catholic Church was at times less tolerant, and more prejudice towards the Eastern Church than the Islamic movement was.

My greatest critique would be Jenkins seeming distaste for Catholic Orthodoxy. He takes random potshots, and at times goes to great lengths to show how problematic Catholic rule was. He seems to revel in the idea that groups left the church early on and still flourished, and also enjoys pointing out how the Eastern Church preferred Islamic rule over Catholic subjection. (After starting this review I did some research and found out that Jenkins is a former Catholic who has converted to Anglicanism. Perhaps this is part of the issue.) Within this critique I was moderately frustrated with his treatment of general orthodoxy which he shrugs off as European and Catholic. The councils, while perhaps imperfect, must be seen with at least some sense of authoritative Spirit involvement, if not we lose a large portion of what most if not all would call orthodoxy. (He does agree that the Nestorians were not as far removed from Christianity as the gnostic heresy, which I appreciated).

My second critique is the pace. At times Jenkins seems to bog down into every possible (and at times un-needed) detail, then at others times he will gloss over from so high it's difficult to see the major themes.

All things considered "The Lost History" pays attention to a part of Christianity that is rarely considered. It looks charitably at the major players involved, and it pieces together a backstory that helps frame much of the turmoil we are still seeing in the Middle East.

A very interesting read, especially in our information age which seems to suffer from a lack of any real historical perspective. He ties together fascinating details, and brings out a very helpful picture of the Middle East and Asia and the impact and relationship of the 3 main world religions. It is helpful to understand that the author does not adhere to any of these faiths, and writes more from the perspective of humanist or archeologist that sees them all with mild sense that doesn't strongly reject or approve, but rather sees religions just as culture with positives and negatives. I found the lack of chronological order a bit scattered at first- he jumps time periods and nations and cultures from page to page, and while the reader must work a bit more to draw your own conclusions, the book serves to really paint the years of history that much of the west is largely ignorant of. Definitely worth a read.

Regarding the kindle formatted file, I just wish that the references had links. For a historical work with tons of references and citied material this is quite frustrating, and largely means that you have to ignore all the references. Really with the book was updated with the links (which is the power of the kindle after all).

The Lost History of Christianity

I suffered the myopia of a short sighted history before reading “The Lost History of Christianity”. Philip Jenkins does a scholarly and masterful job of expanding the truth of the history of Christianity, and in doing so, reminds us of the way that the Church works in a murderous world. I took a recent trip to Turkey, exploring the conflict between Christians and Muslims and the genocide of Armenian Christians at the turn of the last century. I became aware that the church grows over centuries based on the blood of the martyrs, not on the edge go the sword.

First Jenkins frames out a larger story, with a previous large footprint Christianity “But such questions are ironic when we realize how unnatural the Euro-American emphasis is when seen against the broader background of Christian history. The particular shape of Christianity with which we are familiar is a radical departure from what was for well over a millennium the historical norm: another, earlier global Christianity once existed. 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. 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. Matters could easily have developed very differently. (Jenkins, p 3)

Jenkins explores the early Eastern Church; “For most nonexperts, Christian history after the earliest centuries usually conjures images of Europe. We think of the world of Charlemagne and the Venerable Bede, of Thomas Aquinas and Francis of Assisi, a landscape of Gothic cathedrals and romantic abbeys. We think of a church thoroughly complicit in state power—popes excommunicating emperors, and inspiring Crusades. Of course, such a picture neglects the ancient Christianity of the Eastern empire, based in Constantinople, but it also ignores the critical story of the religion beyond the old Roman borders, in Africa and Asia. We suffer perhaps from using unfamiliar terms like Nestorian, so that the Eastern religious story seems to involve some obscure sect or alien religion rather than an extraordinarily vigorous branch of the Christian tradition. Only by stressing the fully Christian credentials of these Asian-based movements can we appreciate the abundant fullness and diversity of the global church during the millennium after the Council of Nicea—and the depth of the catastrophe when those movements fell into ruin. (Jenkins, pp 46-47)

When the Eastern Church was vaporized, much of the loss was due to extermination. The word “genocide” was coined to describe what was happening to Christians. “Although the crimes were anything but new in their nature, the coming of modern media meant that, unlike on previous occasions, the events now reached the attention of a wider world, raising demands for Western intervention. So shocking were the anti-Christian purges that they demanded a new legal vocabulary. Some months afterward, Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin used the cases of the Assyrians, and the Christian Armenians before them, to argue for a new legal category to be called crimes of barbarity, primarily “acts of extermination directed against the ethnic, religious or social collectivities whatever the motive (political, religious, etc.).” Lemkin developed this theme over the following years, and in 1943 he coined a new word for this atrocious behavior—namely, genocide. The modern concept of genocide as a uniquely horrible act demanding international sanctions has its roots in the thoroughly successful movements to eradicate Middle Eastern Christians. Lemkin recognized acutely that such acts might provide an awful precedent for later regimes: as Hitler asked in 1939, “Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?” (Jenkins, p140)
In the “Ghosts of Faith” chapter, Jenkins explores the long term, residual effect of a post-Christian culture, and the elements of the church that persist past the decline.

Jenkin’s work is well backed up with references, but I would like to see more story to underscore the ideas he presents.