The Lost History Of Philip Jenkins Summary

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Critical Book Review of Jenkins’s The Lost History of Christianity Philip Jenkins is a distinguished professor of history and religious studies at Baylor and Penn State University. He has multiple best-selling books, such as The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity and The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South. In The Lost History of Christianity Jenkins explores the development of Christianity and its Eastern churches, chronicling the spread of the religion in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Most nonfiction works on Christianity follow the expansion of the Church and its evolution into the Roman Empire, Europe, and eventually the New World colonies. Jenkins takes …show more content…
For instance, Jenkins states that many followers of the Ctholic Church thought that Islam was just a for of Christian Heresy, similar to Arianism that had preceded Islam a few centuries earlier. Jenkins’ states, “Earlier in the eighth century, indeed, Saint John Damascene saw Islam not as a new religion but as a Christian heresy, the sect of the Ishmaelites or Hagarenes” (185). Here Jenkins digs deep to give credit to his claim, citing Saint John Damascene, a figure that lived over a thousand years ago. This is expected yet impressive style of citation, as Jenkins is in fact a type of historian. So he uses texts from a long time ago to help modern day readers understand the religious and political climate of that time, and why it is important to people …show more content…
Faiths expand and contract and expand again. He notes that even as the Ottoman Empire was reaching its greatest expanse, expanding into the Balkans, Greece, and to the very gates of Vienna, to the west the Christian powers were exploring new territories across the Atlantic. In the early part of the 20th century, even as the last vestiges of an ancient Christianity was disappearing from Asia Minor, Christianity was spreading quickly throughout sub-Saharan Africa. He writes in this regard: “the history can be appreciated in its fullness only by acknowledging the defeats and disasters alongside the triumphs and expansions” (p. 261). Although Christians have believed that God speaks through history, too often we neglect to listen to that history. Although these ancient faiths have largely disappeared, we need not lose their testimony. We can give thanks that Jenkins has chosen to reintroduce us to this

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