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

Generally, it’s taught that Jesus lived then Pope Urban II called for the Crusades a thousand years later. Obviously something happened in between. That’s the subject of Philip Jenkins’ new book, The Lost History of Christianity.It is a dense, if short, book. Every line is packed with facts making it one of those books I couldn’t read at any great length. But Jenkins is correct that this is a part of Christian history that is overlooked by the vast majority of people, and it’s a shame. In 12 years of Catholic school I never learned this history. And if it’s not being taught there it can’t be being taught anywhere, save at the university level.Contrary to other reviews here, this is hardly a screed against Islam. Jenkins goes out of his way to show that there were waves of tolerance and oppression by the Muslim conquerors of the formerly Christian lands. And for balance he repeatedly cites corresponding waves of oppression by Christians against European Jews. Religious oppression is nothing new to the world. And it will never end until the eschaton.This book is, however, very much about Islam, because it was Islam that conquered the Middle East and northern Africa. This didn’t happen by accident. Some argue that Islam spread as a consequence of Arab conquests, and others that Islamic jihad was present from the beginning. Jenkins is in the former camp, and I disagree with him here, though it’s a qualified disagreement. The marriage of politics and faith has been part of Islam since its inception and it’s hard to argue that there wasn’t a religious motivation behind the Muslim conquests. Just because once the Christians were conquered they weren’t forcibly converted to Islam right away does not mean that wasn’t the ultimate goal. And that goal was largely achieved except for pockets of Christian hold outs such as the Coptics in Egypt.This is not a religious book. Jenkins, a former Catholic (he’s some sort of non-evangelical Protestant now), is not out to make the argument that Christianity is true and will ultimately prevail. Of course, it will. Rather, his point is that there are ebbs and flows in religious dominance. For centuries, the Middle East was a Christian land. That may not always be the case. Africa was for centuries a tribal continent, but Christianity is booming across the continent now. China is now between five and ten percent Christian.The Catholic Church often says that it thinks in terms of centuries. There’s no telling how the story of Christianity will continue to unravel over the coming centuries. But, to forget its early history will ensure that Christianity will have a much rougher road than if it can learn what went wrong and ensure that the faith is much deeper rooted so that the setback described by Jenkins don’t happen again.