Dead Sea Scrolls
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 53, No. 1 – Fall 2010
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By Philip Jenkins. New York: Harper One, 2008. 315 + ix pages. Hardcover, $26.95.
In the modern era, it is common to think of Christianity as based in the West, namely, Europe and North America. Philip Jenkins, in his fascinating work The Lost History of Christianity, provides a detailed and thorough study of the first millennium of the church rooted in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Jenkins’ work, while displaying high academic quality, is still suitable for the lay person. Jenkins not only reveals Christianity’s lost history in the East, but also points out that the center of Christianity has not always been the West, correcting some standard interpretations, claiming that “anyone who knows the Christian story only as it developed in Europe has little inkling of the acute impoverishment the religion suffered when it lost these thriving, long-established communities” (47). Christians have not only lived outside Europe, but survived—even after the advent of Islam—and developed “their own distinct literature, art, liturgy, devotion, and philosophy” (71).
Jenkins introduces the Churches of the East, identifying and exploring significant groups such as the Copts, Surianis, Nestorians, and Jacobites. Failing to pay due attention to such different Christian groups by focusing only on the mainstream Catholics and Orthodox of the West provides a distorted picture of Christian history that misses significant and essential parts of the story. For example, in explaining the conflict with Islam, while many tend to think that the expansion of Islam came mainly through the sword and outright persecution that destroyed the Church of the East, Jenkins points out several other reasons for the spread of that religion during the few centuries after Muhammad’s death. He also explains how the expansion of Islam affected Christianity, as well as how some Christian groups dealt with it. In addition, the book describes how Christianity had a significant impact on Islam. Without a doubt, Islam retained many things from Christianity, not only in customs and some beliefs, but also in some Koranic stories and traditions, such as the month of Ramadan.
The book clarifies the powerful influence of the spiritual and cultural centers of Eastern Christianity: the monastic Coptic system in Egypt, the Syriac-speaking stronghold in Mesopotamia, and the Nestorian monks in China and India. Jenkins introduces great eastern figures, unique Coptic and Syriac literatures and manuscripts, and Christian customs that have been preserved since the first Christian- Jewish community arose during the early centuries of Christianity. Eastern churches taught some daring ideas about understanding and approaching God and Christians in the East experienced both an age of miracles, which elevated them above the rationalism of Islam, and a passionate commitment to learning, academics, and scholarship. There was still a considerable pressure applied by Islam and the Arabic language upon the Churches of the East during the Middle Ages, although some “Syriac Christian scholars continued to use thoroughly Semitic literary style and approaches to scripture” (87).
Jenkins analyzes, in a very balanced way, the persecution and violence of Muslim governments against Egypt’s Christians, especially during the Mamluks’ rule, pointing out that “the story of religious change [from Christianity to Islam] involves far more active persecution and massacre at the hands of Muslim authorities than would be suggested by modern believers in Islamic tolerance” (99). However, he still affirms that, in the early years of Islam’s expansion, Muslim rulers did not encourage forcing Christians to convert, but, by the thirteenth century, after the Mamluk-Mongol wars, the situation “deteriorated sharply” (125). The book explains the effect of the spread of Islam on some regions in Africa, Armenia, and even China, in addition to how the scene in the Middle East changed dramatically upon the capture of Constantinople by Ottoman Turks in 1453. Many Christian communities barely survived in the following years, and “the largest single factor for Christian decline was organized violence, whether in the form of massacre, expulsion, or forced migration” (141). However, Jenkins believes that faiths are dynamic, and, if they weaken over time, they do not die because of violence, persecution, or some external pressure. Even if they disappear from some regions—no religion vanishes without leaving traces.
Concerning the role the state plays in the elimination of some communities, the book explains how, in some cases, Christians lived as second-class citizens under aggressive Islamic regimes where they were forced to abandon their icons and rituals. Jenkins analyzes what made the Muslim message stronger and more attractive, in addition to the real reasons behind the power of Islam. The book provides some reasons for the survival of the Egyptian Copts, comparing the fate of Christianity in Egypt and in the entire region of North Africa, emphasizing the importance of several factors such as the language of the ordinary people, the established church network, and the geography of the land. Jenkins concludes his masterpiece by reflecting on some lessons that today’s church and community can learn from this history. He affirms that no one can just assume that, “the rise or fall of Christian communities is solely a matter of political and social circumstances. [It is] God who intervenes in history, through many and diverse ways” (257).
The Lost History of Christianity is a well-written and well-researched book; it is interesting and readable. Some of Jenkins’ claims need more careful analysis such as his claim that, “[n]othing in Muslim scriptures makes the faith of Islam any more or less likely to engage in persecution or forcible conversion than any other world religion” (31). Nevertheless, he later claims that “as time went by, religious hostility became acute, so that Muslims increasingly targeted Christian sites and populations as a matter of systematic policy: persecution and massacre became an issue of faith” (119). Knowing that he speaks of history, not theology or Islamic doctrines, Jenkins should not make such a claim without further analysis of some Islamic verses such as Sura 9:29, 8:60, 4:91, and 5:33, 51. However, Jenkins’ study is thought-provoking and eye-opening. He interacts with numerous valuable academic resources, mostly recent ones. He is careful when addressing Islamic violence and tolerance—he defends and critiques in a balanced way. This book is unique in telling the forgotten story of the Churches of the East. Not only would Christians find Jenkins’ study interesting, but also Muslims, especially those from the Middle East and North Africa. This is a fascinating study; it is another masterpiece that Jenkins adds to his work on the history of Christianity.
