Philip Jenkins.

The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in
the Middle East, Africa, and Asia--and How It Died. (2008) Pp. 339 pages. ISBN 13 - 978-0061472817

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip Jenkins is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University in
the United States 1, and co-director for Baylor's Program on Historical Studies of Religion in the Institute for
Studies of Religion. He is also the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities Emeritus at Pennsylvania
State University (PSU). He is a former Catholic and is currently a member of the Episcopal Church. 2 He
has published articles and op-ed pieces in The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Atlantic
Monthly, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe and has been a guest on top national radio shows
across the United States. He has published a lot of books concerning history particularly the study of global
Christianity, past and present; of new and emerging religious movements; and of twentieth century US
history (post-1975). He recently published his book “Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in
Climate Drive Religious Upheaval” and is known to have published “The Next Christendom: The Coming
of Global Christianity” (2011); “Crucible of Faith: The Ancient Revolution That Made Our Modern Religious
World” (2017); and “God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis” (2007).

SUMMARY

In this book, Jenkins tells the story of churches and movements that thrived over a millennium and then
largely died out, though there are remnants of these churches here and there, spread across the middle
east, Africa, and Asia. Jenkins offers the readers the chance to rethink the history of Christianity by
presenting the not so familiar history of Christianity concerning the eastern movement of Christianity. And
as he started his first chapter, the book tells us how “Religions die.” 3

The book’s subtitle, “The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—
and How It Died,” already summarizes the author’s aim of recovering a globalized world of Christianity, a
more inclusive perspective. The book tries to challenge us to rethink of the history of Christianity by moving
away from our accustomed “thinking of Christianity as traditionally based in Europe and North America”
and “gradually learn the strange concept of the religion spreading to the global stage as Christian numbers
swell in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.” 4 Going against most of the scholarly literatures on Christianity that
have dominated Western textbooks, Jenkins argues that in its first millennium many of the largest centers
of Christendom were located in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The book is taking an alternative view of
Christianity. The author qualifies his intention on presenting this book by saying that he is “not offering a
lament for a worldwide Christian hegemony that never was, still less for a failure to resist rival religions such
as Islam” but he tries to ask the question why we have forgotten the story of our Christian brothers and
sisters on the other side of the world. The author aims to shift the perspective in terms of the story of
Christianity veering away the usual focus from that of “Rome and Constantinople” which is for him is
inaccurate. There is more to Christianity. The story of “the West” is just one part of the a much larger
Christian story.

But that is not just the sole aim of the book. Jenkins also would like the readers to Understand the fallen
churches and reflect on our current situation of Christianity in Asia and Africa and the secularization of
Europe. To Jenkins, the destruction of bygone Christian societies seems highly relevant today especially
with the concern of Islam. Jenkins also notes that “rather than asking why churches die, we should rather

1 “Baylor University”. Accessed September 21, 2021. https://www.baylor.edu/history/index.php?id=87862

2 Philip Jenkins, “The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice,” (Oxford: Oxford University Press
2003)., vii.
3 Philip Jenkins, “The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East,

Africa, and Asia--and How It Died” (HarperCollins 2008)., 11.

4 Ibid., 3
seek to know how they endure for so long, in seemingly impossible circumstances.” 5 He also adds another
goal, to understand our relationship with Islam and how we need to widen our perspective in seeing the
Muslims.

The book is composed of nine chapters. Stroll follows an outline that details the rise and fall of these parts
of Christianity. The theme moves from the break due to the differences in beliefs during the councils, to the
movement to the East, and to the challenges and hurdles that Christians faced leading to the analysis of
why some religions died. The chapters are (1) The End of Global Christianity; (2) Churches of the East; (3
Another World; (4) The Great Tribulation; (5 The Last Christians; (6) Ghosts of a Faith; (7) How Faiths Die;
(8) The Mystery of Survival; (9) Endings and Beginnings.

The book starts with the story of Timothy I (727-823) who, in 780, was enthroned as patriarch, or catholicos,
of the Church of the East, then based in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Seleucia, less than two dozen
miles southeast of modern Baghdad. According to the author, “in terms of his prestige, and the geographical
extent of his authority, Timothy was arguably the most significant Christian spiritual leader of his day, much
more influential than the Western pope, in Rome, and on par with the Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople,”
since “perhaps a quarter of the world’s Christians looked to Timothy as both spiritual and political head.”
The focus on Timothy’s career helps us see the vision the author wants us to take in this book. Timothy’s
career violates everything we think we know about the history of Christianity—about its geographical
spread, its relationship with political state power, its cultural breadth, and its interaction with other religions.
Here, Jenkins presented us the forgotten story of Christianity in the Syriac Churches which represented the
ultimate lost Christianity.

Jenkins retells the missionary journey of the so called Nestorians and Jacobites. So successful were
missionary endeavors that Eastern Christianity reached Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Turkmenistan, across the
Silk Road to China, the Tibetan Himalayas, the Ganges River of India, Bahrain, Yemen, Ethiopia, Sudan,
and of course central and southern Egypt, and even Indonesia and maybe the Philippines, as the author
claimed. While political, cultural, and linguistic differences were widening, the great schism of the fifth-
century church occurred when the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) pronounced as anathema anyone not
affirming Christ’s two natures in one person. Eastern Christianity continued to enjoy remarkable expansion,
even within non-Christian kingdoms and empires. But the story of these Christians did not stop in triumph,
“this older Christian world perished, destroyed so comprehensively that its memory is forgotten by all except
academics.”6 The Christians were conquered by Arabs and Mongols and vast numbers of Christians were
perished. Jenkins is trying to tell us that the Nestorians and Jacobites, even though heretics, deserves our
grief. They have remained influential in the past and have brought Christ to faraway lands and to different
cultures too as did the western missionaries. Their failure is also a failure of all Christians. Jenkins showed
how these Christians were formed, established Churches, engaged with the cultures, successfully
assimilated, and yet were later on persecuted and died.

In the next chapters, Jenkins presents our connection to the Church of the East. Their customs and
practices were the origin of some of ours. Some popes were from the Eastern Church. Their culture surely
influenced the west too. Their spirituality also developed greatly and can be a great source of pride for
Christianity as that of the west. Their scholarly prowess is also highlighted by mentioning some of the
scholars and their works which influenced the Arabs, Chinese and Indians. The rich relics of the past can
also be found here with the discovery of the most precious early Bible manuscripts, the Codex Sinaiticus.
The author compared the triumphs and success of the Church of the East with that of the more familiar
story of the Western Church. The vast territory, the number of Christians, the number of bishops and sees,
the stretch of the missionary activity and the vast number of languages spoken by the Christians. Jenkins
claims that “our common mental maps of Christian history omit a thousand years of that story, and several

5 Ibid., 42.
6 Ibid., 23.
million square miles of territory.” 7 The Church of the East had a rich culture and language that engaged
millions reaching as far as China, India and even Sri Lanka.

After establishing the richness of the Eastern Church, the author then presents in the next chapters the
challenges and trials they have faced with the rise of the Persecutions and the rise of new kingdoms, new
masters, and new religions. Jenkins relates the struggle of our brothers and sisters in the East with the
changing rulers in China and Egypt, the persecutions brought by authorities, the changing status of
Christianity that bounces from tolerance to persecution.

Jenkins discussed about the Mongol invasions which also affected the growth and influence of Christianity.
Mongol rulers cultivated Christian ties although the attitudes of the Mongol rulers drifted increasingly toward
favoring Islam. The alliance with the ruling party is one of the ways the Christians coexisted with the other
faiths. They maintained loyalty and alliance with their rulers, but this alliance is a gamble. This too would
be the reason for their destruction with the rise of a new leader or a new government. Jenkins particularly
focuses much on Arab Muslims which greatly affected the Christians of the East. He showed the different
ways the Muslims treated the Christians. Jenkins tries to offer another perspective especially with the rise
of scholarly materials that shape our views. Many recent books stress the tolerant nature of Islam and its
reluctance to impose its beliefs by force but Jenkins mentions some authors that balance this view of
tolerance and persecution. It’s a “Muslim tolerance with bigotry” and later on full blown persecution. Jenkins
also reminds readers that we should not think of the Islamic violence as so radical as proposed by modern
authors. That every war or conquest involving Muslims automatically becomes a manifestation of religiously
motivated jihad – this is too extreme, according to Jenkins. Jenkins notes that intolerance and mass
slaughter were sometimes as much political as religious. Jenkins incredibly dedicated a large part of the
book with the Muslim faith and history. He even dedicated a large part about the power of Islam. And he
attributes the cessation of deeply rooted Christian communities in the Middle East, Asia, and much of Africa
through a protracted and convoluted process that involved crushing oppression by Muslim powers
(interspersed with periods of religious coexistence), bloody massacres, population displacement, and
geopolitical shifts.

Jenkins used the chronicle of the long endurance of ancient Christian communities in areas which came
under Muslim rule to inquire just how far churches, which he asserts must adapt when faced with “a powerful
and hostile hegemonic culture.” Jenkins discussed about how it is possible for some Christians to survive
these persecutions and massacres and proceeded to discuss the centuries that followed up to the
dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, to World War II and up the present where “Christians live alongside a
Muslim supermajority that has become more intensely and devoutly Muslim. Radical and fundamentalist
Muslim movements have grown across the region, financed by the vast oil wealth of the conservative states
of the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf.” 8 Jenkins then brought up recent persecutions of the Christians in
the Arabic states.

In the Chapter Ghosts of a Faith, the author states that when Christian communities are destroyed, they
rarely vanish entirely or immediately, and survivors often maintain a clandestine existence for many years
afterward. Here, he mentions briefly the examples of Japan, the crypto Christians, the examples of Spanish
Muslims, and the remnants of the Greek. He also noted that the trace of religion is not only found in our
practices but also in our buildings – like in Mosques and Cathedrals.

At the end of his book, Jenkins offered a reflection on the surprising nature of Christian faith, indeed, of
religion itself. Faiths expand and contract and expand again. He invites the readers to reflect that the full
historical account reveals a faith that is inherently global because it is ultimately local and therefore never
fully defined by any singular expression or historic center. That faith must not be identified with a political

7 Ibid., 11.
8 Ibid., 165.
agenda or power, but it must be introduced to the heart of the believer in their own identity and culture. That
is how Christianity still survives today even in the midst of the challenges of the time.

REVIEW AND CRITIC

Overall this book provides a very vast discussion on the lost history of Christianity in the East. It offers us a
perspective that perhaps the reason why we’ve paid such little attention to these churches is that most of
them represented what the Latin Roman Catholic Church has considered unorthodox – heretical. Jenkins
well-crafted book engages the reader easily with his examples and stories. He also effectively immerses
the reader to the story by offering the readers a chance to widen their geography by offering maps along
the way. Showing not only in words, but in maps the vast territory of the East and therefore shows how
significant these stories were. Jenkins successfully presents the Nestorians and Jacobites as real
Christians despite the differences in some key doctrines. It helps readers widen their perspective about the
Church and communion. It is also very commendable for Jenkins to include as a reflection of the past the
present challenges of Christianity and how he uses the past history of the Lost Christians as an avenue for
reflection in our vision for Europe especially with the rise of immigrants - majority Muslims.

Although Jenkins referred to some South East Asian nations particularly Indonesia and the Philippines, he
did not discuss further more about his claim of the missionary activities of the Eastern Christians. He could
have shown how could it be possible for the Eastern Missionaries to reach those islands, maybe by trade
and commerce? Certainly, this could have helped us see the Asia not only the Middle East, India and China.
Another missed event in the Church of the East is the discussion on the Church in Russia, which were cited
only as a rival to the Ottoman Empire before the start of the World War.

The book significantly offered interesting stories that could have easily been neglected due to our focus on
Rome and Constantinople but sometimes in order to push his claim in this book, he overstretches some of
the comparisons that might be unfair also with the progress of the Western Christianity. For example, the
rise of practices and rites in the West would always be in connection or relation to that of the East.

Jenkins discussed about the rise of Christianity in the East but I find that his discussion on the effect of
language in the missionary activity of the Nestorians and the Jacobites lacking. He could have discussed
how the missionaries were able to use language effectively to engage and convert people and to dialogue
with other religion and also how language helped in the survival of these Christians.

Another missed opportunity is the presentation of the Latin Christians’ reasons for engaging into crusades
and their aggressive movements toward the East and toward the Muslims – how their underlying mood of
unease and defensiveness led to their actions. This inferiority complex is due to the looming physical threat
or cultural threat that is brought about by the Muslims and Mongols who are slowly advancing towards
them. Also, this inferiority is brought about by the question about Christianity. Christianity had existed for
over a millennium and yet, why does it seem to be making little progress? This greatly affected the pride
and confidence of the west during this time. The inferiority complex of the West is also a very rich topic that
could have pushed his vision in the book of highlighting the East.

Jenkins failed to identify theocracy as the reason why Muslims would persecute non-Muslim people.
Theocracy holds that the caliphate is officially ruled by Islamic laws. In principle, Islam is theocratic. When
Muhammad died, a caliph was chosen to rule in his place. The caliph had temporal and spiritual authority
and used this authority to force conversions and to ensure an Islamic state. Another thing is that Islam is a
Sectarian religion. The two most significant groups are the Sunni and the Shia. Sectarianism reflects real
religious differences and defines “otherness”, but it has always been linked to power, resources and
territory. This shows how they eventually became aggressive towards Christians because for them, it’s a
battle of power, resources and territory.

The book presents every aspect of the loss of Christianity but the book appears too apologetic to his
presentation of the Islamic faith by offering a large part on the defense of the persecution brought by Islam
to these Christians. Even though he presents a seemingly balanced view of the Muslim persecution, it tries
to present a politically correct position that tries to defend the persecution of Muslims as only politically
motivated which could change the way we see Christians during these times, that they are just merely
rebels not martyrs.

Although Jenkins discusses the missionary activity in China and India, he discusses this only briefly. He
failed to mention the reason why Nestorians failed in China. First is that they were foreigners and Mongols,
who were also foreigners, were identified with them. Later on this would be downfall for the Christians,
when Mongols were expelled from China. Another reason for the failure of the evangelization in China of
the Nestorians is that the doctrines were so adopted or “inculturated” that the people do not see the
difference between Christianity and Buddhism. The principles of Christianity were translated to local
Buddhist terms which confused Chinese people. Jenkins also treated the Thomasites of India very briefly
and it could look like the Thomasites were not as rich as that of Syria, Egypt and North African Christians.
Though he cited them briefly, it would be proper if Jenkins provided details and supporting documents to
his claims.

The book is very useful to students as a starting book to engage in this topic and to have further research.
The book is vast but the reader would not feel a too academic tone because of the style of Jenkins style of
telling story. The readers could greatly benefit with its wide and varied sources. In the end, this book can
be of great help not only to Catholics but as a source book for all Christians. It is a recovery of the memory
of that “lost world,” with all its experience and wisdom, that might lead to a better appreciation in our own
age of the changing realities of a faith that is both ever ancient and ever new and also the dream of seeing
Christianity as one – that we are all brothers and sisters despite differences in culture and practice.