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Book Review: Ghosts of Eastern Christianity

March 20th, 2010 at 09:40am Albert McIlhenny

The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia – and How It Died – Philip Jenkins HarperOne (November 2009) Topic: Church History; Eastern Christianity Summary: Analysis of the expansion and fall of the Christian Churches of the East Rating:

One of the most fascinating stories in church history is the saga of the Churches of the East that had a separate existence from the Church of the Roman Empire. Often labeled (or mislabeled) as “Monophysite” or “Nestorian,” these separate traditions existed and flourished long after the Muslim conquests before finally succumbing to persecution and assimilation in the late medieval period.

Philip Jenkins, in The Lost History of Christianity, has given a look back at these ancient, venerable, and often ignored churches that stretched from North Africa to China and, at one point, seemed poised to become the major religion of Asia. Not only does Jenkins tell the incredible story of their expansion and sudden decline but also details how the Eastern Churches maintained a high level of intellectual activity and interacted peacefully and productively with those of other faiths.

This latter aspect is quite revealing. Many things we would associated as alien to Christianity and associate with Islam actually are rooted in the practice of Syrian Christianity and the intellectual achievements of Islam in the medieval period was built upon the cooperation of Chrisitan subjects who translated classical works into Arabic. Even the architecture of mosques were based upon an earlier Christian model.

Jenkins also gives an analysis of the death of a religion. Here he explains why these churches who has adapted so well to their minority status in so many places could suddenly collapse to the isolated pockets that remain but are themselves dwindling. Here he has some quite interesting comments that challenge the “conventional wisdom” on how Christianity spread in some areas while withering elsewhere.

While any discussion on what might have been is bound to have points of sheer speculation, Jenkins manages to keep it focused on how Chrisitanity might have evolved differently without asserting it would have gone in any specific direction. At this point we may disagree at points with his analysis, but it is clearly offered as speculation and not dogma.

There is among Christians a growing fascination with ancient Chrisitan practices of the East. Christianity is a Near Eastern religion – not a European one. While much of this attention has centered on Eastern Orthodoxy, there were other expressions as well. In The Lost History of Christianity, Jenkins offers a fascinating exposition of the triumphs and tragedies of these ancient Christian communities.

Entry Filed under: Church History, Eastern Christianity, Essential Books, Jenkins, Philip