The Lost History of Christianity

The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church --- and How It Died

By: Philip Jenkins

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

The Lost History of Christianity will change how we understand Christian and world history. Leading religion scholar Philip Jenkins reveals a vast Christian world to the east of the Roman Empire and how the earliest, most influential churches of the East---those that had the closest link to Jesus and the early church---died. In this paradigm-shifting book, Jenkins recovers a lost history, showing how the center of Christianity for centuries used to be the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, extending as far as China.

Without this lost history, we can't understand Islam or the Middle East, especially Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Complete with maps, statistics, and fascinating stories and characters that no one in the media or the general public has ever heard of, The Lost History of Christianity will immerse the listener in a lost world that was once the heart of Christianity.

©2008 Philip Jenkins (P)2008 Tantor

Good book, poorly read

Jenkins’ book is a tour de force history of Eastern Christianity. The reading, however, is deeply marred be the reader’s assumption that he knows how to pronounce words that he clearly doesn’t, ‘Caliph’ being the prime example.

What a story...

Jenkins is an eloquently disseminates a complex history of faith found and lost and found again into a murky yet distinct pathway shared by fellow religious pilgrims that may not be brothers but cousins of believing communities occupying the same spaces only at different times.

Lost history of eastern Christianity

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Lost History of Christianity?

Lost History isn't the best book I've ever read, but it was a learning experience. I've even taken some courses on Christian history before, and outside of a few paragraphs here or there, almost none of the "lost history" was covered. There really was no part of the book that didn't offer some good insight or things to think about. That said, however, there is little fluff in the book and it is crammed full of information and it really would take a few readings to digest it all. There was so much information that if I had to take a test over this book, I would be really worried right at the moment.

One of unexpected pluses of the book is that it isn't just a history of Christianity. It covered Christianity in relation to other religions in the Middle East, and in doing so, also went a long way in giving some history of said other religions (Islam, Buddhism, etc.). In fact, I found the author to be really fair on his assessments. For instance, he pointed out some periods of history where Islam won battles and gained ground, and Christians wrote that they were actually glad to not be under the rule of Rome any more. And when history changed and Christian persecution under Islam escalated, he didn't gloss over things or make excuses for them. But at no point did I feel he wasn't pretty fair to all parties involved, even though the book was obviously written from a Christian viewpoint of the events.

All in all, Jenkins is a gifted writer, and he gave me a new way to look at certain things...things I have seen as "watering down" Christianity for decades now, I at least have a little different perspective on now.

Any additional comments?

I saw one reviewer state that at one point in his life, he didn't think some of the groups -- Jacobites, Nestorians, etc. -- were true Christians. I might get a few details wrong here, but I got a chuckle of out one part of Lost History where a representative from Rome finally got to visit Christians in Ethiopia (I think), and they treated him badly and said he was not saved because he was outside of the Ethiopian church hierarchy. Yep. They were real Christians, all right!

The lost history of Christianity

This was an absolute fabulous and informative book. Philip Jenkins has managed to capture the crucial lost history of what is probably the most important yet unrecognized component of the Christian faith, which would be the Eastern churches. As pointed out by Jenkins and others, Western culture has never recuperated from the loss of the Eastern churches which occupied that area of the world from Egypt to Japan.

Philip Jenkins brings perspective to religion in the wor

I don't know of any writer who has helped me understand the world wide context of Christianity as clearly as Philip Jenkins. This book looks at the ancient roots of Christianity in North Africa, Asia and the Middle East and explains how Islam came to be the dominant religion through much of this area. There are also some implications for the survival of Christianity today, since he points out the danger of being too aligned with a political faction.

Be aware that this book was written before the Arab Spring, so it lacks an update on Christian populations in Egypt, Syria, etc.

Good information, topical approach hard to follow

Many good facts were presented, but I never got a sense of time. I wish this book had included good descriptions of the sequence of events.

The treatment is similar to that of Will Durant's Story of Civilization.

I think it is well worth reading, but will be better understood by those who know the times better.

Worthwhile with caveats

My reaction to this book is mixed. The author spends an inordinate amount of space stating & restating that a major part of Christian history has been ignored... the history of the eastern church and its theology. I began to wonder if he ever was going to get around to that history and those beliefs. IMHO, much of the first & second chapters could be omitted. For me, the meat of the book begins at chapter 3 (approx 2 hr 45 min on the timer).

I did learn a great deal of fascinating information-- I'd often wondered about Coptic and Syriac Christianity, both of which get cursory treatment in most church histories. They tend to be dismissed as heresy, apparently unworthy of further discussion for that reason. I had read that eastern Christian missionaries had gone as far as India & China long before the West began to visit Asia; however, I didn't realize that sizable eastern Christian communities had developed in the East.

Up front, what you should know is that the author doesn't write as a historian, ie there is a great deal of commentary and interpretation interspersed with the facts. If you are expecting an "objective" history, look elsewhere (objective in quotes because true objectivity is impossible in the real world). The author's judgments change depending on the time & circumstances discussed-- the bias isn't consistent one way or the other. He is generally negative about the later Muslim treatment of eastern Christians but less so about the earlier years.

The narrator is OK but not riveting. On the other hand, I'm not sure how one could render the text less prosaically.

Thought provoking

I'm not sure if it was the narrator or the book, the history was very interesting but it did tend to drag on at times. Overall a good read though.

Extremely interesting

I really enjoyed this book. it is a great reminder that the Christan church is a history spanning colossus. We as modern Christians stand on the shoulders of many many people who have gone before. This book was a great read and an encouragement especially in a time of political and economic uncertainty. the church still exists today even though it was wiped out in the middle east and Asian at one time.

An amazing history lesson of the forgotten Eastern Christian Church

This book tells the forgotten history of Christianity's expansion throughout the Middle East and Asia. Few today think of Christianity when they think of cities like Bagdad, but that is just one example of a city that had been a seat of Christian learning before the advent of Islam. This explains the growth of the Syriac speaking church eastward as far as Tibet, China and Japan. After detailing the growth and splendor of the Eastern Church, it also details the reasons for its decline. Throughout this tale, descriptions of the conditions present in Europe under the influence of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches are provided for comparison.

This is an excellent historical study that should be of great interest to anyone with an interest in the growth and development of Christianity. The narrator, Dick Hill, is marvelous. He does a terrific job of narrating this book. I will be anxious to listen to other works of his.

I highly recommend this audiobook.