The Next Christendom

By: Philip Jenkins

Narrated by: Robert Feifar

Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

In this new and substantially expanded Third Edition, Philip Jenkins continues to illuminate the remarkable expansion of Christianity in the global South - in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Drawing upon the extensive new scholarship that has appeared on this topic in recent years, he asks how the new Christianity is likely to affect the poor, among whom it finds its most devoted adherents. How should we interpret the enormous success of prosperity churches across the Global South? Politically, what will be the impact of new Christian movements? Will Christianity contribute to liberating the poor, to give voices to the previously silent, or does it threaten only to bring new kinds of division and conflict? Does Christianity liberate women, or introduce new scriptural bases for subjection?

©2002 Philip Jenkins (P)2014 Audible Inc.

A data heavy look at the state of Christianity

Earlier this year I read Philip Jenkins’ Lost History of Christianity. Jenkins was writing about the strength of the early church in Asia and Africa. That early church was stronger than in Europe and while it is only a remnant now, it survived under significant persecution for generations.

The Lost History of Christianity is actually a follow up to the original Next Christendom. Originally written in 2002 and then updated in 2006 and again in 2011, Jenkins is trying to help the western church understand the vast shift in Christianity to the Global South.

Jenkins is a helpful reminder to a US Evangelical Christianity that often is ignorant of the global church. But Jenkins is also a researcher that primarily uses demographic statistics, so that number heavy research can be a bit dull. There is also a bit of overlap in content, especially early in this book, with the Lost History of Christianity, as Jenkins is trying to set the stage for presenting the church in Asia and Africa as not new, but revitalized.

What some may be scandalized about, is that Jenkins does not favor a definition of Christianity that is limited to an Evangelical orthodox stream. Basically, Jenkins says if someone calls themselves Christian we should allow them to. This become problematic for groups like Mormons that consider themselves Christian. But I understand his problem, he is a demographer, not a theologian.

Jenkins, like Rodney Stark, is a bit of a reactionary academic. He is trying to help the academy see some of its blind spots around Christianity. But like Stark, I think he over plays his hand sometimes and goes too far.

One of the helpful aspects of the book is how much Jenkins gives illustrations of the different groups that are growing and how and why they are growing. I believe this is why the book received so much attention when it originally came out in 2002. As a concept it is worth paying attention to. But some of the detailed reviews or articles about the book is probably enough for the average lay reader that is not interested in the full treatment.

One of my complaints is that the books seems to have been unevenly updated. There are several places with dated statistics and several places where something was updated in one place but the implication of the update was not present in another place.

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Be aware that the audio book is an old edition

Peter Jenkins presents one of the best descriptions of the shift of Christianity from Europe and North America to the global South. This Audible book is the first edition, published in 2002. Much has changed in the world, and Jenkins has periodically published new editions in 2007 and 2011. Possibly he will publish a 4th edition soon. The updated versions are available in print and Kindle, and I would recommend getting the most recent edition. These have charts and maps that are not available in the audio edition.

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the Real Story of Faith's Future

Jenkins does a masterful job of covering the world Religious scene with respect to the Christian faith across continents, cultures, and other faiths (especially the secular West). He dives deep into movements, key figures, and current dilemmas while never losing track of the overall story. This well researched book comes to the exact opposite conclusion of Western-centric views of religion's future, e. g. Tickle's The Great Emergence, but without rancor or scorn for those perspectives. If there is one bias it's the greater weight he places on Pentecostal Protestantism's story over and against Roman Catholicism's story, a topic he does not adequately cover until the book's end. But with the academic bias against Pentecostalism in the West it's understandable and needed in a volume on the future of World Christianity.

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Terrifically researched

Thorough and well-researched, from something of an unbiased historical perspective, yet with clear sympathies for particular southern trends in Christianity.

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Historically relevant

Very informative, the history was eye opening, I love how he describes the world view we as American don't get.

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Stunning statistics... mind-numbing statistics

Would you try another book from Philip Jenkins and/or Robert Feifar?

They do their homework.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

They needed a different organization for a book ending up on audio. Visual format and audio format are entirely different. I would rather have had this in print.

What three words best describe Robert Feifar’s voice?

Reads too rapidly -- probably because the book is long.

Any additional comments?

With the heavy use of statistics, frankly, this should never have been put on audio. One cannot keep track of them all and after a while all the statistics sound the same.