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Title: The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity by Philip Jenkins ISBN: 0-19-514616-6 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: March, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.93 (14 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Informative even if predictions don't occur
Comment: "The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity" is a set of prognostications all of which, Professor Jenkins is cautious to remark several times in this book, may not occur. Yet as he comments at the beginning of Chapter Ten ("Seeing Christianity Again for the First Time"), there is value even today in this: "[c]onsidering possible futures is so valuable because it can tell us so much about the realities of the present day" (p. 218).
Probably the most recurrent themes in this book are (1) that at Christianity is growing (at least nominally) most rapidly in Latin America, Africa and Asia; and (2) that the newer Christian communities tend to be more morally conservative than their counterparts in the United States, Canada and Western Europe. Professor Jenkins informs us that for many centuries more Christians lived in Asia than in Europe or Africa (see pp. 22-25, for example) and reminds us a few times that Christianity is not (at least in geographic origin) a western religion (p. 215, for one example). He expects an overall growth of Christians and a particular boom in Pentecostals, whom he defines (p. 63) as a central division of Protestantism but whom rely more on "direct spiritual revelations that supplement or even replace biblical authority." He expects further that both Christianity and Islam will grow both by birth and conversion and that by 2050 (again at least nominally), Christians will likely still outnumber Muslims (pp. 5-6). He also discusses inter-religious relations, particularly between Christianity and Islam, in Chapter Eight ("The Next Crusade").
Sometimes I find that Professor Jenkins could be more careful with his geographic designations. He reports that Christianity is "literally 'going south'" (p. 3) but then identifies rapid growth in many countries of the northern hemisphere such as Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Note that nearly all Asian countries are in the northern hemisphere and that the equator almost perfectly bisects mainland Africa, which stretches from about 38 degrees north to about 35 degrees south. And somewhere - I cannot find it right now - I believe he considers Mexico apart from North America. Perhaps he means southward more than into the southern hemisphere (which has much less land than the northern hemisphere).
Professor Jenkins is mostly careful about his predictions yet informative. The only glaring blooper I found is on page 118. There he writes: "There is now talk that the Virgin [Mary] might be proclaimed a mediator and co-Savior figure, comparable to Jesus himself, even a fourth member of the Trinity."
Whew! Several paragraphs are appropriate here to repair and clarify that. The Catholic Church has always been quite clear that the Virgin Mary is a creature. As such, the Catholic Church will never declare the Virgin Mary a fourth member of the Trinity, which is uncreated. And while future decades may bring a new dogmatic promulgation of Mary as Mediatrix or Coredemtrix, these are very old doctrines. St. Paul, for example, described how all Christians play a role in the Redemption. He writes, "After all, we do share in God's work..." (1 Co 3:9) and "I accommodated myself to people in all kinds of different situations, so that by all possible means I might bring some to salvation" (1 Co 9:22). St. Paul is a fellow worker with God and a dispenser of his grace, and other Christians, too, are God's fellow workers. Why focus on Mary, then? Mary cooperated with her Savior more than anyone and uniquely in her role as his mother and on Calvary during his redemptive sacrifice whereas St. Paul worked and we work after that event. Many, many of the Fathers attest to Mary as a Mediatress and co-operator in the Redemption. I'll cite only a few specimens:
St. Irenaeus of Lyons c.190-200 writes of Mary in "Proof of the Apostolic Preaching" (interesting word "Apostolic," especially from one so close to the Apostles): "Adam had to be recapitulated in Christ, so that death might be swallowed up in immortality, and Eve [had to be recapitulated] in Mary, so that the Virgin, having become another virgin's advocate, might destroy and abolish one virgin's disobedience by the obedience of another virgin" ("Proof of the Apostolic Preaching" 33, "Sources Chrétiennes" 62 (Paris, 1941-), pp. 83-86, in Luigi Gambero, "Mary and the Fathers of the Church, The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought," 1999, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, p. 54, brackets in Gambero).
Tertullian, who died outside the Church but who is a reliable witness, writes between 208 and 212 that "Eve believed the serpent; Mary believed Gabriel. The fault that Eve introduced by believing, Mary, by believing, erased" ("The Flesh of Christ," 17, 4-5, in "Patrologiae cursus completus" 2, 827-828, Series Latina (Paris: Migne, 1841-1864), in Luigi Gambero, Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought," 1999, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, p. 67).
In 401, St. Augustine of Hippo writes: "-but plainly she is [in spirit] Mother of us who are His members, because by love she has cooperated so that the faithful, who are the members of that Head, might be born in the Church. In body, indeed, she is the Mother of that very Head (Holy Virginity, 6, 6, in William A. Jurgens, "The Faith of the Early Fathers" (vol. 3), 1979, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN, p. 71, brackets in Jurgens).
Telling word "cooperated."
These are but a few of many citations attesting to very early Christian belief in Mary's unique role in the Redemption, a role she fulfilled not only in conceiving and baring Jesus, but also during his ministry, especially at Cana and Calvary, and after. Whether these old doctrines will soon become new dogmas, I won't predict. Sorry I went on so long about that, but I feel it was fitting to resolve a blunder.
On the whole I found "The Next Christendom" informative and, unlike many books declaring to foretell history, cautious and not sensationalistic.
Rating: 5
Summary: Death of Christianity? Think again.
Comment: If you are interested in the future of religion in general and Christianity in particular, the one must read book this year has been written by Phil Jenkins.
A respected professor at Penn State University who has been known for "going against the flow," Jenkins argues that the rapid growth of primitive/Pentecostal Christianity around the world (both within and alongside existing traditions) will literally reshape the world, with possible religious conflict affecting everything from historic European denominations (already happening in Anglicanism) to geopolitics.
In a post-modern world, religion returns to center stage, and Jenkins has already turned on the spotlight. This is a must-read for all futurists--including the armchair variety such as myself. After reading Jenkins' seemingly airtight (even understated) analysis, it is difficult to give credence to any author suggesting the passing of Christianity. For every empty cathedral in Europe, there is a burgeoning congregation in Africa or Latin America. In fact, the western, modern version of Christianity may be be all but swept away in the next 50-100 years, but the primitive variety is reemerging at an incredible pace.
Not many works from Oxford University Press read like thrillers. This is an exception.
Rating: 4
Summary: An important statement, though somewhat dry
Comment: Jenkins, a professor of history and religious studies at Penn State University, amasses an impressive set of statistics in support of his thesis that Christianity is growing explosively in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. According to Jenkins, "Christianity is flourishing wonderfully among the poor and persecuted, while it atrophies among the rich and secure." By 2050, he estimates, only one Christian in five will be a non-Latino white. Jenkins shows that these new Third World Christians are more traditional, morally conservative, evangelical, and apocalyptic. He speculates that religion succeeds best when it takes seriously the New Testament's profound pessimism about the secular world. While his arguments seem generally persuasive, the statistics and abundant factual descriptions may cause many readers' eyes to glaze over.
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Title: The Future of Christianity by Alister E. McGrath, Allister E. McGrath ISBN: 0631228152 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: January, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice by Philip Jenkins ISBN: 0195154800 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith by Andrew F. Walls ISBN: 1570753733 Publisher: Orbis Books Pub. Date: February, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Whose Religion Is Christianity?: The Gospel beyond the West by Lamin Sanneh ISBN: 0802821642 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in Transmission of Faith by Andrew F. Walls ISBN: 1570750599 Publisher: Orbis Books Pub. Date: October, 1996 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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