“In trying to understand the death of churches, several possible explanations come to mind, some much less convincing to modern ears than others. Throughout Christian history, observers seeking to understand catastrophe have turned to the Bible. They have looked in… — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
Famine, plague, death and war... that's a pretty good description of 1917-18. The war was meant to end quickly, but by 1917 it seemed to be set until the end of time. No wonder everyone dreamed of an apocalyptic intervention. — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
“Yet even when such languages did not face direct official sanction, speakers of older tongues knew that they had little chance of getting on… — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
“Christianity offers similar stories, and the global Christianity that perished in the late Middle Ages has revived in the past century. China offers an… — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
“Where the African church failed was in not carrying Christianity beyond the Romanized inhabitants of the cities and the great estates, and not sinking… — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
“Christians believe that God speaks through history; and only by knowing that history can we hope to interpret momentous events like the Japanese persecutions… — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
“Perhaps theological attempts to explain the destruction of churches or of “Christian nations” are asking the wrong question, if they judge success and failure… — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
“Another difficulty with the reservation scheme was that it reinforced the popular association of Christianity with foreign imperialism, and thus with enmity to the… — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
“Far from anti-Christian purges ceasing with the official end of war in 1918, they actually intensified during the ensuing war between Greece and Turkey.… — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
“Middle Eastern Christians, in short, tried every possible tactic to survive and flourish, and their efforts have largely failed. Partly, this is a matter… — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
“Besides the missionary theology cultivated by many churches, we also need a theology of extinction.” — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
“Our accepted chronology of the ancient church is wrong: ancient Semitic Christianity dies out not in the fourth century, but in the fourteenth.8” — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
“Christianity in this region remained as much a colonists’ religion as it would be once again during the French Empire of the twentieth century,… — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
“Any acquaintance with recent history made nonsense of any claim that God was on the side of Christian states. As one scholar suggests, what… — Philip Jenkins Copy Share Image
