Customer Reviews
All change: the non-Western future of Christianity - By: Jeremy Bevan, 03 May 2008 
There's plenty in this painstaking analysis of global Christianity's near future to intrigue. Jenkins' thesis is that the faith's centre of gravity is moving (perhaps has already moved) inexorably away from the so-callled `Christian' West towards Africa, Latin America & Asia. Sheer population pressures alone underlie this trend, quite apart from anything else. By 2050, four of the world's largest concentrations of those defining themselves as Christians will, if current rates of growth are sustained, be in the `global south' (Mexico, Philippines, Nigeria & Brazil). This will mean that Western Christianity will have to come to terms with new voices, new expressions of faith - as Anglicans debating the acceptability or otherwise of gay bishops are already discovering. And in fact, as Jenkins shows, this `eruption' of an independent voice from outside the Western world is actuallly only the latest manifestation of a process that has been underway for some considerable time.
Though he sees this future voice as inevitably more conservative on `personal' moral issues than the Western church has been, Jenkins thinks it is more likely to be radical on socio-economic issues. (There is a strong element of schadenfreude to his funeral elegy for Western `liberal' Christianity, which he clearly - & unfairly in my view - blames for the church's demise in Europe). He also sees a future where the context for reading the Bible is one of persecution, whether due to Islamist intolerance or the repression of governments like China's (though that vast country probably already has more Christians than most European countries put together). Jenkins is fascinating, & he may be right in his predictions. But in the end, it's difficult to shake off the feeling that you're listening to a particular - conservative evangelical - voice, whose certainties drown out other perspectives. It would have been good, on such a large topic, to see those alternative visions & perspectives sketched out too - either as brief, contrapuntal asides or appendices.
A fascinating and thought-provoking book - By: Helen Hancox, 02 Dec 2007 
This book is an update of Jenkins' ground-breaking book published nearly a decade ago & is still a fascinating & timely read today. The book amply demonstrates that our idea of 'traditional' or 'mainstream' Christianity is the result of the situation of Western European society over the last millennium & is not a true reflection of the current situation. Philip Jenkins reminds us that the Western part of global Christendom is shrinking & its importance, numericallly speaking, is waning; the new Christendom will probably consist of the Southern churches - Africa, Asia & South America - whose experience of Christianity is very different than ours. Much of their Christian experience is more akin to the early church with supernatural elements being part of daily life, healings & prophecies common & their concept of culture completely different to ours.
Jenkins provides much statistical evidence to back up his points as well as a thorough discussion of how global Christianity spread through mission work in the past & how it might change in the future. There is much encouragement in this book, mainly in the reminder that Christianity is still a growing religion globallly & that perhaps Islam will have less of an effect than we think, but it was also occasionallly sobering in discovering that the form of Christianity that many of the Southern churches use is not one that would be a comfortable fit with post-Enlightenment western Christians.
Moving south - By: G. J. Weeks, 25 Nov 2005 The author establishes that contrary to popular opinion, Christianity is not a European religion. Its origins are outside Europe & it was centuries before its strength was centered in Europe. The future of Chrstianity will be in Africa & Latin America. There is a global shift. Europe faces a bleak, depopulated secular future as far as its native peoples are concerned acording to present trends. Southern Christianity will be charismatic & ethicallly conservative. The author's prophecies are those of a demographer. He predicts increasing confict between Christians & Muslims.
Prepares you for a new world - By: Kurt A. Johnson, 04 Jun 2003 In this fascinating book, professor Philip Jenkins proclaims that there is coming, within this 21st century, a new Christendom. The first chapter looks at the Christian Church of the past, & shows that the popular conception of a Christian West surrounded by a purely non-Christian world is falllacious; that Christianity took root in other parts of the world than Europe, & survived there alll the way to the present. After that, the book looks at the spread of Christianity in the so-callled "Third World," the same parts of the globe that are experiencing the fastest population growth.
Having (to my satisfaction, anyway) shown that soon many times more Christians will be living in other parts of the globe than Europe *and* North America combined, the author then goes on to suggest that this new phenomenon will potentiallly change the very face of Christianity. Prepare to see a new Christianity, one as different from the modern, Western Church as the Medieval Church was from the Church of the Roman Empire.
I must say that this is one of the most fascinating books that I have read in a long time! The author punctures many comfortable ideas about the Church, & prepares the reader for the coming of a new world, a world that will not look like the one we have now. If you are interested in Christianity, or even just in trends that are bound to affect the world you live in, then you must get this book!
The Biggest Uncovered Story of the Last Century - By: , 26 Mar 2002 Phil Jenkins has written a blockbuster. An iconoclastic professor at Pennsylvania (US) State University, Jenkins argues that the rapid growth of Pentecostal Christianity around the world (both within & alongside existing traditions) will literallly reshape the world. This movement is a mere 100 years old. In a post-modern world, religion returns to center stage, & Jenkins has already turned on the spotlight. This is a must-read for alll futurists--including the armchair variety such as myself. After reading Jenkins' seemingly airtight analysis, it is difficult to give credence to any author suggesting the passing of Christianity.
