Complex material ably digested for the lay reader.
Deeply erudite, sure-to-be-controversial history of the persecution of Christian churches throughout the world.
Before Christianity was a Western European concept, it was Eastern, demonstrates Jenkins (History and Religious Studies/Penn State Univ.; God’s Continent, 2007, etc.). The religion took shape first in Syria-Palestine and in Egypt, and until the 13th century, churches extended east from Constantinople to Samarkand and south from Alexandria to the desert of the Ogaden. In fact, what is now the Islamic world was once Christian, and two Eastern churches, the Nestorians and the Jacobites, flourished in Mesopotamia and Syria well into the Middle Ages as repositories of scholarship and spirituality. The author looks at the life and work of the bishop Timothy (d. 823), patriarch of the Church of the East. What we learn about his career “violates everything we think we know about the history of Christianity,” Jenkins states. There never was a Dark Ages in the East, which maintained access to texts, science and classical learning. The Church of the East spoke and thought in Syriac, had a rich interaction with other religions and built on the ruins of other great cultures in Persia, Assyria, Babylon and Elam. Much of what we call Arab scholarship, Jenkins asserts, was actually Syriac, Persian and Coptic. Yet with the rise of Islam—and here he begins to tread perilous waters—assaults by Saracen Muslims and pagan Northmen combined to eradicate the Christian world of the East so completely that “its memory is forgotten by all except academic specialists.” The author patiently chronicles the subsequent cycle of conversion, discrimination and persecution, studying the remarkable survival of “ghost” churches, like the “hidden Christians” in Japan.
Complex material ably digested for the lay reader.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-147280-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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