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The Future of Christianity Trilogy
God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis
What does the future hold for European Christianity? Is the Christian church doomed to collapse under the weight of globalization, Western secularism, and a flood of Muslim immigrants? Is Europe, in short, on the brink of becoming "Eurabia"?
Though many pundits are loudly predicting just such a scenario, Philip Jenkins reveals the flaws in these arguments in God's Continent and offers a much more measured assessment of Europe's religious future. While frankly acknowledging current tensions, Jenkins shows, for instance, that the
overheated rhetoric about a Muslim-dominated Europe is based on politically convenient that Europe is being imperiled by floods of Muslim immigrants, exploding Muslim birth-rates, and the demise of European Christianity. He points out that by no means are Muslims the only new immigrants in
Europe. Christians from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe are also pouring into the Western countries, and bringing with them a vibrant and enthusiastic faith that is helping to transform the face of European Christianity. Jenkins agrees that both Christianity and Islam face real difficulties in
surviving within Europe's secular culture. But instead of fading away, both have adapted, and are adapting. Yes, the churches are in decline, but there are also clear indications that Christian loyalty and devotion survive, even as institutions crumble. Jenkins sees encouraging signs of continuing
Christian devotion in Europe, especially in pilgrimages that attract millions--more in fact than in bygone "ages of faith."
The third book in an acclaimed trilogy that includes The Next Christendom and The New Faces of Christianity, God's Continent offers a realistic and historically grounded appraisal of the future of Christianity in a rapidly changing Europe.
Though many pundits are loudly predicting just such a scenario, Philip Jenkins reveals the flaws in these arguments in God's Continent and offers a much more measured assessment of Europe's religious future. While frankly acknowledging current tensions, Jenkins shows, for instance, that the
overheated rhetoric about a Muslim-dominated Europe is based on politically convenient that Europe is being imperiled by floods of Muslim immigrants, exploding Muslim birth-rates, and the demise of European Christianity. He points out that by no means are Muslims the only new immigrants in
Europe. Christians from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe are also pouring into the Western countries, and bringing with them a vibrant and enthusiastic faith that is helping to transform the face of European Christianity. Jenkins agrees that both Christianity and Islam face real difficulties in
surviving within Europe's secular culture. But instead of fading away, both have adapted, and are adapting. Yes, the churches are in decline, but there are also clear indications that Christian loyalty and devotion survive, even as institutions crumble. Jenkins sees encouraging signs of continuing
Christian devotion in Europe, especially in pilgrimages that attract millions--more in fact than in bygone "ages of faith."
The third book in an acclaimed trilogy that includes The Next Christendom and The New Faces of Christianity, God's Continent offers a realistic and historically grounded appraisal of the future of Christianity in a rapidly changing Europe.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published April 5, 2007
17 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
Philip Jenkins
75 books161 followersJohn Philip Jenkins was born in Wales in 1952. He was educated at Clare College, in the University of Cambridge, where he took a prestigious “Double First” degree—that is, Double First Class Honors. In 1978, he obtained his doctorate in history, also from Cambridge. Since 1980, he has taught at Penn State University, and currently holds the rank of Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of the Humanities. He is also a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion.
Though his original training was in early modern British history, he has since moved to studying a wide range of contemporary topics and issues, especially in the realm of religion.
Jenkins is a well-known commentator on religion, past and present. He has published 24 books, including The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South and God's Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe's Religious Crisis (Oxford University Press). His latest books, published by HarperOne, are The Lost History of Christianity and Jesus Wars (2010).
His book The Next Christendom in particular won a number of honors. USA Today named it one of the top religion books of 2002; and Christianity Today described The Next Christendom as a “contemporary classic.” An essay based on this book appeared as a cover story in the Atlantic Monthly in October 2002, and this article was much reprinted in North America and around the world, appearing in German, Swiss, and Italian magazines.
His other books have also been consistently well received. Writing in Foreign Affairs in 2003, Sir Lawrence Freedman said Jenkins's Images of Terror was “a brilliant, uncomfortable book, its impact heightened by clear, restrained writing and a stunning range of examples.”
Jenkins has spoken frequently on these diverse themes. Since 2002, he has delivered approximately eighty public lectures just on the theme of global Christianity, and has given numerous presentations on other topics. He has published articles and op-ed pieces in many media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New Republic, Foreign Policy, First Things, and Christian Century. In the European media, his work has appeared in the Guardian, Rheinischer Merkur, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Welt am Sonntag, and the Kommersant (Moscow). He is often quoted in news stories on religious issues, including global Christianity, as well as on the subject of conflicts within the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, and controversies concerning cults and new religious movements. The Economist has called him “one of America's best scholars of religion.”
Over the last decade, Jenkins has participated in several hundred interviews with the mass media, newspapers, radio, and television. He has been interviewed on Fox's The Beltway Boys, and has appeared on a number of CNN documentaries and news specials covering a variety of topics, including the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, as well as serial murder and aspects of violent crime. The 2003 television documentary Battle for Souls (Discovery Times Channel) was largely inspired by his work on global Christianity. He also appeared on the History Channel special, Time Machine: 70s Fever (2009).
Jenkins is much heard on talk radio, including multiple appearances on NPR's All Things Considered, and on various BBC and RTE programs. In North America, he has been a guest on the widely syndicated radio programs of Diane Rehm, Michael Medved, and James Kennedy; he has appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air, as well as the nationally broadcast Canadian shows Tapestry and Ideas. His media appearances include newspapers and radio stations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Brazil, as well as in many different regions of the United States.
Because of its relevance to policy issues, Jenkins's work has attracted the attention of gove
Though his original training was in early modern British history, he has since moved to studying a wide range of contemporary topics and issues, especially in the realm of religion.
Jenkins is a well-known commentator on religion, past and present. He has published 24 books, including The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South and God's Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe's Religious Crisis (Oxford University Press). His latest books, published by HarperOne, are The Lost History of Christianity and Jesus Wars (2010).
His book The Next Christendom in particular won a number of honors. USA Today named it one of the top religion books of 2002; and Christianity Today described The Next Christendom as a “contemporary classic.” An essay based on this book appeared as a cover story in the Atlantic Monthly in October 2002, and this article was much reprinted in North America and around the world, appearing in German, Swiss, and Italian magazines.
His other books have also been consistently well received. Writing in Foreign Affairs in 2003, Sir Lawrence Freedman said Jenkins's Images of Terror was “a brilliant, uncomfortable book, its impact heightened by clear, restrained writing and a stunning range of examples.”
Jenkins has spoken frequently on these diverse themes. Since 2002, he has delivered approximately eighty public lectures just on the theme of global Christianity, and has given numerous presentations on other topics. He has published articles and op-ed pieces in many media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New Republic, Foreign Policy, First Things, and Christian Century. In the European media, his work has appeared in the Guardian, Rheinischer Merkur, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Welt am Sonntag, and the Kommersant (Moscow). He is often quoted in news stories on religious issues, including global Christianity, as well as on the subject of conflicts within the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, and controversies concerning cults and new religious movements. The Economist has called him “one of America's best scholars of religion.”
Over the last decade, Jenkins has participated in several hundred interviews with the mass media, newspapers, radio, and television. He has been interviewed on Fox's The Beltway Boys, and has appeared on a number of CNN documentaries and news specials covering a variety of topics, including the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, as well as serial murder and aspects of violent crime. The 2003 television documentary Battle for Souls (Discovery Times Channel) was largely inspired by his work on global Christianity. He also appeared on the History Channel special, Time Machine: 70s Fever (2009).
Jenkins is much heard on talk radio, including multiple appearances on NPR's All Things Considered, and on various BBC and RTE programs. In North America, he has been a guest on the widely syndicated radio programs of Diane Rehm, Michael Medved, and James Kennedy; he has appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air, as well as the nationally broadcast Canadian shows Tapestry and Ideas. His media appearances include newspapers and radio stations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Brazil, as well as in many different regions of the United States.
Because of its relevance to policy issues, Jenkins's work has attracted the attention of gove
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 27, 2013
This book is a response to the Islamification of Europe. Philip Jenkins does a good job addressing birth rate(which he says is much lower among most Muslim nations, comparable to most European nations) Secularization, and Historical constraints to show that the fear of Eurabia is not as clear as some would think.
This is a long book, and it seems to have drug on for about 100 pages more than it needed to in order to make his point. He readdresses things that he mentioned previously that doesn't necessarily add to his argumentation.
Another criticism, which is quite small, is that when Jenkins makes theological statements he comes across as a bit too liberal in his thinking. Although I would say that these sections are quite small and maybe reach only a couple pages in total.
Overall this book was great, and gave me a better perspective on the landscape of Modern Europe.
This is a long book, and it seems to have drug on for about 100 pages more than it needed to in order to make his point. He readdresses things that he mentioned previously that doesn't necessarily add to his argumentation.
Another criticism, which is quite small, is that when Jenkins makes theological statements he comes across as a bit too liberal in his thinking. Although I would say that these sections are quite small and maybe reach only a couple pages in total.
Overall this book was great, and gave me a better perspective on the landscape of Modern Europe.
October 31, 2013
Philip Jenkins, a scholar at Penn State and more recently Baylor, has written many books, the majority on themes relating to trends in religion. I think his books on the growth of Christianity in the Global South are particularly good.
Here, he looks at what happened to Christianity in the North, specifically in Europe. Jenkins makes the case that Christianity isn't dead in Europe as some suppose, although he doesn't make it appear alive and well either. He also argues that Islam isn't quite so strong in Europe as many think; he doesn't agree with those who are starting to refer to the region as Eurabia.
Jenkins backs up his arguments with facts ... lots and lots of facts. I found myself a little overwhelmed by the facts. He clearly is writing from the Ivory Tower. This is OK. It is what he does, and he does it well. For me as a reader, I'd like some stories to go with the facts. It would be interesting to know, for example, what a French Muslim family went through when Muslim schoolgirls were forbidden from wearing the hajib.
The latter chapters were the most interesting to me. It struck me in reading them that the extremely secularized governments of many European nations are more of a problem for Christians than are their Muslim neighbors.
I found the following paragraph particularly thought-provoking:
When [European commentators] imagine an idealized future Euro-Islam, they portray a deeply secularized faith, which has little by way of orthodoxy, preaches no morality that conflicts with secular assumptions, and does not try to impose its views on the "real world." It should also cease teaching its superiority to other religions since, as rational people are assumed to realize, all religions are equally invalid. And God forbid (so to speak) that it should preach any kind of moral standards, social or secular. This Islam would in short be a variant of the most pallid and shrinking forms of liberal Christianity, and we might well ask why exponents of any religion would want to see their faith develop in this way.
Here, he looks at what happened to Christianity in the North, specifically in Europe. Jenkins makes the case that Christianity isn't dead in Europe as some suppose, although he doesn't make it appear alive and well either. He also argues that Islam isn't quite so strong in Europe as many think; he doesn't agree with those who are starting to refer to the region as Eurabia.
Jenkins backs up his arguments with facts ... lots and lots of facts. I found myself a little overwhelmed by the facts. He clearly is writing from the Ivory Tower. This is OK. It is what he does, and he does it well. For me as a reader, I'd like some stories to go with the facts. It would be interesting to know, for example, what a French Muslim family went through when Muslim schoolgirls were forbidden from wearing the hajib.
The latter chapters were the most interesting to me. It struck me in reading them that the extremely secularized governments of many European nations are more of a problem for Christians than are their Muslim neighbors.
I found the following paragraph particularly thought-provoking:
When [European commentators] imagine an idealized future Euro-Islam, they portray a deeply secularized faith, which has little by way of orthodoxy, preaches no morality that conflicts with secular assumptions, and does not try to impose its views on the "real world." It should also cease teaching its superiority to other religions since, as rational people are assumed to realize, all religions are equally invalid. And God forbid (so to speak) that it should preach any kind of moral standards, social or secular. This Islam would in short be a variant of the most pallid and shrinking forms of liberal Christianity, and we might well ask why exponents of any religion would want to see their faith develop in this way.
July 27, 2018
I had to put this book down because because it became clear to me that the author doesn't really know much about Islam, Judaism, Christianity or Catholicism. It felt like he did some very basic research to see that they all believe in God and then spent a lot of time writing about how the effect of each of these religions meeting in Europe could be that they will all see how they are the same thing and then merge into one European religion. The gaps in what is believed by Muslims, Catholics, Jews and Evangelical (Jesus Followers) are enormous. They aren't small things like how many times to pray or anything like that. They are things like whether God's promises are fulfilled through Ishmael or Isaac, whether Jesus is God, is Jesus the Messiah, is Mary someone who should be prayed to. These are enormous beliefs that aren't points that can be merged.
In the end if felt like I was wasting my time because of the authors lack of understanding. However, that doesn't become apparent until that last quarter of the book and the first 3/4 have some great things to consider about people moving around and other influences on culture. That's where the three stars comes from.
In the end if felt like I was wasting my time because of the authors lack of understanding. However, that doesn't become apparent until that last quarter of the book and the first 3/4 have some great things to consider about people moving around and other influences on culture. That's where the three stars comes from.
March 18, 2025
Philip Jenkins God's Continent covers the rise of Islam in "godless" Europe. Jenkins argues that Christianity has not died in Europe even though the Western governments are secular. There are many Christian holy sites throughout the continent and people visit them in mass. Jenkins argues in the book that Islamic worshippers do not necessarily see all issues through the same prism. In chapter 9, "Ultras", Jenkins lays out the history of terrorism throughout Europe. For example, he discusses the London bombing and the Danish cartoon riots. The Western governments don't want to crack down too hard on the imams since the intelligence services can easily monitor the radicals. Jenkins argues that Islam is an existential threat to Europe, but he thinks it's unlikely that the Western governments will collapse in the face of mass immigration from the Mahgreb. I hope Jenkins is correct, but I still have my doubts.
February 15, 2009
Some commentators say that in the coming decades Europe will become a Muslim dominated area due to immigration from Islamic countries, high birth rates among Muslims in Europe and low birth rates from other Europeans. Jenkins questions this common understanding, arguing that we cannot be sure what the future of Europe holds while agreeing that the growth of Islam will greatly shape the continent in the future. At the same time, many immigrants from Asia and Africa to Europe are Christians, likely charismatic Christians, which will also play a role in developing Europe. Finally, he examines the possibility that Europe's secular culture will influence the development of a more "modern" Islam. Overall, a very informing and thought provoking read.
This book is the third in a trilogy following The Next Christendom and The New Faces of Christianity. All three are recommended for those interested in Christianity and Islam worldwide.
This book is the third in a trilogy following The Next Christendom and The New Faces of Christianity. All three are recommended for those interested in Christianity and Islam worldwide.
December 14, 2010
This is a pretty balanced assessment of the future of Islam in Europe. Jenkins does not hold back from pointing out dangerous ideas and movements when necessary but also holds back from mere fear mongering. He rightly draws attention to the fact that the next generation of Muslim immigrants are likely to be more europanized- have a similar birthrate, be rather secular, etc., and because of this likely change it is difficult to see how precisely Islam will change the European landscape. He also provocatively ends his book by pondering whether or not the Islamic presence will provoke a resurrgence of Christianity in Europe.
October 20, 2008
This book looks at Europe's religious future. The first half is dedicated to Christianity, while the second half focuses on Islam. It ends with an attempt at synthesis and prediction. On the whole, the author is much more optimistic about the future of Christianity in Europe than most other observers are. He also believes that Islam is not as strong a force in Europe as is commonly supposed. Overall, the author presents important data, but he may be too optimistic in some ways.
May 3, 2008
Very insightful, full of well researched information regarding the state of religion in Europe. Surprisingly, Jenkins sees more hope than most who are writing on the subject of religion, espeicially Christianity, in Europe. This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in the state of spiritual life in Europe.
August 3, 2008
This is a very detailed, academic discussion of the contemporary religious and cultural struggles in Europe. London definitely is one of the hot beds and being a history major I appreciated the breadth of his research and descriptions.
November 12, 2008
The sheer amount of information provided in this book was very interesting. However, even though the author limited his own personal conclusions to a somewhat minimal level, I found myself disagreeing somewhat with his conclusions frequently.
February 11, 2012
A well-considered look at the religious situation in Europe, showing that religion is hardly disappearing in "secular Europe," but rather entering a new phase.
October 22, 2013
A thorough analysis on Muslim immigration to Europe and its associated fears. Presents stunning yet convincing views on the future pattern.
July 27, 2014
some interesting insights.
April 27, 2024
Read for school
Want to read
July 9, 2009recommended by http://www.americanpapist.com/2009/07...
May 29, 2013
Very informative and beneficial, but also academic and at times boring.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews