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The Many Faces of Christ
We are often told that early Christianity comprised a vast multitude of strange sects, and that this diversity was wiped out in the fourth century when the Church canonized the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But how, then, can we explain that the scene of the baby Jesus in the manger—the central image of the Christmas story—shows the influence of the “Protevangelium,” or that our belief that the Serpent in Eden is Satan comes from another so-called Lost Gospel?
In [Title TK], Philip Jenkins offers a revelatory new history of Christianity, showing that hundreds of these supposedly lost alternate gospels were never suppressed by the early Church, but instead remained widely influential until the Reformation—and continue to play major roles in Christian belief to this day. An authoritative account of the formation of the biblical canon and the evolution of modern faith, [Title TK] restores the “Lost Gospels” to their proper place in history and in belief.
In [Title TK], Philip Jenkins offers a revelatory new history of Christianity, showing that hundreds of these supposedly lost alternate gospels were never suppressed by the early Church, but instead remained widely influential until the Reformation—and continue to play major roles in Christian belief to this day. An authoritative account of the formation of the biblical canon and the evolution of modern faith, [Title TK] restores the “Lost Gospels” to their proper place in history and in belief.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published October 13, 2015
11 people are currently reading
393 people want to read
About the author
Philip Jenkins
75 books160 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 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 31, 2015
My only problem with this book is that there wasn't enough of it. A great start for further study.
March 27, 2018
This is a breezy overview of the use of so-called “lost gospels” in Western and Eastern Christian churches and, to a lesser extent, Islam, from about 200-400AD on through the 1500s. Far from lost, says Jenkins, alternative gospels from the Infancy Gospel of James (Mary, Joseph, and the cherry tree) to the Acts of Pilate (the Harrowing of Hell) and even Marian gospels (the Conception, the Assumption) were not just available, but were used by writers, priests, and the laity to varying degrees up to the Reformation.
For the laity, these alternative gospels, either directly or indirectly through such works as the Golden Legend, were all that the common person had, since it was forbidden to translate the more canonical works from Latin, but translating the non-canonical works was not forbidden.
While some of these gospels were destroyed, Jenkins writes, there was never a period where a central Christianity had enough power to fully suppress them. They were used not only in Eastern churches outside of any central authority, but even in Western churches by congregations who either didn’t know or didn’t care that the texts were forbidden, or, in some cases, merely not considered true.
This is a fascinating and easy read, and leaves me wondering how many other alternative gospels await discovery in old churches, libraries, and mosques.
For the laity, these alternative gospels, either directly or indirectly through such works as the Golden Legend, were all that the common person had, since it was forbidden to translate the more canonical works from Latin, but translating the non-canonical works was not forbidden.
While some of these gospels were destroyed, Jenkins writes, there was never a period where a central Christianity had enough power to fully suppress them. They were used not only in Eastern churches outside of any central authority, but even in Western churches by congregations who either didn’t know or didn’t care that the texts were forbidden, or, in some cases, merely not considered true.
This is a fascinating and easy read, and leaves me wondering how many other alternative gospels await discovery in old churches, libraries, and mosques.
December 28, 2015
Jenkins writes extremely clearly and engagingly about a complex subject and disinterestedly (meaning, "taking no sides" not the current misused meaning of this word--we have lost "unique" and now are losing "disinterest"). Though I know something about early, medieval, and renaissance Christianity, I learned a lot from this book, namely the huge number of texts that existed (more or less without suppression), the importance of the Golden Legend in spreading the contents of alternative texts into the minds of artists and common people, the existence of alternative texts on early Christianity written by Mulim authors (such as the Gospel of Barnabas). Though there is no separate bibliography, full citations are given in the end notes. There are no illustrations other than the cover that depicts the Harrowing of Hell (I've tracked this image down; it is from the Kariye Museum (Chora Monastery). Despite the sensationalism and excitement in contemporary presses when a new alternative gospel or other writing is found, such writings have been long known and studied. Jenkins discusses how alternative writings from the past, and more recently found ones, have been used in contemporary literature and films (e.g 2014 "Noah"). I recommend this book strongly as it takes a complicated subject and explains it to non-scholars clearly.
February 24, 2016
Jenkins, Philip. The Many Faces of Christ. Basic Books. NY. 2015. What a read! As one who has a life long interest in the Bible and how it came to be; this book really opens up wide vistas on how the different peoples, in different times and places, made sense out of their experiences of God-ness. The sub-title “The thousand-year story of the survival and influence of the lost gospels” is a very good summary of its contents. This scholarly, well referenced work will cause me to ponder in new and deeper ways.
March 17, 2017
Great information and a very engaging read. I wish the conclusion about the biblical canon today had packed a little more punch. Definitely recommend.
June 9, 2020
This book shines when it focuses on the topic of the title. As a reader with what I’d call an intermediate familiarity with the apocryphal scriptures—which, interestingly, far outnumber the canonical gospels—reading of the diverse perspectives on the life of Jesus, and the divergence of the depictions of Jesus as the time point at which specific books were written. It seems, overall, that the selection of the works that ended up in the canonical Bible (which were far fewer than those included in books such as the Septuagint, which was used in what is now Eastern Europe far later than in Western Europe) had two overall drivers—the decreasing of the important of Jesus as a physical being (ie, eliminating scriptures that implied that Jesus had a wife; expunging the spirit/body dualism implicit in the scripture that implies that the entire world was created by Satan, as was Jesus in his physical body, yielding the jarring scene of the spirit of Jesus standing aside, incorporeal, as the physical Jesus is crucified); and the removal of the “feminine” elements of the iconography of the early church, ie, the worship of Mary, the attribution of certain elements of Jesus’s life to Mary’s life as well to draw explicit parallels between the 2, and so forth.
The book gets a little more confounding when it strays from focusing on the “many faces” and turns to the geographical realities of the early church, prior to the time when Western Europe more or less took control of the Catholic church through the Inquisition and active suppression of the apocryphal gospels. However, this material is important in that it relays, in particular, 2 interesting truths that are likely largely forgotten. First—the non-canonical Christian texts survived longer in the churches that were in the Islamic world (ie, part of the Ottoman Empire or the “buffer countries” between the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe—Bulgaria, Armenia, and the like), and Jenkins confirms (in his telling) the concept that the Islamic world was more tolerant of these alternate scriptures than was the church in Western Europe. Second—the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian faiths were very interwoven for most of the first millennium after the death of Jesus/Christ. Only with time did the conflict that currently exists between the faiths grow. Martin Luther’s discovery of a Jewish scripture that provided a very negative depiction of Jesus (and consequent decision to support and help enforce the expropriation of Jewish property) in the 1500s provides one haunting inflection point that has stalked the world to this date vis-à-vis persistent and ongoing anti-Semitism, even after the Holocaust should have awakened the world to its lethal inhumanity.
Jenkins acknowledges the value of the additional scriptures as being useful for the deepening of a faith practice, but at the end kind of brings the hammer down, noting that the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke were all written by 110 AD, whereas most of the other sources were not extant until after 200 AD—suggesting that (I believe) his personal faith and scholarly interests intersect here, and he believes that the exclusion of the apocryphal books from the final, canonical gospel was justified, but the suppression of the texts was not.
The book gets a little more confounding when it strays from focusing on the “many faces” and turns to the geographical realities of the early church, prior to the time when Western Europe more or less took control of the Catholic church through the Inquisition and active suppression of the apocryphal gospels. However, this material is important in that it relays, in particular, 2 interesting truths that are likely largely forgotten. First—the non-canonical Christian texts survived longer in the churches that were in the Islamic world (ie, part of the Ottoman Empire or the “buffer countries” between the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe—Bulgaria, Armenia, and the like), and Jenkins confirms (in his telling) the concept that the Islamic world was more tolerant of these alternate scriptures than was the church in Western Europe. Second—the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian faiths were very interwoven for most of the first millennium after the death of Jesus/Christ. Only with time did the conflict that currently exists between the faiths grow. Martin Luther’s discovery of a Jewish scripture that provided a very negative depiction of Jesus (and consequent decision to support and help enforce the expropriation of Jewish property) in the 1500s provides one haunting inflection point that has stalked the world to this date vis-à-vis persistent and ongoing anti-Semitism, even after the Holocaust should have awakened the world to its lethal inhumanity.
Jenkins acknowledges the value of the additional scriptures as being useful for the deepening of a faith practice, but at the end kind of brings the hammer down, noting that the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke were all written by 110 AD, whereas most of the other sources were not extant until after 200 AD—suggesting that (I believe) his personal faith and scholarly interests intersect here, and he believes that the exclusion of the apocryphal books from the final, canonical gospel was justified, but the suppression of the texts was not.
June 29, 2018
Jenkins has researched how scriptures written long after Jesus' death (much too late to be eyewitness accounts) affected the ideas that Christians have today. Most of these books, which taken together would outweigh the Bible as it currently stands, were suppressed by the churches, but not as effectively as you'd think. Some of their ideas are still very much current among various churches: Most of the manger story, including the names of the Magi. Most of the stories about Mary. Nearly all of Jesus' harrowing of Hell and releasing the souls of good people who had not yet heard his word. And a great deal more, much of which is contradictory, but which was well known to Christians of the East and West, and which generated a great deal of art that is still extant. Unfortunately, the publisher missed an opportunity by not including illustrations of such art, other than the harrowing of Hell shown on the cover. Plenty of references, though. This is a well written book by a scholar who knows his subject.
One of the most interesting revelations of this book is that several of the scriptures that are not accepted by Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox churches are still in current use in Ethiopia. There are also odd survivals in other places, such as the Mandaeans of southern Iraq, who have maintained their own faith, and their own books, for about two thousand years. And they were not alone. Jenkins shows that noncanonical scriptures were still accepted as gospel truth by churches in Ireland, Armenia, Bosnia, central Asia, and India until a few centuries ago. Some books have been rediscovered; others are still lost.
I hasten to add that these books were suppressed for good reasons. They not only contradict the canonical books of the Bible, but one another, as they were evidently penned in order to support the beliefs of divergent sects. They may contain a few very old traditions that can tell us something about Jesus' life and works, but, as Jenkins points out, their main significance to us today is historical, to tell us what different groups of people believed.
One of the most interesting revelations of this book is that several of the scriptures that are not accepted by Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox churches are still in current use in Ethiopia. There are also odd survivals in other places, such as the Mandaeans of southern Iraq, who have maintained their own faith, and their own books, for about two thousand years. And they were not alone. Jenkins shows that noncanonical scriptures were still accepted as gospel truth by churches in Ireland, Armenia, Bosnia, central Asia, and India until a few centuries ago. Some books have been rediscovered; others are still lost.
I hasten to add that these books were suppressed for good reasons. They not only contradict the canonical books of the Bible, but one another, as they were evidently penned in order to support the beliefs of divergent sects. They may contain a few very old traditions that can tell us something about Jesus' life and works, but, as Jenkins points out, their main significance to us today is historical, to tell us what different groups of people believed.
May 1, 2019
When the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi started to become readily available in English translations I had run to Barnes and Nobles to make sure I owned them. Reading them I immediately realized that they were not an accurate or historical reflection of the Old or New Testament, respectively, but a reflection of the thoughts of the writers and their times. Over the years of study, and considering recent archaeological discoveries, it is probably true about most of these Testament in general. While reading The Many Faces of Christ I became more comforted about these realities, as humans try to come to terms with something far greater than themselves on a planet where they are the ultimate intelligence. The sad part, which is minimized in this book, is that in search of a higher reality humans write, rewrite, plagiarize, redact and falsify to substantiate their beliefs above others. and in frustration others persecute, torture and murder to justify their own.
The basic story of the Gospels is simple, Jesus was born, he preached, he died and was resurrected. How the tale is told is no different than the constant remakes of movies we see today. Writers try to attract their audience, to get their attention. However, most of the Gnostic, Duelists etc is nothing more than nonsense, but the author places them in a historical framework that makes them more understandable. He also has some brief words about the childish early Jewish and Islamic attempts at anti-gospels, but they are insignificant to the general dialogue of this work.
I will say that the book is academic and at times dry, but the skill of the author moves the text rapidly.
The basic story of the Gospels is simple, Jesus was born, he preached, he died and was resurrected. How the tale is told is no different than the constant remakes of movies we see today. Writers try to attract their audience, to get their attention. However, most of the Gnostic, Duelists etc is nothing more than nonsense, but the author places them in a historical framework that makes them more understandable. He also has some brief words about the childish early Jewish and Islamic attempts at anti-gospels, but they are insignificant to the general dialogue of this work.
I will say that the book is academic and at times dry, but the skill of the author moves the text rapidly.
September 3, 2018
This book looks at the long history of alternative scriptures in Christianity and the effect they have had in shaping faith and practice. One the one hand, it is a wonderful corrective to Dan Brown's ridiculous anti-Catholic screed The DaVinci Code, which argued that these scriptures were repressed by the Catholic Church at the time of Constantine. (The canon wasn't even discussed at Nicea and the first listing of our current NT didn't take place till 42 years later) He also debunks the idea that the books that didn't make it were "the good stuff." Most of them are quite weird and present a fairly toxic faith. If anything, Jenkins says, these books were marginalized and often destroyed by the Protestant Reformation, some 1300 years later. I only gave it a three because it seemed to drag and he often repeated himself, but it is a book worth reading if you are interested in a balanced view of the books that didn't make the Bible.
March 20, 2021
From this book I learned there were hundreds of gospels written during the past 2,000 years of Christianity. Many of these gospels related weird tales of the canonical biblical characters - Judas was mistakenly crucified by the Romans while angels ascended to heaven with Jesus; as a child Jesus killed tutors and playmates who angered him; in the Harrowing of Hell, Jesus descended into Hell to retrieve prophets and escort them to heaven; Adam escaped Eden with gold, frankincense, and myrr, which later the Magi mysteriously acquired. The Reformation brought a demise to most of these gospels, as the Biblical texts we know today became canonized. The author Jenkins makes the fascinating point that the Reformation also paved the way for the Enlightenment, as it emphasized analysis of text-based doctrine.
November 29, 2020
Fascinating introduction to the many apocryphal works that were used through the centuries in various Christian churches around the world. Some of them were highly influential in art and the popular religious imagination. Many were embraced by the “orthodox,” as well as the “heretical.” And they really only fell out of use in the Reformation, not after the Council of Nicaea, as many have believed.
April 19, 2021
A fascinating overview of a thousand years' worth of scripture. It corrected many misconceptions I had been taught or else assumed on my own. Most Christian literature wasn't "discovered" by the West, but rediscovered or restored by way of networking with other sects and Churches across the world. For anyone interested in the history of Christian scripture, this is an excellent starting point.
August 23, 2025
it took me forever to get through this, but all in all, I did enjoy this and it really enhanced my understanding of the various scriptures/gospels and how they were included or excluded from our modern Bible. The author is an excellent teacher helping to explain the spread of various written spiritual works and how we can apply them to our understanding of the growth of Christianity.
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November 14, 2015
A glaring, likely willful error, and a lesser, but not minor one mar book
This book could have been a solid four-star, but it's marred by one major error, an error on which I KNOW Jenkins knows better, and a lesser error related some of the pseudepigraphal works he studied for this volume.
The main error is claiming, on page 130, that pseudepigraphal writing was, in essence, "no big deal" in the ancient world. This is flat wrong, and in "Ancient Christianities," Bart Ehrman DOCUMENTS that it's flat wrong. In fact, we have a New Testament book that denounces the practice.
Ironically, hypocritically, or maybe "tracks-covering," that book, 2 Thessalonians, is itself pseudepigraphal.
I'm not sure how much it influences his take on the development of different strands of Christianity, but influence it, it must.
The lesser error is primarily found on pages 213 ff, though it can arguably be placed throughout the book, and is not a minor one. Jenkins I am sure also knows that at least portions of Syriac Christianity considered Thomas, or in full, Judas Didymos Thomas, to be Jesus' twin brother.
Jenkins never discusses this, not in talking about the Gospel of Thomas, Gnostic Gospels from today's Syria, nor the Toledoth Yeshu.
There's enough other decent stuff for those unfamiliar with apocryphal and pseudepigraphal works that I wouldn't take this book below three stars. But, as much as some tout him, if this is a sample, I won't read him again. Read Ehrman instead, his book Lost Christianities.
This book could have been a solid four-star, but it's marred by one major error, an error on which I KNOW Jenkins knows better, and a lesser error related some of the pseudepigraphal works he studied for this volume.
The main error is claiming, on page 130, that pseudepigraphal writing was, in essence, "no big deal" in the ancient world. This is flat wrong, and in "Ancient Christianities," Bart Ehrman DOCUMENTS that it's flat wrong. In fact, we have a New Testament book that denounces the practice.
Ironically, hypocritically, or maybe "tracks-covering," that book, 2 Thessalonians, is itself pseudepigraphal.
I'm not sure how much it influences his take on the development of different strands of Christianity, but influence it, it must.
The lesser error is primarily found on pages 213 ff, though it can arguably be placed throughout the book, and is not a minor one. Jenkins I am sure also knows that at least portions of Syriac Christianity considered Thomas, or in full, Judas Didymos Thomas, to be Jesus' twin brother.
Jenkins never discusses this, not in talking about the Gospel of Thomas, Gnostic Gospels from today's Syria, nor the Toledoth Yeshu.
There's enough other decent stuff for those unfamiliar with apocryphal and pseudepigraphal works that I wouldn't take this book below three stars. But, as much as some tout him, if this is a sample, I won't read him again. Read Ehrman instead, his book Lost Christianities.
December 18, 2015
This is book on a fascinating topic, but it doesn't go quite far enough. As in his previous books, Jenkins explores the reality of Christianity in places and times that you didn't know enough about before. This time, he focuses on the apocryphal writings that were treated as Scripture in some contexts. This means he takes on Dan Brown and shows that, yes, there was a time when texts were suppressed, but it was only by a part of the church, and it was in the 16th century, not the 4th. Before the Reformation, non-canonical scriptures fluorished, and though they were certainly discouraged and persecuted, the fact of the matter is that the pre-modern state didn't have the ability to truly repress gospels it didn't like. Only with the advent of the printing press did such suppression become possible (which is a historical irony if ever I've seen one). The suppressor is not Constantinian -- he is Protestant!
To find out more about what this surprising statement means, you'll have to read the book. Unfortunately (I say with irony), Jenkins is a careful scholar, and so at times the book reads more like a card catalog than a thriller. Only in the final chapter does he really expand on the central thesis that these alternate Christianities and heresies, however fuzzy the line between them may be, are emblematic of the eternal variation and struggle in Christianity itself, and in every Christian's heart. This conclusion means that the history of the previous centuries can apply to us, today -- but Jenkins is cautious in his application, so those connections are mostly left up to the reader. So much thinking to do, so little time. Here Jenkins brings new treasures out of old storehouses, and the result is fascinating and even, in an odd way, encouraging. Dan Brown is nothing new.
To find out more about what this surprising statement means, you'll have to read the book. Unfortunately (I say with irony), Jenkins is a careful scholar, and so at times the book reads more like a card catalog than a thriller. Only in the final chapter does he really expand on the central thesis that these alternate Christianities and heresies, however fuzzy the line between them may be, are emblematic of the eternal variation and struggle in Christianity itself, and in every Christian's heart. This conclusion means that the history of the previous centuries can apply to us, today -- but Jenkins is cautious in his application, so those connections are mostly left up to the reader. So much thinking to do, so little time. Here Jenkins brings new treasures out of old storehouses, and the result is fascinating and even, in an odd way, encouraging. Dan Brown is nothing new.
November 27, 2016
Like the other Jenkins books I have read this one was filled with eye opening insights to the vast influence of Christian writings (especially the Gnostic ones) that are not in the Protestant cannon, or even in the wider cannons of the other branches of Christianity. In many ways these others writings have exercised a greater influence on the imaginations of Christians throughout history than their canonical counterparts. I certainly learned a lot about several books that I wasn't
even aware of. This book raises great questions about Scripture, cannon, church control of the average christian, and how theology spreads in surprising ways, also how the persistence of alternative scriptures challenges contemporary, sensational presentations of church history. Particularly good was his chapter on the influence of the Marian writings on the church and how the denigration of the veneration of Mary after the Reformation may have contributed to the reigning perceptions of Christianity as a misogynistic religion from the beginning. As always Jenkins helps me to a more nuanced understanding of history and the faith. Christian history is a wild and wacky thing, nothing like the boring string of councils and wars that it is sometimes portrayed as.
I rated this one three stars and not higher because it was somewhat repetitive and because I'm not sure that it is written in an engaging enough style to pull in lay readers in the way that I think it is intended to. Overall I would recommend it for those in the churches who want to have a nuanced way to think about church history and as a way to have a more educated and informed way to talk to your coworkers and friends about The DaVinci Code!
even aware of. This book raises great questions about Scripture, cannon, church control of the average christian, and how theology spreads in surprising ways, also how the persistence of alternative scriptures challenges contemporary, sensational presentations of church history. Particularly good was his chapter on the influence of the Marian writings on the church and how the denigration of the veneration of Mary after the Reformation may have contributed to the reigning perceptions of Christianity as a misogynistic religion from the beginning. As always Jenkins helps me to a more nuanced understanding of history and the faith. Christian history is a wild and wacky thing, nothing like the boring string of councils and wars that it is sometimes portrayed as.
I rated this one three stars and not higher because it was somewhat repetitive and because I'm not sure that it is written in an engaging enough style to pull in lay readers in the way that I think it is intended to. Overall I would recommend it for those in the churches who want to have a nuanced way to think about church history and as a way to have a more educated and informed way to talk to your coworkers and friends about The DaVinci Code!
September 6, 2016
The text is very readable and seems well-researched and while the subject has long been fascinating to me, I guess in the end there was just too much and it wasn't my time for it. I felt a growing impatience not to know the breadth of the map of Christianity but to hone in on what happened to the truth. I suppose I have only so much time to read and this couldn't keep my attention. Fascinating, though, that such a variety of texts survived far into the Middle Ages and there was far more reading and sharing then than is commonly realized.
January 9, 2016
Do not pick up Philip Jenkins very scholarly book unless you either have a good background in early Christology or a reasonable grasp of early Christian history. Otherwise it will be both sense and indigestible. But...if you do possess the background and the interest, his work is both insightful and reasoned. While I don't share Jenkins' faith, his scholarly work is both fair and unbiased. A wonderful piece of scholarship!
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April 4, 2016This was a really interesting book. The author explores different types of Christianity that existed in the early days of the religion (1st-5th centuries) as well as types of Christianity in Africa and Asia. I learned a LOT!
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August 18, 2016
A very scholarly history of the various texts that defined Christianity and those text that did not make it into the authorized canon.
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