Status Updates From The Nearly Perfect Crime: H...

This 2005 book says the era of Western Christendom’s preeminence is passing away. He quotes predictions that by 2025 Europe will be in third place behind Africa and Asia. In 2000 there were 360 million Christians in Africa. I just looked up numbers and as of 2024 there were 734 mill in Africa with 2.6% growth rate. Asia is 415 mill with 2.1% growth rate. Europe is 537 mill and falling

There are gems on almost every page.
Today he quotes from Shakespeare-
All sworn and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, her cures,
…and ‘tis spoken,
To the succeeding royalty he leaves
The healing benediction.
Macbeth, IV, iii
Here Malcolm is telling MacDuff how he witnessed The Royal Touch of healing from King Edward the Confessor

Apparently try Bernard of Clairvaux had an Uncle Gaudry who highly disapproved of Bernard’s refusal to ignore the cries of the sick begging for personal prayers. That is, until Uncle Gaudry himself grew ill

The history of Marozia in 904 AD was new to me. What a crazy time period!

Really really interesting discussion in chapter 10 on how our expectations of what happens at baptism has changed drastically since the early centuries of Christianity.