Philip Jenkins
In the land of Zomia
Any account of Asian Christianity must deal with minority peoples. One large and diverse region has more than 100 million people—many of them Christian.
The full picture of 1517
As we remember the Reformation over the next couple of years, we should also recall its global context.
Secular South Africa?
In religious terms, the emerging South Africa looks at once thoroughly African and surprisingly European.
An Irish peacemaker
Alec Reid’s heroic story sounds as if it comes from a Catholic suspense novel. But it really did happen—in Belfast in 1988.
Slaughter in East Timor
For decades, Western human rights groups sounded the alarm about East Timor. Rarely did they note the religious dimension.
Reformation in Ethiopia
Since the 1970s, Ethiopia has seen something like what Europe saw around 1520: a movement based largely on growing access to the vernacular Bible.
Lusophone evangelism
Portugal no longer sends out missionaries on any scale, but Brazil has taken up that mantle. Worldwide, one in 11 Christians speak Portuguese.
Silence, by Diarmaid MacCulloch
Many years ago, the great historians of the French Annales school complained that scholars spend far too much time dealing with the elites and their wars and very little on the crucial mat...
Global Christianity & American religious history
To the Ends of the Earth: Pentecostalism and the Transformation of World Christianity, by Allan Heaton Anderson....
Christendom in Georgia
Most of what westerners know about the Caucasus region is negative. But the South Caucasus has a different history, and Christianity plays a central role.
Two faiths, one shrine
Shared holy places might puzzle American or European Christians. In the rest of the world, religions have rarely enjoyed such a monopoly.
The cross and the lotus
It's ironic that multicultural approaches to Christianity are dismissed as novel or “politically correct.” They are deeply rooted in our past.
The Irish nones
For centuries Ireland was synonymous with staunch Catholic piety. Now it seems to be undergoing a process of secularization as rapid as any in history.
Armenia’s survivors
Armenia is a nation of 3.3 million in a territory a fourth the size of Pennsylvania. Its small scale belies a much larger ancient reality.
Port Talbot Passion
Recently, 20,000 residents of a Welsh industrial town participated in a play—and reaffirmed the residual power of Christian imagery in a secular society.
Waco in red and blue
In April 1993, the FBI siege on the Branch Davidian compound ended in disaster. The event still casts a long shadow on our divided nation.
Church of William Harris
A century ago, William Wade Harris began his march across the Ivory Coast. He proclaimed a Christ who was not the property of the master race.
A secular Latin America?
The U.S. may be heading toward European-style secularization. More surprisingly, several Latin American countries mirror conditions in the States.
The three faces of Guanyin
When Chinese leaders lifted the persecution of religion, what was in it for them? Actually, they stood to benefit in many ways.
Unfolding the map
Robert Wilken's historical survey of Christianity is impressive, accessible and lively. It also leaves out a lot.