| Chad's history corner |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|12:00 pm] |
The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia - And How It Died by Philip Jenkins - Like most cliches "History is written by the winners" is largely true in a sense, but at the same time it is often possible to piece together the history of the losers and distill a reasonable reconstruction of the truth from propaganda and distorted accounts. If it weren't, then we wouldn't be able to have sympathetic or neutral book-long histories of the Zoroastrians, the Aztec Empire, and al-Andalus. Philip Jenkins makes the case that there's another "history of losers" that often gets overlooked - and it involves, contrary to expectations, the majority of Christians in the medieval era.
Jenksins' argument can basically be broken down into two parts: European Christianity in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages was, in terms of raw numbers as well as cultural influence, actually the stagnant fringe of Christianity, while the numerical majority of Christians and the true vital core of the religion was based in Syria, Palestine, Asia Minor, and Mesopotamia; and this African and West Asian Christianity was all but wiped out by a combination of growing and systematic Islamic intolerance, the failure of most sects of Christianity to survive the decline and collapse of many eastern cities in the later Middle Ages as well as the catastrophe of the Mongolian invasions, and other geopolitical factors. A little distracting but amusing part of his arguments here is his visible impatience with scholars who argue that Islam was exceptionally aggressive and those who overcompensate by maintaining that Islam was exceptionally tolerant. You can almost hear Jenkins fighting the temptation to type, "Islam doesn't really have a worse or better track record than most if not all religions, including Christianity itself, okay?" Of course, it does jar the narrative to have such digressions to contemporary politics, but I for one can hardly blame Jenkins for doing his best to keep his book from being cited with approval by someone like Jonah Goldberg or the folks at WorldNetDaily. (Jenkins does raise the fascinating fact that, between 1000 and 1400, the countries of Europe and the Middle East as well as China all almost simultaneously went from being relatively tolerant to becoming increasingly xenophobic and hostile to minorities, but he doesn't dwell on that point too long).
Also the last third of the book asks general historical and cultural questions about why and how religions die out, what imprints they leave, and what are the theological implications for believers who face the loss of all political representation, marginal status, unrelenting persecution, and a centuries-long history of failure. It's very interesting, particularly for anyone with the slightest interest in the history of religion and culture, although at times he reiterates points made in the rest of the book. Still, the section does have very recent and very tragic anecdotes, such as the brutal persecution of the few remaining outposts of Iraqi Christians after the Iraq War and the discovery in 1997 of an old woman named Lucine, literally the last Armenian Christian in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir. The one complaint I have is that Jenkins, apart from discussing at length its influences on Islam and European Christianity and that it may have been the purest representation of Christianity from the first century CE, doesn't really go into much detail about how these Christian sects regulated their communities and what distinct beliefs they developed, but admittedly these things are probably better suited for another book entirely.
(Oh, and I especially want to recommend the book to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) alagbon, since Jenkins does discuss briefly but in some detail the influence the music used by the Syrian churches had on European Christian religious music.) |
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| Comments: |
Maybe you've caught me in a deconstructive mood, but: why a corner? It seems like a very mixed metaphor is all.
Thanks! And apart from the musical aspect I've got a fair amount of interest in the early Church, so this is definitely up my alley.
Incidentally, have you read or heard of a book called The Chemical Muse, about the use of mind-altering drugs in classical Greece and Rome? I started it yesterday and while the basic premise makes sense to me I'm not nearly enough of a classicist to figure out whether or not it's total hogwash. The author does seem to be far more rational and research-driven than the nut who wrote The Sacred Mushroom And The Cross, and in the picture on the dustjacket he doesn't look like a raving lunatic or a stoner, so I think it's solid but I really dunno.
I think you'll find it worth reading. Although Jenkins has very specific theories he wants to advance, he avoids falling into the trap of just using the history as dressing for his arguments. My favorite account, besides his depressing portraits of the remnants of Christian communities in the Middle East, was one about how the eleventh century government of Egypt exploited anti-Christian paranoia, which included widespread fears that native Coptic Christians were going to use knowledge of "Greek fire" supplied by Byzantine-funded agents to blow up landmarks. The more things change...
Thanks for the recommendation! I've read a little bit about the relationship between mind-altering drugs and the mystery cults and oracles, but its influence on philosophers and artists in antiquity isn't something I haven't heard about before. I'll definitely look into it.
Definitely looks like a good read; I'll add it to my List.
The Chemical Muse, so far, seems to be one of the all-too-rare books about historical drug use that isn't full of asinine speculation stemming from overindulgence on drugs on the part of the author. It does, however, seem to be written for a general audience rather than Serious Historians, which makes me a wee bit impatient with it at times. | |
