The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity - Hardcover

Philip Jenkins is Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of many books and articles, including Hidden Gospels, Pedophiles and Priests, and Mystics and Messiahs (all OUP). He lives in State College, PA.

"A valuable and provocative look at the phenomenon widely ignored in the affluent North but likely to be of enormous importance in the century ahead.... The Next Christendom is chillingly realistic about the relationship between Christianity and Islam."--Russell Shaw, Crisis

"Jenkins is to be commended for reminding us, throughout the often gripping pages of this lively work of synthesis, that the history of Christianity is the history of innovative--and unpredictable--adaptions."--New York Times Book Review

"If the times demand nothing less than a major rethinking of contemporary global history from a Christian perspective, Philip Jenkins's The Next Christendom will be one of the significant landmarks pointing the way."--Mark Noll, Books & Culture

"A remarkable and disturbing synthesis.... Jenkins deserves praise for his willingness to assess realities rather than focus on vague aspirations and righteous indignation. The effect of his book's trenchant realism is to highlight the dilemmas that follow the fact that 'we're all liberals now.'"--David Martin, First Things

"Well formed, well supported by empirical evidence, and compellingly argued. The only criticism is the brevity of the book."--Library Journal (starred review)

"Meticulously researched...a wake-up call for northern Christians."--National Review

"His well-researched claims serve as a clarion call for anyone interested in the future of Christianity."--Publishers Weekly

"This book startles, informs, and invites careful reflection about the future of the Christian movement, which is obviously far from over."--The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus

"This is a disquieting, even, at times, startling book, the more so because it is so carefully documented and persuasively argued. Jenkins demonstrates why the tidal wave of religious change that is quickly transforming Christianity into a predominantly non-Western, non-White faith has such enormous potential and cultural implications-some of them chilling, all of them demanding an unprecedented theological analysis. New clashes threaten and new coalitions loom, so we cannot view the 21st century as a mere continuation of the 20th."--Harvey Cox, author of Fire From Heaven and Common Prayers

"The worldwide resurgence of Christianity is a vigorous movement in our day, and it coincides with the waning of the religion in what is now a post-Christian West. The attention of writers representing a variety of approaches has been drawn to the subject as the pace of developments in post-colonial societies shows no sign of slackening. Jenkins' book is a timely work of analysis and synthesis, and represents a bold and provocative interpretation that is bound to have a clarifying effect on the work of scholars, whether or not they agree with him. I welcome the book as an important statement on the recent emergence outside the West of Christianity as a world religion."--Lamin Sanneh, Professor of World Christianity and of History, Yale University