The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Softcover

"Remarkable and disturbing,"---First Things. Christianity seems to be on the decline in the West, but there is explosive growth in parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Jenkins looks at these more conservative, evangelical, apocalyptic, mystical brands of faith for a possible glimpse of our future. 288 pages, softcover. Oxford University.

By the year 2,050 only one Christian in five will be non-Latino and white, and the center of gravity of the Christian world will have shifted firmly to the Southern Hemisphere.
The Next Christendom is the first book to take the full measure of the changing face of the Christian faith. Philip Jenkins shows that the churches that have grown most rapidly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are often more morally conservative and apocalyptic than their northern counterparts. Mysticism, puritanism, faith-healing, exorcism, and dream-visions--concepts which more liberal western churches have traded in for progressive political and social concerns--are basic to these newer churches. And the effects of such beliefs on global politics, Jenkins argues, will be enormous, as religious identification begins to take precedence over allegiance to secular nation-states. Indeed, as Christianity grows in regions where Islam is also expected to increase we may even see a return to the religious wars of the past, fought out with renewed intensity and high-tech weapons far surpassing the swords and spears of the middle ages.

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 The New Anti-Catholicism. He lives in State College, PA.

"Philip Jenkins...reminds us that the war may not be huge, but it still rages in too many hearts."--The Philadelphia Inquirer
"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."--The 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
"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

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