Lost Christianity: A Q&A with Philip Jenkins

Dear Philip Jenkins,

Thanks for your nice article of "Lost Christianity" which I enjoyed reading it very much. I think there are some very important points or issues you still need to know and research regarding the population of Christianity since Islam started until today for the last 1400 years. What is the reason behind for being in such low percentage at present?

Best Regards

Gilgamesh Gabriel

I’m Assyrian Christian from Mesopotamia

It is not wise to comment on a book beore reading it, so I will not be disrespectful of Mr. Jenkins' work.

Yet, like a previous contributor I must wonder out loud what is meant by the statement "Christians survive perfectly well for centuries under Muslim regimes, and the relations between the two are often excellent".

My understanding of the relationship between Christians and Moslems is that the operative words to describe it were "survive" and "under". That Islam might have been magnanimous at times can be easily understood, after all they were the "conquerors". Christians who wanted to live and practice their faith obviously had to toe the line. And by practice I mean "believe" and not "propagate" their beliefs in Christ.

If Jenkin's book has a different story to that familar one, I truly would like to hear him tell it. It would be a delight to know that there was a time when Islam was both powerful and tolerant.

If only we could get "militant Islam" to pause and reflect on those days of glory, for which they crave so much these days.

With regard to Muslim, and other types of "tolerance" the above writers make a good point. "Tolerance" is not the same as "pluralism," the latter being what we strive for in our own society. Pluralism means that there is no state religion, and that all faiths are equal under the law, have equal rights, and are not just "tolerated." In practice, "tolerance" of any minority group, and especially of Christian communities in Muslim countries, all too often means that, "We will allow you to practice your beliefs, but not in public. You will not be allowed to build new houses of worship, or carry out repairs and renovations to those you have. You will not be persecuted, unless your followers become too successful, too numerous, or too influential. At that point we will incite just enough mob violence to only kill as many of you as necessary for us to maintain our own position of power." The history of Syrian and Armenian Christians is just one example, and there are many others, not to mention that of the Jews in both Europe and the middle east.

In this country, we too often discount the wisdom of our founders in specifically precluding the establishment of a state religion. Nowhere in Christian doctrine or belief is it stated that Christianity should be a state religion; indeed, Jesus and the apostles repeatedly point out that we should not expect, or want, as Christians, to be powerful politically. The opposite is true of Islam, which explicitly calls for the establishment of theocracy as its ultimate goal.