The Lost History of Christianity

Short Review: The cover of the book is a stylized map of Africa, Europe and Asia all connected by Jerusalem. This map made sense when the three continents were roughly equal in Christianity. To the east Christians stretched to China and India and had significant communities of Christians that were probably numerically more than the Christians in Europe in the 6th century. But with the rise of Islam and then later Mongols there was both significant persecution and times of relative tranquility but eventually much of Christians in the East disappeared under persecution and those small communities that have remained have be decimated in the last 150 years.

The first part tracks history, but much of the second part explores how Islam and Christianity interacted, how persecution in this case did not strengthen the church. This is important book to think about especially as we think about modern persecution.

My full (nearly 1500 word) review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/lost-history/