Book Description
"Without Anne Tyler, American fiction would be an immeasurably bleaker place."
NEWSDAY
Evie Decker is a shy, slightly plump teenager, lonely and silent. But her quiet life is shattered when she hears the voice of Drumstrings Casey on the radio and becomes instantly attracted to him. She manages to meet him, bursting out of her lonely shell--and into the attentive gaze of the intangible man who becomes all too real....
From the Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
A Likely Childhood.......2007-04-09
You may find yourself reminiscing about your own childhood as you read this novel. Put your feet up and enjoy!
Anne Tyler is always excellent.......2007-03-02
Is there a better author alive today? Nope, I still can't think of one. I read this in a single sitting.
I gave the lady a short review last week, and I'm going to do it again now. I started with her first published book and am happily working my way forward through a career that the rest of us can only dream about. Not because of any financial rewards, but just because she knows she gave us this, an amazing body of literature that will always be there.
This book and IF MORNING EVER COMES have a special charm for me because they bring back memories of my own childhood. It's been said she moved her writing out of the South, but I don't think you can take the South out of the writer. I'll find out.
I went to used bookstores, but you can probably go to the local library. Do what I'm doing. Get all her books, start with the oldest, work your way to the newest, and just marvel and enjoy.
First-time Tyler reader... .......2006-07-02
My first impression was, "What a waste of time." But- I kept thinking about this story, which is a characteristic I value.
The characters seemed implausable. Little they did felt real; they were just unbelievable. Evie's behavior is never really explained either; her seeming obsession and devotion to this remote guitarist is rather implied.
She has a turning point when he publicly insults her, even though he has allowed plenty of humiliation in the hopes it would help his career. While it seems like it will cause no lasting damage, she eventually makes some changes on her own.
It's curious and disturbing. I'd like to say it ends hopeful, but I don't find myself necessarily pleased with Evie. I can see some similarities in Tyler's work from the movie The Accidental Tourist. Don't know if I will read another or not.
Stay away!.......2006-06-15
I've never read any of her other work, so it's actually possible that the author of this book is as awesome as all the reviews posted here say. However, I have read this book. And it's not awesome. In fact, it's achingly far from being so--stupid characters, snail-like plot, and a complete lack of insight into anything. I think reading it may have killed brain cells I can't afford to loose.
If you're interested in groupie/musician relationships, I suggest getting yourself a copy of Bye Bye Baby: My Tragic Love Affair with the Bay City Rollers.
Down and down we go . . . ........2005-12-09
The third and last of her novels set in North Carolina, this coming-of-age story centers around the shy 17-year-old Evie Decker. Everyone around her basically ignores her, but she sets her eyes on rock-and-roll guitarist Drum Casey and begins doing things to attract his attention. One thing she does is carve his name into her forehead with scissors one night at the bar where Drum plays.
Their relationship rollercoasters for a while until Drum proposes marriage and they elope. Things really start going bad for Drum, and Evie tries to help him out, to no avail - until she comes up with a brainstorm: Evie decides she will concoct a kidnapping of Drum by his fans, which ends up being a disaster (from bad to worse, as the book's title implies). Evie's father dies of a heart attack shortly after and then she discovers she's pregnant (even more slipping-down). She wants Drum to move into her father's house with her, but he refuses, and she dumps him.
Although some of the scenes seem a bit far-fetched and unbelievable, Tyler's portrait of Evie is sincere and assertive. The most interesting theme for me involved the symbolic use of a mirror: when Evie carves her forehead near the beginning of the book, she steps through the mirror she is standing before - like Alice in Wonderland, stepping into a different life. At the end, when she tells Drum that it was other people who forcibly cut her forehead, she looks into a mirror again and steps back through it into "reality" again. The novel still has an apprentice feel to it, though Tyler by this stage is showing growth and maturity in her work.
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Loss And Decline in the Novels of Anne Tyler: The Slipping-Down Life
Susan S. Adams
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a slipping down life
tyler anne
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A Slipping-Down Life
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A Slipping-Down Life
Anne Tyler
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Book Description
Dear Friends,
Bad luck, bad timing and a truly bad decision have taken the mischief right out of this Menace. Grown-up and wiser, I'm finally ready to take charge of my life. I'm through being impulsive. I'm done being reckless. I will not take up with a scoundrel again.
So much for good intentions.
Jake Kimball is a legend -- daring, dashing and dangerous. A treasure hunter by trade, he has traveled the globe seeking adventure and stealing hearts. But now he's set his sights on me. Facing a threat unlike any other, Jake needs something only I can provide. He lures me with a dream I believed lost forever, and tempts me with the chance to change my bad luck.
Dare a Menace put her trust in a scoundrel?
Maybe. As long as her father doesn't find out.
Love,
Kat McBride
Customer Reviews:
Not Much of A Scoundrel If You Ask Me..........2005-12-21
This is the first book by Geralyn Dawson's I have read. I saw her come up a few times on the historical romance list but, didn't give her a try until now. My first pick was "Her Scoundrel".
I liked this book for the most part as it was fast moving and events always seemed to be happening in the book. I felt the heroine Katrina had spunk, grit and perseverance. In turn, the main hero Jake was adventuresome, hardy and intelligent. The interaction between the characters was easy to follow and the reason for their involvement made sense.
Kat's earlier life - meeting a cad named Rory Callahan and her relationship with him and getting pregnant - was made a very small part of this book but, clearly was important. In turn, Jake's constant adventures after his brother came up missing was critical but, also not discussed too much.
I did like the chemistry of the two once they met up and really enjoyed the scenes when Jake had eligible ladies come to his estate to meet up with his sister's children with whom he now had custody. He needed to find the right gal to be his wife so, he could take off on more adventures and someone could mother his newly gained brood of 5 children. Kat and her sister Emma were invited to the event and the disguise used to fool Jake was fun. I enjoyed parts of the book like that as they were witty, creative and enjoyable to follow.
The love scenes were tastefully written and occurred as expected. Only the scene dealing with Kat and Jared on their honeymoon and the Arabian nights event made me sit up and take extra notice.
Clearly this book is one in a series of stories that involve the McBride's sisters and all the mishaps that their lives take on (bad luck dresses, cakes, etc.). I felt this author did a good job in bringing all the characters to life so, they felt real. Even many of the secondary characters such as Kat's father, mother-in-laws and sisters, and Jake's new children and friends were interesting and heavily involved in the plot. There was plenty going on in this story to keep a reader interested - a missing in action brother in the mountains, mysterious crosses and necklaces, odd dreams that come true, adoption of five children to raise, house fires, and more. The author seems to have a good handle of how to create a story that keeps going and going and then some.
Sometimes I wondered if the book spent too much time on "events" and less on the real relationship between Kat and Jake? I like to see a relationship develop and to hear each characters thoughts along the way. This book did this but, in more limited measure than I usually like.
I will try some of her other books to see how they fair. This was a good read just not one of my favorites unfortunately. I would have given 3 1/2 stars rather than 4 but, not a choice. Maybe the next one will really win me over? We'll see.
I loved it!!!.......2005-12-01
Read this one in one sitting! Wonderful characters with real emotions. If you like humor and your heartstrings pulled-I can highly recommend this and can't wait for the next bride's story.
wonderful western romance.......2005-11-30
In 1880 in the Himalayas, Jake and Daniel Kimball search for the legendary Shambhala when Daniel becomes ill, but informs his worried brother that he heard the sacred call. Jake dreams that Daniel entered Shambhala, but before doing so tells his sibling to find the necklace and his family. Jake awakens to the realization that his brother has stepped over to the earthly paradise for the pure of heart leaving him alone in the frozen mountainside.
In 1891 adventurer Jake is at Galveston Island, Texas when pregnant "Menace" Kat McBride Callahan calls him a thief. Kat demands he give to her the Sacred Heart Altar Cross, but he says he bought it not stole it from her late spouse Rory Callahan. She offers to buy the Cross, but he refuses. Instead he offers to trade it for her necklace, which reminds him of his Himalayan dream. He thinks he found his "family' in Texas as he believes this woman about to give birth to someone else's child is his beautiful beloved, but to convince the Menace he loves her and her baby is going to prove quite an adventure.
The second Menace tale (see HER BODYGUARD) contains fresh fantasy elements that enhance this wonderful western romance. Though not wanting to believe in luck, Jake recognizes the necklace worn by Kat and cannot resist following her to Fort Worth to learn more about her family heirloom and her. He soon feels lucky in love, but to persuade his Kat that they, her daughter and his niece belong together seems impossible as his Menace refuses to trust in love. Readers will enjoy this tale and the teaser involving the final Menace in Scotland wanted for murder.
Harriet Klausner
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Book Description
ixty-five million years ago, aliens transplanted Earth's dinosaurs to the moon of a gas-giant world. Now, intelligent saurians-the Quintaglios-have emerged. The Face of God is what every young saurian learns to call the immense, glowing object which fills the night sky on the far side of the world. Young Afsan is called to distant Capital City to ap-prentice with Saleed, the court astrologer. But when the time comes for Afsan to make his coming-of-age pilgrimage and gaze upon the Face of God, his world is changed forever-for Afsan is the Quintaglio counterpart of Galileo. He must convince his people of the truth about their place in the universe before tidal forces rip the dino-saurs' new home apart. So begins Robert J. Sawyer's classic trilogy, the Quintaglio Ascension, an early masterpiece by the latest winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Customer Reviews:
You won't believe what he does and what is done to him........2007-04-17
Robert Sawyer's Far Seer puts the fascination back into Science Fiction.
Afsan, the protaganist in this book is a compilation of Galileo, Martin Luther,Magellan and maybe others in a Sauruian body that will have you turning pages and looking forward to getting back to reading. There is even a Captain Ahab character. I look forward to the next two in this trilogy,which I promptly orderred as soon as soon as I finished Far-Seer. If you want a summary of the book an excellent one has been done below by Arthur W. Jordin.
I Strongly recommmend this book.
The Great Discoveries.......2007-02-10
Far-seer (1992) is the first SF novel in the Quintaglio Ascension series. Although not mentioned in the novel itself, the back cover states that aliens transplanted dinosaurs (and other species) from Earth to another world over sixty-five million years ago. Now one type of dinosaur has achieved intelligence and the beginnings of the scientific method.
The new world has only one known continent in the middle of a global ocean. Most Quintaglios believe that this continent is floating in a huge River among the stars. The prophet Larsk has discovered that sailing upstream -- east -- in the River will bring one to a position where the Face of God can be seen.
In this volume, Asfan is an apprentice astrologer. His master is Tak-Saleed, the Royal Astrologer, a very contrary and overbearing Quintaglio. But he has done some brilliant work.
Asfan has wanted to be an astrologer since he discovered the night sky. He has been an apprentice to Saleed longer than any of the previous six. Yet sometimes he just has to get away from his master and be alone. On those occasions, he goes to a hillside outside the Capitol on an even night (when almost everyone is sleeping) to watch the stars and other celestial objects pass overhead.
Returning from one such escape, Asfan finds his master arguing with a former crechemate. After commenting on his (usual) tardiness, Saleed introduces Asfan to Captain Var-Keenir, a legendary shipmaster. Asfan is very impressed, for everybody has heard about Keenir and his ship, the Dasheter.
After Keenir leaves, Saleed mentions the device that they had been arguing about: a tube with lens at both ends that makes distant objects appear closer. Saleed dismisses this so-called "far-seer" as unnecessary to a practicing astrologer; everything he would need to know is recorded in the works of the ancients.
When Asfan grows enthusiastic at the thought of using the far-seer for a closer look at the moons and the Face of God, Saleed accuses him of blasphemy and sends him to the Hall of Worship to make penance. There Det-Yebalb, the High Priest, talks to him about taking his pilgrimage to observe the Face of God and suggests that he attend his first Hunt before he takes the pilgrimage.
On the Hunt, Asfan performs an extraordinary feat to bring down a thunderbeast, a vegetarian dinosaur with a huge body, long neck and small head. The story is circulating in the Capitol before he regains consciousness. After he recovers, it soon is time to leave on the Dasheter for his pilgrimage.
He is accompanied by Prince Dybo, a close friend. Yet Asfan has an audience with the Empress in which she explains that Dybo can go, but Asfan had better make sure that Dybo returns alive and well. Asfan is very impressed by the intensity of the Empress.
In this story, Asfan and Dybo sail east -- upstream -- across the River toward the Face of God. The journey outbound is long -- 130 days -- before they reach a position under the enormous Face. Asfan is kept busy doing ship chores, but Keenir also allows him to use the far-seer. Asfan spends most of his free time looking at the objects in the night sky or examining the Face of God.
Asfan's observations lead him to certain conclusions that he believes will destroy the current religion. Later, he meets Wab-Novoto, maker of the far-seer, and learns even more. When Asfan returns to the Capitol, the Empress has died in an accident and Dybo is now Emperor.
Asfan discovers that Saleed is not within his office, but is home sick. Although Asfan doesn't want to admit it, Saleed is old and dying. They have one more conversation and Asfan becomes determined to tell his new truths at all costs. Even when he is accused of being a demon and imprisoned in a makeshift cell, Asfan refuses to waver.
Since this is a trilogy, this story reveals the backstory and sets the hook for the sequels. The historical impacts of both Copernicus and Magellan are compressed into a single voyage. Great things should continue to occur in the coming volumes.
The concept of intelligent dinosaurs is not unique to this author. Harry Harrison used the same idea in his Eden series, an alternate history where dinosaurs became a sapient species and mankind never developed. However, the Quintaglio Ascension series sets up an unusual motivation for technological development.
Highly recommended for Sawyer fans and for anyone else who has missed this tale of astronomical discovery and church politics.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Such a different worl, such a simmilar problems.......2006-02-10
Robert Sawyer excels at creating alternate worlds that go beyond the mere description and set consistent, functional even logical in their own context societies and sentient beeing relations (I was about to say human relations but their mostly non human). In this book the dinosaurs society with all the impact of ther genetic legacy and evolved cosmology is so credible that one wonders how come we haven't found them yet. I agree with one of the previous reviewers in that if a weak point must be named it should be the main character specially when it goses from Galileo to a mixture of Jesus and Cesar. For another (and IMHO even better) alternate world from Sawyer I strongly recomend you try the Neanderthal trilogy (Hominid-Human-Hybrid)
Excellent.......2005-06-14
There are so few books out there that when you read them you never want to put it down. Robert Sawywer's Far-Seer is one such book, The story is highly emotional, exciting and riviting of the clash of science and religion. I highly recommend this trilogy. Robert Sawyer does a perfect job wiriting of Afsan an aspiring astromer his discoveries and his ultimate dilemma he faces when he must convince and help his people.
Midwest Book Review - great story from the sci fi master.......2004-06-26
To borrow a phrase from an earlier review of Far-Seer, Robert Sawyer is the "master of biological speculation." After reading five of this author's books, I'll add my spin on that statement by saying he is the sci fi master, period. Far-Seer is a parable without equal.
Afsan is a simple country saurian, chosen as apprentice to Master Astrologer Tak-Saleed. Afsan enjoys the tranquility and peace of the night sky, entertains solitary thoughts of mysteries, and faces life with gentle humor despite his hunter's instincts. Afsan's world is one of landquakes and erupting volcanoes. His species is Quintaglio - meat eating dinosaurs. Afsan's destiny is set long before his birth.
If you believe it's impossible to sympathize with a dinosaur, think again. You'll be drawn into Afsan's life as I was, experiencing each rite of Quintaglio passage: the thrill of the hunt; his first ocean voyage to see the Face of God; his first encounter with a female. And you'll share his wonder while examining the heavens through a far-seer (telescope); his joy at proving the earth round; his horror when all signs point to the destruction of the world Quintaglios call home.
Robert Sawyer makes it all so real. This is a touching story, personable and intimate and thrilling. The saurian characters are believable as they struggle with the hypocrisies and territorial instincts of civilization. I can scarcely wait to read Books Two and Three.
Book Description
The first edition of The Next Christendom has been hailed as a landmark in our understanding of modern Christianity. In this new and substantially expanded second edition, Jenkins continues to illuminate the remarkable expanion of Christianity in the global South--in Africa, Asia, and Latin America--as well as the clash betwen Islam and Christianity since September 11. Among the major topics covered are the growing schism between Northern and Southern churches over issues of gender and sexuality, immigrant and ethnic churches in North America, and a special section on the split within the Anglican Communion. The first in a three-book trilogy on the changes besetting modern Christianity, this award-winning book will be welcomed by all of those who have come to recognize Philip Jenkins as one of our leading commentators on religion and world affairs.
Customer Reviews:
Our Mad Max Future.......2007-05-26
Cretinous fundamentalist Christians vs. moronic fundamentalist Muslims. Sponsored by the WWE, coming to a venue near you! Rationalists, free thinkers and freedom loving secularists need not apply.
Makes sense to me. Why should anyone bank on the intelligence of most of the human race? Just what we need--a new round of fanatics killing each other over which antiquated book of fairy tales is the "true" one.
Well, why not? Secularists may believe that the human race is moving beyond belief in the great ghost in the sky and the mythical fairyland called "heaven", but I'm sure the Hellenic intellectuals in the Mediterranean thought so 2,000 years ago as well.
Get ready for a world in which "non-believers" can expect to be persecuted, prosecuted and stoned again by primitive fanatics. At the very least, we will be unable to avoid being caught in the crossfire between the "holy armies of righteousness".
christianity north and south.......2007-01-18
A little over twenty years ago David Barrett published his book World Christian Encyclopedia (1982; 2002) that documented a growing change in Christianity's center of gravity. After flourishing around the Mediterranean perimeter, Christianity was overtaken by Islam by the eighth or ninth century. For the next millennium, Christianity migrated to Europe. Now, with Philip Jenkins's new book, we can say with confidence that yet another massive shift has occurred in Christianity, away from the wealthy and primarily white regions of the northern hemisphere, to the poor and non-white regions of the southern hemisphere.
Here in the wealthy west believers wrangle over gay rights, the role of women in ministry, declining membership in mainline denominations, increased secularity (at least by some measures), clergy celibacy and the like. But a counter reformation of sorts has already occurred among poor believers in the south, says Jenkins. Their orientation is theologically and socially conservative, with unapologetic belief in the supernatural, healing, exorcisms and so on. With so many failed states and dysfunctional governments in these parts of the world, the leaders of these ascendant Christian movements have gained increased power and prestige.
This upsurge of conservative Christianity runs counter to so much of the modern west, but according to demographics, in the case of the Gospel the modern west might matter less and less. In 1900 Africa was about 10% Christian; today about 46% of the population is Christian. In fifty years, half of the world's Christian population will be in Africa and Latin America, and only about 20% of believers will be non-Latino whites. A Nigerian pope? It might only be a matter of time. If you cannot read his book length version, Jenkins has an abbreviated version of his research in the Atlantic Monthly (October 2002), pages 53-68.
An important look at the future of this century.......2006-03-06
While this book is focused on the future, the author from time to time writes of events in the past, to give context to the present situation and the predictions for the future that he makes. I learned a lot of history I did not know, as well as learned about the practices found in Christianity found throughout the world today.
The book's premise that Christianity will become centered in the Southern Hemisphere in this century, breaking away from its previous Western European/North American focus, makes sense to me. It makes a lot more sense to me than the contention of John Shelby Spong and those of a similar stripe, that Christianity is dying and therefore must become "modern" to survive. The Christianity that Spong sees may be dying in Western Europe and North America, but this book by Jenkins gives hope that Christianity will thrive among people with more faith.
I think that this is a book that JOURNALISTS especially should read, as well as academics who analyze world events. Jenkins points out something that I see already, that future government leaders, academics and such in the West will not even comprehend the events of the world because religion is off their radar screen. This book made much sense to me in light of the Denmark Mohammed cartoon controversy. Because they and others were clueless as to the meaning of religion to Muslims, they were clueless as to the response their actions would generate. While this book is about Christianity primarily, still I've seen in other news coverage the complete absence of great conflicts, or when conflicts are covered, they totally miss the point of the conflicts because religion is off their radar screen. This book could help put religion on the radar screen of journalists and academics.
For Christian readers, the value of this book is in preparing for the "New World Order," so to speak, in Christianity, where the direction of the church will be decided by those in Africa and Latin America and Asia more than those in the West. Jenkins describes how this Christianity is likely to appear; for some it will be easy to accept, but for others it will look far different from what they are accustomed to.
I highly recommend this book as an informed, well thought out look at the changes we are likely to see in this century, particularly in Christianity, but also in the world as a result of the influence of Christianity coming from new locations.
a world far different from the one we thought we knew.......2005-09-16
In a memorable passage from the movie APOLLO THIRTEEN, a military man in the tense Houston control room shares with a political figure his premonition that the tragedy unfolding before them will be *the* catastrophic moment for the space program. Mission control flight chief Gene Kranz overhears their conversation and addresses it: 'With all due respect, gentleman, I believe this will be our finest hour.' The scene could stand in for the hand-wringing that often accompanies the apparent demise of the Western church when it comes to prognosticating on its fate over against the perceived adversaries of secularism and post-modernism. Philip Jenkins reminds us that, when viewed through a wide-screen lens, the immediacy of threat often yields to a broad panorama of opportunity.
Over against the fear of resurgent religion that shows its face among our cultural elites, Philip Jenkins sketches the rise of 'global Christianity' in predominantly positive terms. The Penn State University scholar of religion has noticed long before most of us that the face of Christendom is already brown, southern, and confident. He helps us to work through the implications of this even as he persuades us that the hegemony of Euro-American Christianity is a thing of the past and that-unless we pay attention-we who are part of it are likely to be, as the old song says, the last to know.
In the first of ten compact chapters ('The Christian Revolution', pp. 1-14), Jenkins starts out with a bang. Professional analysts of global trends have missed out on perhaps the biggest one, a fact that the title of Jenkins' opening chapter provocatively suggests. Religious revolutions are not, as Western intellectuals too often suppose, mere matters of the heart. They bring with them profoundly this-worldly repercussions like crusades, wars, and what Samuel Huntington has famously termed 'the clash of civilizations'. They can also renew societies. Jenkins informs us that a 'Christian revolution' is already underway in the developing world, one that our political leaders ignore to the peril of all of us.
The historian who can write well-researched prose for a popular readership and manage to turn large assumptions on their head is a valuable person indeed. Jenkins accomplishes just this in his second chapter ('Disciples of All Nations' pp. 15-38). He helps us to see that Christianity is not best understood as a western religion. Its African, Middle Eastern, and Asian successes were large and entrenched centuries before it came to be perceived by some as the faith of white men. Even popular myth of Christian crusades dispossessing Muslims of their ancestral turf is misleading in the extreme when viewed against the historical facts of Islamic expansionism and enduring Christian communities among those peoples whom we today identify reflexively as Muslim. Europe entered late into this story. Jenkins wonders, with one of his sources, whether the universal Christianity he describes is not best seen as the 'renewal of a non-western religion', a suggestion that gains credence when one ponders how alien Western skepticism immediately appears when placed beside the biblical documents, on the one hand, and ancient or emerging Christian movements from Africa or Asia, on the other.
If Western mythology about the missionary enterprise(s) is to be believed, it is the power of kings, companies, and missionaries that enforced a European Christian faith upon the reluctant peoples of the Two-Thirds World. Jenkins does not believe it, however, arguing that even when these institutions are given their due, Christianity has become an indigenous brushfire in many of the regions under review ('Missionaries and Prophets', pp. 39-53). Indeed, Christian faith of one variety or another-and sometimes several at once-appears to have thrived since the retreat of colonial powers. A guilty missionary conscience would appear to be a neurosis suffered largely in the West.
When the demise of European empires brought forward the moment for non-Western churches to stand alone, they had little trouble doing so (Ch. 3, 'Standing Alone, pp. 55-78). Indeed, the European retraction coincided with several significant Christian advances that affected both the European-founded churches and newer autochthonous movements. Academic interest in the latter often overshadows the at least as remarkable health of Roman Catholic, Anglican, and other traditional churches. Jenkins observes parallels between the developments he surveys in the 'South' and those that characterized a similar time of awakening, urbanization, and religious effervescence in the industrializing North.
Jenkins' fifth chapter ('The Rise of the New Christianity', pp. 79-105) produces some plausible and startling speculations based upon demographic trends extrapolated out from evidence that is available today. Population growth and contraction look poised to reduce European populations radically while a boom in many southern states continues apace. When turning to religious indicators, all of them suggest that the surge in southern Christianity has barely begun. The picture becomes even more interestingly when population mobility is factored into the equation. Immigration to Europe may well establish a renewed Christian presence on that continent. America looks set to become even more of a Christian nation than it is today, again due to immigration.
In 'Coming to Terms' (ch. 6, pp. 107-139), Jenkins surveys how churches in the Two-Thirds world `inculturate' the gospel in their cultural contexts. Though the results are sometimes alarming to Western Christians, Jenkins' view is rather more sanguine, claiming that most of these adaptations are well within the parameters of recognizably Christian faith. As demographic changes favor the Southern churches, their patterns of life and worship-often viscerally supernatural in their orientation-are bound to become the dominant ones in a new Christendom.
Jenkins' seventh chapter prognosticates about the varying models of church and state that can be expected as important southern countries become demographically Christian ('God and the World', pp. 141-162). The predictions are not all reassuring to heirs of a strong tradition of separation between the two. Even more unsettling is the possibility of a secular north looking down its nose at-and perhaps coming to blows with-a fervently religious south. In the limited but important realm of ecclesiastical politics, events since the 2002 publication of the book make Jenkins look prescient, a virtue he takes scholarly care to disown. Developments in the American political landscape make one wonder whether this country might become divided in two along the same lines rather than ease into alignment with its secular northern compeers. The sight of sophisticated American Episcopalians separating from local oversight, calling themselves 'Anglicans', and placing themselves under the pastoral care of African bishops may be the robin that calls this particular Spring.
Jenkins' book is highly quotable and for this reason often brandished as a triumphalist Christian tract. That this is a misreading of his work is nowhere more obvious than in his prediction of continued and severe Muslim-Christian conflict ('The Next Crusade', 163-190) in those regions where both Islam and Christianity are experiencing a resurgence. Jenkins acknowledges that a world in which powerful adversaries take religion far more seriously than does today's sophisticated North should keep strategic planners up at night. Simple parents imagining the world in which their children will come of age might also join this insomniac corps.
What effect will southern Christianity have on northern churches and culture? This is Jenkins' question in 'Coming Home' (pp. 191-209). Events since the late 90s have given the author some hard facts to work with. The southern churches are almost all theologically and culturally more conservative than their northern partners. But are they so distinct so as to be incapable of re-evangelizing secularized Europe and the USA? Maybe not. Stay tuned.
Jenkins takes up his final opportunity ('Seeing Christianity Again for the First Time', pp. 211-220) in the first person plural, for the first time plainly identifying himself as a Christian social scientist who cares deeply about the 'we' of Christian faith. Dispassionate analysis is exchanged for what becomes almost an indictment of northern Christian myopia. From the angle which Jenkins permits us to view the world of, say 2050 A.D., the persecution and poverty of which so much are made in the New Testament literature is also the context of the majority of today's Christians (not to mention those who await their moment a half-century hence).
As a Christian reviewer whose work takes him to those corners of the world (or are they its centers?) that Jenkins surveys, I find in Jenkins' work the ring of truth. Many Christians exult in the statistics of Christian resurgence that crowd the pages of this book and allow its title to sound something other than arrogant. In my judgment, they have misread Jenkins. There is more challenge here than pom-poms for waving by those of us whose historical circumstances make it comfortable to cheer on impoverished brethren who remain-by and large-at a safe distance.
This is not an optimistic book, though it is profoundly hopeful. It is perhaps among the two or three that Western Christians ought first to read in this decade, as we hope for a revision of this fine work in the next. We live on the cusp of extraordinary Christian advance, indeed it is already upon us. In the light of these demographic trends, however, the ancient voice of Tertullian sounds ever more pertinent to the world that is already taking shape, a world that Jenkins urges us to see from an entirely fresh angle. 'The blood of the martyrs', that church father still soberly reminds us, 'is the seed of the church.'
the Church to Come.......2005-09-11
The Next Christendom, by Philip Jenkins, 258 pages.
This may be the most important book you'll read this year. "The Next Christendom" is a well-informed prophet's prediction about what the church will look like in the next century. Jenkins, professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State, has thoroughly researched the current trends of the church worldwide, unlike most contemporary church literature, which tends to focus only on the U.S. His conclusions are filled with hope for a growing church, but challenging for the northern hemisphere in which mainline churches are dying.
The face of Christianity in the next hundred years will no longer be dominated by white faces and English voices. It will be primarily African, Latin American, and Southeast Asian, what Jenkins calls the "Southern churches." The West has been criticized for capitalizing on missions. Jomo Kenyatta said, "When the missionaries came, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, `Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible, and they had the land." Nonetheless, though colonialism has died, the churches have not. Southern churches are now actually sending missionaries back to Europe. There are 1500 of them in England. Stephen Tirwomwe of Uganda said, "The country needs reconverting." The church of the next hundred years will be lead by the results of the last century's missionary efforts. "The empires have struck back," says Jenkins.
The next Christendom is fundamentally charismatic. In the Southern churches, people attend because they get healed. They are "simplistically charismatic, visionary, and apocalyptic. In this thought-world, prophecy is an everyday reality, while faith-healing, exorcism, and dream-visions are all basic components of religious sensibility." Furthermore, theologically, "...a Southernized Christian future should be distinctly conservative." Christians in the United States tend to look askance at the miraculous. No one will have to convince them, says Jenkins; they are simply being left behind.
Of course the great religious conflicts of the next century will be between Christianity and Islam. African countries like Niger are now probably 45% of each, with both competing for control of the government. Pakistan currently has a potential death sentence for evangelizing Muslims. The 1960's witnessed bloodshed between the faiths in Africa, and riots through the 90's.
Africa will be more and more on our radar screen in coming days. Episcopalean bishops in Africa are ordaining conservative North American priests in reaction to that denomination's views of homosexuality. Warfare in Rwanda and Sudan are more frequent in the media.
This book is a must read for any informed Christian or church observer.
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The Christian Future. .(The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity)(Book Review) (book review): An article from: Policy Review
Ross Douthat
Manufacturer: Hoover Institution Press
ProductGroup: Book
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Policy Review, published by Hoover Institution Press on February 1, 2003. The length of the article is 2533 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Christian Future. .(The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity)(Book Review) (book review)
Author: Ross Douthat
Publication:
Policy Review (Refereed)
Date: February 1, 2003
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
Page: 89(6)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Institute on Religion and Public Life on June 1, 2002. The length of the article is 1669 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Living in Interesting Times.(THE NEXT CHRISTENDOM: THE COMING OF GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY) (book review)
Author: David Martin
Publication:
First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2002
Publisher: Institute on Religion and Public Life
Page: 61(4)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Currents in Theology and Mission, published by Thomson Gale on April 1, 2006. The length of the article is 480 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity.(Book review)
Author: Toto Onho Milu
Publication:
Currents in Theology and Mission (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 33
Issue: 2
Page: 174(2)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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