Whose Religion Is Christianity?: The Gospel beyond the West

Rating:
Summary: A collection of directionless subjective opinions.
Review: I read this book as a follow up to Philip Jenkins's "The Next Christendom." Unfortunately, it does not compare well. The book reads like a FAQ (frequently asked questions) from a poorly written website as an infomercial promoting the greatness of Africanized Christianity.

The author makes several interesting points however. One is that Christianity has grown faster than Islam because Christianity has allowed for the Bible to be translated in tens if not hundreds of different vernacular languages. Christianity has even allowed indigenous population to use their own word for God. Islam has shown no such flexibility or adaptation as one is not allowed to translate the Qoran. Another interesting point is that according to the author, Christianity at the onset was a religion of peace meanwhile Islam was a religion of the State and the Sword as Mohammed was both a military and political leader. The author states that the crusades were an aberration of Christianity's history. And, that today all Christians feel guilt and shame when remembering the crusades. Meanwhile, Muslims are proud of all the historical and current Jihads they campaigned for.

But the above are just interesting concepts lost in a sea of directionless questions and answers. The author is brilliant, highly educated (teacher at both Harvard and Yale). But, his book is little more than a random collection of his own subjective opinions not supported well enough by much facts, studies, or reference to other works. Because of the odd question and answer format, the author never develops a coherent and focused theory tied to the title's subject.

As mentioned, if you want to study this subject more effectively I strongly recommend Philip Jenkins "The Next Christendom" instead.