God's Continent: Christianity, Islam and the Religious Crisis in Europe
Will Christianity in Europe collapse under the weight of globalization,
Western secularism and an influx of Islamic
Immigrants? Is Europe About to Become 'Eurabi'? Where
many experts predict such a scenario, God's continent offers
a much more balanced assessment of the religious future of
Europe. Philip Jenkins, who fully recognizes the current tensions,
shows that the hyped rhetoric of a Muslim dominated
Europe is based on myths that serve political purposes: the threat of
large waves of Islamic immigrants, towering Islamic
birth rates and the decline of European Christianity.
He points out that the immigrants are certainly not always Muslim and there
many Christians also come to the rich West, who have a powerful
bring faith that European Christianity will gain a new splendor
gives. According to Jenkins, both Christianity and Islam struggle to
to survive in Europe's secular culture. But instead of gradually
to disappear, both have adapted, and continue to adapt
on. A realistic and historically based assessment of the
future of religion in a rapidly changing Europe.
Philip Jenkins occupies the Edwin Erle Chair as Professor of Humanities at Pennsylvania
State University. He has previously published numerous books, including The Next Christendom and
The New Faces of Christianity