Philip Jenkins

In Jesus Wars, highly respected religious historian Philip Jenkins (The Next Christendom) reveals in bloody detail the fifth century battles over Christianity’s biggest paradox: the dual nature of Jesus Christ, as both fully human and fully divine. Jesus Wars is a must for the bookshelf of those who enjoy the work of Jared Diamond, Karen Armstrong, N.T. Wright, Elaine Pagels, and Alister McGrath, ...

We are often told that early Christianity comprised a vast multitude of strange sects, and that this diversity was wiped out in the fourth century when the Church canonized the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But how, then, can we explain that the scene of the baby Jesus in the manger—the central image of the Christmas story—shows the influence of the “Protevangelium,” or that our belief...