The emergence of "the child molester" as Public Enemy Number One -- or, conversely, as an image for hip audiences to snicker over -- is the topic of this book, and it examines how American society has responded to pedophilia over the past century. The author sifts through an enormous volume of evidence, and his tone is as sober as a judge.

He suggests that concern with the sexual abuse of children has developed in waves over the past century or so. In each case, public awareness has gone through a kind of cycle -- from reluctant awareness of the problem, to increased public attention, then to a period of intense fascination and horror culminating in the demand that the government move in to act decisively.

Jenkins argues that we have, for some time now, been in the final stages of the cycle. The expression "moral panic," which gives the book its title, is a sociological term. Those who coined it define moral panic as a state in which public reaction to a problem "is out of all proportions to the actual threat offered, when 'experts' perceive the threat in all but identical terms ... [and] when the media representations universally stress 'sudden and dramatic' increases (in numbers involved or events) and 'novelty,' above and beyond that which a sober, realistic appraisal could sustain."

What makes Moral Panic absorbing is not so much Jenkins' diagnosis of the present situation as his careful reconstruction of how medical and legal institutions came to recognize and understand the existence of molestation. "In the opening years of the twentieth century," he writes, "social and medical investigators argued convincingly that American children were being molested and raped in numbers far higher than had been imagined ... By 1910, social investigators were confirming the worst speculations about the prevalence of child sexual molestation, and panic about sex killers and perverts became acute about 1915." A similar pattern of increased attention and growing anxiety ran from the late 1930s through the early 1950s.

Conceptions of the nature and extent of sexual abuse changed from decade to decade. Extensive documentation -- from social-scientific works, newspaper stories, and mass entertainment forms like crime novels and film -- undermines the impression that pedophilia was only recognized a short time ago. Particularly striking are the parallels between the early years of the century and the present day: "In a foretaste of the 1970s and 1980s," Jenkins writes of the Progressive era, "feminists allied with therapists, social workers, and moral reformers in order to defend children, and the new ideas were promulgated by a sensationalistic media." The wave of concern that peaked in the late 1940s brought with it demands -- also heard lately -- that sex offenders be turned over to more or less permanent psychiatric hospitalization.

Following earlier patterns, the cycle of attention, anxiety, and legislation that began in the late 1970s ought to have burnt itself out by now. Clearly it has not. And some of the bogus "data" afloat about the menace suggests that "panic" is just the right word. "Far from marking a new era of indifference," Jenkins writes, "the year 1995 was characterized by the furor over sex predator statutes and the fear of cyberstalkers. The cycle has been broken in the modern era, when child abuse has become part of our enduring cultural landscape, a metanarrative with the potential for explaining all social and personal ills."

Philip Jenkins did it again. His previous book, 'Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain' talked about child-abuse hysteria that swept Britain some time ago. This new book is actually a history of the concept of child abuse and child abuser in USA in the twentieth century. The book talks in details how that concept looked like at the end of the last century and how it looks like now. I have never read before any book that is so accurate and detailed as this one. For anyone interested in the subject of how society viewed child abuse and child abusers and how is viewing it now, this book is must-have. And I am very happy that Jenkins decided to devote this book to the Joel Best who himself wrote similar book, "Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern about Child-Victims"

Contents:

1. Creating Facts, 2. Constructing Sex Crime, 1890-1934, 3. The Age of the Sex Psychopath, 1935-1957, 4. The Sex Psychopath Statutes, 5. The Liberal Era, 1958-1976, 6. The Child Abuse Revolution, 1976-1986, 7. Child Pornography and Pedophile Rings, 8. The Road to Hell: Ritual Abuse and Recovered Memory, 9. Full Circle: The Return of the Sexual Predator in the 1990s, 10. A Cycle of Panic.

Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State, is neither an anti-porn zealot nor an "anything goes" libertarian. He finds adult pornography tolerable, even believing that "The positive aspects of...legal adult material should be stressed." (p. 222). But he is clearly opposed to child pornography, believing that it should remain illegal and that we should take measures to reduce its existence to a tolerable level.

I was reminded of the war against agricultural pests because what Professor Jenkins stresses is that it is impossible to get rid of child porn on the Net completely without destroying much of what is good about the Net. In trying to completely kill all the pests, we may inadvertently kill all the beneficial insects as well.

This book is ostensibly about the "kiddie porn" culture on the Web, its extent and what can be done about it. Jenkins uses quotes from child porn Bulletin Boards to demonstrate the mind set of the traffickers. He describes a war between citizen vigilante groups and the child pornographers, each employing their hacker expertise in trying to shut down the Web sites and expose the identities of their adversaries. Jenkins does not describe child pornography other than in the most general terms. He claims not to have actually seen any child pornography himself, noting that it is illegal to view such material even for research purposes, and indeed intimates that had he seen such material he would deny having seen it.

The picture that emerges is of a deviant, global community populated by persons hiding behind nicknames and proxies who view and exchange pictures of children through sites and servers from many different places in the world. Jenkins believes that because of the differing laws in the various countries, child pornography cannot be completely eliminated, that it can only be controlled. He depicts the regular deviants themselves as savvy, elusive individuals who change identities and addresses as they stay one step ahead of the law. Only the amateurs get caught.

But there is a bigger issue here emerging out of the struggle between law enforcement and the deviants, and that is the issue of privacy. How can we simultaneously monitor the Web sufficiently to trap, expose and prosecute child pornographers while at the same time protecting ourselves from Big Brother?

Jenkins begins Chapter Six, "Policing the Net," with a revealing quote from Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, a man who ought to know what he is talking about: "You already have zero privacy--get over it." My feeling is that our government and the large corporations already have enough information about us to serve a totalitarian regime (should one ever emerge). Every key stroke on Web can be monitored, recorded and stored. Right now this information is being used mostly for commercial purposes, but we can see how such information could be used to influence, intimidate and control individuals for political purposes. Consequently what this book is really about is the war between the interests of society and those of the individual, the social good verses private interest.

This war is of course as old as humanity, going back even into the tribal culture. But never before has there been such power to coerce and persuade. The tribal leader may have been all powerful within his tribe, so that if you went against him, you would meet with defeat. But you could run away to another place in the world, as humans have always done. Today, and increasingly tomorrow, there is and will be no place to run to.

One of the fears we have of one-world government, now enormously augmented with electronic and computer technology, as Jenkins notes, is that of a totalitarian state from which there is no escape. Our fear is that we will conform to the dictates of that state or we will be punished and "retrained." The Orwellian nightmare in comparison seems limited and amateurish.

So the struggle against the very real and intolerable evil of child pornography becomes in this book a precursor scenario of the struggle of the state against the individual. What Jenkins wants to see happen is some kind of control placed on the invasive nature of the state while somehow maintaining the ability to go after anti-social deviants like the child pornographers. Somehow the state must be restrained but the bad guys controlled.

the author's extensive research adds a level of insight and depth that no other book on this subject can offer

Dr. Jenkins writes an engaging historical examination of how government agencies (Drug Enforcement Administration, police groups)have used alarming claims about designer drugs (and other drugs that have been around for years)in order to fund increasing budgets.

Through a number of case studies, in which he cites statistical information while providing an understanding of how such statistics are gathered, it becomes clear that virtually all of the designer drug panics have been far overrated in their impact. In most cases, there is a small localized following for some drug of abuse, which is then reported in an alarmist fashion as being a major threat to the entire country. Exageration is the norm to those with a vested interest in greater police funding and reduced civil liberties.

He also points out how a press which is always eager to print alarming news to engage readers, and has frequently acted as a stenographer, uncritically publishing these often false claims.

In a constructive finish to the work, the author points out how to spot exaggerated and ungrounded claims, and what to do about them.

This book should be required reading for elected government officials, and concerned citizens.

kbrilhart@mindspring.com

While reputed Jesus "scholars" run through various media outlets declaring their newfound pet theories on the Nazarene to be the latest sensation since The Beatles, Philip Jenkins has provided the public with a much needed jolt back to reality. This book should be read by anyone gullible enough to swallow such ridiculous notions as the claim that Jesus ran off to India to start a family with Mary Magdalene. Likewise, it should be read by those who believe less ludicrous, but still equally false claims regarding the priority of the Gospel of Thomas in comparison to the canonical gospels along with the seeming infallibility of the Jesus Seminar.

Jenkins provides bushels of reminders regarding the fact that the importance of Thomas and other radical claims made by the left-wing of biblical "scholarship" are not "new discoveries" now available due to recent archaeological finds. Rather, the Jesus Seminar and other radicals provide textbook examples of attempts to create a Jesus in their own image or a Jesus that will make them some money: "Jesus the Vegetarian", "Jesus the Mushroom Cult Leader", and "Jesus the Cynic philosopher" are all feeble attempts made by current "scholars" attempting to sell as many copies of their latest books before the unsuspecting, biblically and historically illiterate, public comes to their senses.

Jenkins condemnation of the inability, or unwillingness, of the mainstream media to provide balanced reporting on the latest claims relevant to early Christianity is right on the mark. Book publishers, newspapers, TV networks, and talk show hosts often aren't interested in the facts nearly as much as they are in getting a few bucks or a front row seat for a good battle between the "good scholars" and the "bad, oppressive, traditional Christians". If you're the type who doesn't like it when the facts interfere with your beliefs, then I'd suggest skipping this book. For the rest of us, Jenkins has provided a refreshing return to the real world.

Having studied, for a number of years, the very same texts Jenkins discusses in this book (see some of my other reviews), it dawned on me over time just what the agenda was behind those very scholars touting the texts as 'gospel' truths. Just as they accuse the 'orthodox' of political power mongering, so too are they in the end doing the very same thing. Mr. Jenkins has expressed quite clearly what I too discovered.

While the texts do reveal much about the early Christian movement, they do not tell us anything new about the times of Jesus. They tell us about the life and times of second and third century 'Christians'. Rather than an orthodox Church suppressing a 'true' Christianity, it is more likely the other way around: these groups splintered from a Church already in existence. And the texts we have reveal this -- not the early days of The Way.

Mr. Jenkins does a good, and in my opinion objective, job reporting the realities of the entire industry (and it is truly a powerhouse of an industry). There is an agenda and the results of their scholarly findings look remarakbly similar to the current popular beliefs of our age.

Showing the other side of the coin, this book reveals just what is misleading, even wrong, about the claims. For a long time I too was immersed in these texts and I too wanted to believe they were more representative and that the Church as we have it today in its various splinters was in fact a religious mechanism for political control (though I do believe there are some truths in this). But the reality is that these texts are not 'all that'. They, and the methodologies used in studying and presenting them to the mainstream, are flawed.

This is a book that lucidly and without sensationalism lays bare the facts. It presents the facts on the texts themselves but it goes deeper and reveals what is behind the current studies on these very texts. It is highly recommended to ensure that you don't buy this current wave of scholarship (which, as Mr. Jenkins reiterates, is far from 'new') hook, line and sinker. If you don't wish to have your beliefs shaken then this book may not be for you. But, if you are a seeker of facts in order to establish your own opinion, you won't be disappointed.

The reviewer that wrote there is "nothing new" in this book is seriously in error as he/she dismisses it as a prototypical defense of Catholic Christianity. First, Jenkins does NOT claim that the Gnostic Gospels are heretical because they were composed later than the canonical Gospels. Instead, he claims that portions of the Gnostic writings, especially in Thomas, are quite early but were edited by persons within a Gnostic community. It is not the date of the Gospels that makes them heretical, its that the Gospels were composed by persons who subscribed to beliefs that were at odds with those held by the earliest Christian communities.
Second, Jenkins does NOT accept the automatic authority of catholic tradition and the canonical Gospels without question. In fact, one section of the book deals with precisely why the four Gospels were chosen over others and that Constantine had nothing to do with their canonization. In short, the two star reviewer must not have read this book all that closely, for his views are flat out incorrect.
The book is great for what it is, a sober account on how the search for Jesus has indeed "lost its way". One can disagree with Jenkins on many points, as I do, yet still appreciate his insights on the highly popular views held today by those involved in the Jesus controversy. It is readible and clearly worded, allowing the central message to be grasped by all who read it.

Philip Jenkins, author of other books on Christianity, takes another look at a contempoary issue involoving Christainity - this time specifically the Catholic Church.Reading at the title, one would think that Jenkins is a polemic for the Church. Far be it - he does take the Church to task for some of the way they have handled certian things like the Child sex abuse scandel.

With that said, he defends the Church from silly and often agenda type attacks where individuals and groups opposed to the Church distort much of current events and reconstruct history to fit in with their agenda. He calls to task the illogical and disingenious assertions thrown by those people concerned only with their agenda.

Topics discussed are: Feminizism, gay-rights, and the new media, just to name a few. The one real fault in this book is probably that it is too short for such a polemic topic. In order to probably please his editors, this book is only about 216 reading pages. However, it is exhaustively researched so one can go to primary source documents for themselves if needed.

Oh, by the way, Jenkins is not Catholic and neither am I, just in case someone thinks his book or my review is denominationally swayed.

"The New Anti-Catholicism" is a comprehensive, timely study of modern anti-Catholicism. Drawing on recent events while simultaneously mindful of history, Philip Jenkins makes a solid case that Roman Catholicism is subjected to a disproportionate amount of scrutiny, satire, and scorn in American life. The subject of some ugly anti-Catholic remarks myself, I impulsively bought this book as soon as I learned of its existence. What I found was not the polemical denunciation of anti-Catholic prejudice that I had craved (in order to feel vindicated) but rather a careful, erudite--at times sociological--study of anti-Catholicism which I ultimately found no less fascinating!

Chapters 2 and 3 (there are ten total) concern the history of American anti-Catholic bigotry. Consisting of largely classic nativist paranoia about anti-Catholicism, the history itself I found to be rather dry. But I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did. Understanding the history of the prejudice, Jenkins demonstrates, is necessary to understand anti-Catholicism as a whole. Indeed, many of the vicious ultraliberal attacks on the Church that we encounter today are strikingly similar to the ultraconservative bigotry of a century ago. The book picks up pace after Chapter 3, however, as Jenkins explores topics like gay and feminist anti-Catholicism, Catholicism and the news media, Catholics in art, Catholics in Movies & TV, the recent sex abuse scandal, and what he calls "Black Legends," distortions of Church history. The chapter on clerical sexual abuse is so engrossing that it is almost worth the price of the book by itself!

Throughout the book, Jenkins explores the definitional aspects of anti-Catholicism in addition to the topical aspects that I listed in the previous paragraph. He explains the difference (however slight) between anti-Catholicism and anti-clericalism. He notes that to spitefully disparage "the institution" of the Catholic Church, as opposed to "the members," is to practice de facto anti-Catholicism since, unlike other religions, the institution is so deeply central to the Roman Catholic faith itself. He also explains that "it is not anti-Catholic simply to assert that the Church's position on a given issue is dead wrong, nor that Bishop X or Cadinal Y is a monster or menace to the public good. ... It is quite a different matter [however] to say that some essential features of [Catholicism] give rise to evil or abuse and that the evil cannot be prevented without fundamentally changing the beliefs or practices of the religion." The author is a realist, not a sensationalist or somebody looking for controversy. Readers will be impressed with Jenkins.

It is important to note that Philip Jenkins himself, a distinguished professor of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University, is an Episcopalian. Indeed, he has no vested interest in defending Catholicism and doesn't hesitate to criticize the Church when the situation merits. But he calls on America to recognize that harmful anti-Catholic intolerance pervades popular culture in such a manner that would be unimaginable concerning Muslims, Jews, homosexuals, or blacks.

This is a really scholarly investigation into the blatant bias against the Catholic Church as promulgated by all forms of media and tolerated by American society. The author,a former Roman Catholic, now an Episcopal teaches religious studies and history at the Pennsylvania State University. Although he has made a decision to remove from his Catholic roots he is none the less very fair in his analysis of the bias which has pervaded the Church for the whole of our country's existence; in fact I believe he may be much more credible because of his independence from the Church.

Philip Jenkins takes many issues including abortion,homosexuality,race,contraception,Church hierachy and papal infallibility and discusses these issues in light of historical perspective. He clearly shows that in an earlier era the "conservatives" of the populace were most threatened by Catholicism and were the most vigorous in trying to suppress it. Now, however, it is clearly the "liberals" who for totally different reasons and for different agendas are vehemently opposed the the Catholic Church.

Dr.Jenkins brings to light issues that have become unpopular to discuss or even intelligently critique due to the transformation of social "norms" that even a generation ago were considered fair game. Even I, an orthodox Roman Catholic, find myself falling for some of these new acceptable prejudices. Dr. Jenkins clearly demonstrates the fallacy of these new biases.

Priests and pedophilia is a subject not easily discussed without arousing deep emotional reactions. Phillip Jenkins, however, has taken an objective scholastic approach that backs each assertion with stong quotations and clear logical arguements. He shows how a national history of anti-catholicism, a sensationalistic-hungry mass media, a changing legal environnment, new definitions of 'sex-abuse', and a factional struggle for change within the Roman Church, all set the stage for what inevitably became the 'clergy-abuse crisis'. He offers much new insight and a good bibliography. I think at times however, he overestimates the power of the laity, and democracy; and underscores the 'Divine' origin and mission of the Roman Church. The book also lacked what I had hoped for by way of statistics. I would still recommend this book for anyone interested in catholic apologetics, or anyone just looking for a more scholarly diagnosis of the 'pedophile/priest crisis'.

Jenkins has written by far the most balanced analysis of sexual abuse by Catholic priests by placing the topic within its cultural and historical context. In so doing presents a devestating critique of the media's coverage of, and role in, constructing the "crisis" in the Church. This book is must reading for anyone trying to place the current crisis in a broader perspective based on actual data and sound balenced analysis. An eye opening book which reveals much about the current state of Catholicism and of our culture in general.

Philip Jenkins has written a first-rate book, not just about the "moral panic" over "pedophile priests", but about our tendency as a society to seek simplistic answers for complex social problems. Jenkins argues persuasively, on the basis of extensive evidence, that the portrayal of the Catholic Church as a haven for pedophiles is just the latest version of the anti-Catholic stereotype which dates back at least as far as the Reformation. The scapegoating of the Catholic Church is also facilitated, as Jenkins points out, by the bureaucratic tradition of the Curia: keeping centralized records of abuse allegations makes a Catholic diocese an easy target for litigation, in a way which a dispersed Protestant denomination can never be.

Highly recommended. Very clear, accessible, and thoroughly researched.

The book is good scholarship in that it presents a myriad of facts about a myriad of organizations and movements. However, it is also extremely bad scholarship in that the author is unable to make sense of his own research. The extensive facts become a cluttered maze, a complex puzzle the author is unable to fit together. The book is a good historical reference, but otherwise an a-theoretical work that offers little insight. The author would do well to reach out and read the work of others who apply a more analytical perspective to similar material. I am not trying to be insulting, but he seems to have no comprehension of the history he reports.

I like this book a great deal; we used it in a grad. seminar in my Ph.D. work. The book is very well researched, and the author takes great pains to understand the nature of the religious groups he discusses. He reveals that too often a standard stereotype of cults has prevented the FBI and other "cult watching" groups from correctly understanding and resolving conflicts that arise in cults. My only criticism is that at times, the author is a little too fair to the cults. It is hard for him to condemn even the most destructive behavior, and it gives the book a preachy tone, as though his readers are all bigots in need of sensitivity training toward cultists. This book is leagues better, however, than your standard "anti-cult" books, though, and I can't really think of anything like it on the topic. Highly recommended.

Religious tolerance remains a key challenge today. Some contend that we are in a remarkable and unprecedented era of new "cults" and "heterodoxy". Jenkins' work is a timely and highly entertaining reminder that the American religious landscape has always been filled with new faiths dismissed in their time as deviant. In particular, Jenkins shows that in some instances the very religious movements that were once denounced as new faiths produce the leaders who in turn denounce the faiths that come after them. I found the work anecdotal and interesting, the kind of book one flips through back and forth rather than necessarily treating as a "novel-style" linear text.

One might imagine that a work with Jenkins' theme would run a severe risk of being either a polemic or a dreary dissertation-like tome. Mystics and Messiahs evades both risks. Jenkins' writing style is highly readable, and his tone is not that of a pedantic, but of a sympathetic skeptic telling a bit of interesting popular history. The book is well documented, but there is no loss of a good read in pursuit of an "academically-refined text".

America's pulsating religious need in our time is the need for tolerance (as the song says, "what's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?"). Jenkins' book illustrates the lessons from our history that past Americans' intolerance has caused us to learn, without interfering with the fact that the story of America's many faiths is a darned entertaining read.

It is refreshing to see a level-headed book which is neither "XYZ Evangelist's Book of Cults" or "What Christians Fail to Get about our Wonderful New JLK Faiths". Instead, in the Dragnet parlance, it's more "just the facts", and whether one is a fervent believer or a casual skeptic, this one is a worthwhile read.

I must freely admit that I don't get this series about a millionaire/freelance detective gorilla who sometimes zooms around on a jetpack. The black and white artwork is pretty sweet, although sometimes the stylistic shifts are a little jarring. But the story-which is nominally about his quest to recover the "suspense jacket" in order to understand his pas-careens so wildly around, jam-packed with absurdity and digressions, that it's hard to maintain an interest. I would say it's worth checking out for the artwork, but don't even try to follow the story.

This could be one of the strangest comics I've ever read... it's reminiscent of the works of Grant Morrison and FLAMING CARROT, but draws a bit more from the world of MONTY PYTHON, THE KIDS IN THE HALL and Woody Allen. The story concerns a talking gorilla who happens to be a crime-fighting millionaire but spends most of his time drinking beer and playing RISK with his buddies, an odd assortment of half-witted sidekicks (though one of them, a chick who turns into a bird and looks a bit like EMMA PEEL is very cool). The gorilla, whose name is Kirk, is looking for clues to his past, of which his only clue is a series of odd visions in which he's a player for the BOSTON RED SOX. When he is presented with a strange case--to help uncover THE SUSPENSE JACKET, which allows the wearer to see the past and/or future--he feels it could be the key to figuring out his origin once and for all. The story is about as far from linear as you can get--Kirk and crew zip from place to place and scenes just sprout out of nowehere or end abruptly a la MONTY PYTHON. Takes a bit of getting used to (especially the scene where, without any warning, Kirk and a gang of 10-speed bicycles take on ninjas, guys in hot dog suits, and a giant penguin) but folks looking for a truly unique, truly hilarious and seriously "different" comic book will love SKY APE. The website... is a hoot as well.

"The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity" is a set of prognostications all of which, Professor Jenkins is cautious to remark several times in this book, may not occur. Yet as he comments at the beginning of Chapter Ten ("Seeing Christianity Again for the First Time"), there is value even today in this: "[c]onsidering possible futures is so valuable because it can tell us so much about the realities of the present day" (p. 218).

Probably the most recurrent themes in this book are (1) that at Christianity is growing (at least nominally) most rapidly in Latin America, Africa and Asia; and (2) that the newer Christian communities tend to be more morally conservative than their counterparts in the United States, Canada and Western Europe. Professor Jenkins informs us that for many centuries more Christians lived in Asia than in Europe or Africa (see pp. 22-25, for example) and reminds us a few times that Christianity is not (at least in geographic origin) a western religion (p. 215, for one example). He expects an overall growth of Christians and a particular boom in Pentecostals, whom he defines (p. 63) as a central division of Protestantism but whom rely more on "direct spiritual revelations that supplement or even replace biblical authority." He expects further that both Christianity and Islam will grow both by birth and conversion and that by 2050 (again at least nominally), Christians will likely still outnumber Muslims (pp. 5-6). He also discusses inter-religious relations, particularly between Christianity and Islam, in Chapter Eight ("The Next Crusade").

Sometimes I find that Professor Jenkins could be more careful with his geographic designations. He reports that Christianity is "literally 'going south'" (p. 3) but then identifies rapid growth in many countries of the northern hemisphere such as Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Note that nearly all Asian countries are in the northern hemisphere and that the equator almost perfectly bisects mainland Africa, which stretches from about 38 degrees north to about 35 degrees south. And somewhere - I cannot find it right now - I believe he considers Mexico apart from North America. Perhaps he means southward more than into the southern hemisphere (which has much less land than the northern hemisphere).

Professor Jenkins is mostly careful about his predictions yet informative. The only glaring blooper I found is on page 118. There he writes: "There is now talk that the Virgin [Mary] might be proclaimed a mediator and co-Savior figure, comparable to Jesus himself, even a fourth member of the Trinity."

Whew! Several paragraphs are appropriate here to repair and clarify that. The Catholic Church has always been quite clear that the Virgin Mary is a creature. As such, the Catholic Church will never declare the Virgin Mary a fourth member of the Trinity, which is uncreated. And while future decades may bring a new dogmatic promulgation of Mary as Mediatrix or Coredemtrix, these are very old doctrines. St. Paul, for example, described how all Christians play a role in the Redemption. He writes, "After all, we do share in God's work..." (1 Co 3:9) and "I accommodated myself to people in all kinds of different situations, so that by all possible means I might bring some to salvation" (1 Co 9:22). St. Paul is a fellow worker with God and a dispenser of his grace, and other Christians, too, are God's fellow workers. Why focus on Mary, then? Mary cooperated with her Savior more than anyone and uniquely in her role as his mother and on Calvary during his redemptive sacrifice whereas St. Paul worked and we work after that event. Many, many of the Fathers attest to Mary as a Mediatress and co-operator in the Redemption. I'll cite only a few specimens:

St. Irenaeus of Lyons c.190-200 writes of Mary in "Proof of the Apostolic Preaching" (interesting word "Apostolic," especially from one so close to the Apostles): "Adam had to be recapitulated in Christ, so that death might be swallowed up in immortality, and Eve [had to be recapitulated] in Mary, so that the Virgin, having become another virgin's advocate, might destroy and abolish one virgin's disobedience by the obedience of another virgin" ("Proof of the Apostolic Preaching" 33, "Sources Chrétiennes" 62 (Paris, 1941-), pp. 83-86, in Luigi Gambero, "Mary and the Fathers of the Church, The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought," 1999, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, p. 54, brackets in Gambero).

Tertullian, who died outside the Church but who is a reliable witness, writes between 208 and 212 that "Eve believed the serpent; Mary believed Gabriel. The fault that Eve introduced by believing, Mary, by believing, erased" ("The Flesh of Christ," 17, 4-5, in "Patrologiae cursus completus" 2, 827-828, Series Latina (Paris: Migne, 1841-1864), in Luigi Gambero, Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought," 1999, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, p. 67).

In 401, St. Augustine of Hippo writes: "-but plainly she is [in spirit] Mother of us who are His members, because by love she has cooperated so that the faithful, who are the members of that Head, might be born in the Church. In body, indeed, she is the Mother of that very Head (Holy Virginity, 6, 6, in William A. Jurgens, "The Faith of the Early Fathers" (vol. 3), 1979, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN, p. 71, brackets in Jurgens).

Telling word "cooperated."

These are but a few of many citations attesting to very early Christian belief in Mary's unique role in the Redemption, a role she fulfilled not only in conceiving and baring Jesus, but also during his ministry, especially at Cana and Calvary, and after. Whether these old doctrines will soon become new dogmas, I won't predict. Sorry I went on so long about that, but I feel it was fitting to resolve a blunder.

On the whole I found "The Next Christendom" informative and, unlike many books declaring to foretell history, cautious and not sensationalistic.

If you are interested in the future of religion in general and Christianity in particular, the one must read book this year has been written by Phil Jenkins.

A respected professor at Penn State University who has been known for "going against the flow," Jenkins argues that the rapid growth of primitive/Pentecostal Christianity around the world (both within and alongside existing traditions) will literally reshape the world, with possible religious conflict affecting everything from historic European denominations (already happening in Anglicanism) to geopolitics.

In a post-modern world, religion returns to center stage, and Jenkins has already turned on the spotlight. This is a must-read for all futurists--including the armchair variety such as myself. After reading Jenkins' seemingly airtight (even understated) analysis, it is difficult to give credence to any author suggesting the passing of Christianity. For every empty cathedral in Europe, there is a burgeoning congregation in Africa or Latin America. In fact, the western, modern version of Christianity may be be all but swept away in the next 50-100 years, but the primitive variety is reemerging at an incredible pace.

Not many works from Oxford University Press read like thrillers. This is an exception.

In this fascinating book, professor Philip Jenkins proclaims that there is coming, within this 21st century, a new Christendom. The first chapter looks at the Christian Church of the past, and shows that the popular conception of a Christian West surrounded by a purely non-Christian world is fallacious; that Christianity took root in other parts of the world than Europe, and survived there all the way to the present. After that, the book looks at the spread of Christianity in the so-called "Third World," the same parts of the globe that are experiencing the fastest population growth.

Having (to my satisfaction, anyway) shown that soon many times more Christians will be living in other parts of the globe than Europe *and* North America combined, the author then goes on to suggest that this new phenomenon will potentially change the very face of Christianity. Prepare to see a new Christianity, one as different from the modern, Western Church as the Medieval Church was from the Church of the Roman Empire.

I must say that this is one of the most fascinating books that I have read in a long time! The author punctures many comfortable ideas about the Church, and prepares the reader for the coming of a new world, a world that will not look like the one we have now. If you are interested in Christianity, or even just in trends that are bound to affect the world you live in, then you must get this book!