2159 AD - A History of Christianity

This unusual book outlines the history of Christianity from the perspective of 150 years hence. The first 12 chapters are in the past and the last four in the future. The text is highly readable and the originality of the book consists in its forecast of the future with an accompanying timeline including such events as a global flu epidemic, droughts and water wars (not until the 2090s); on the theological side there are schisms firstly in the Anglican Communion, then in the Catholic Church where the Vatican loses its independent status. The details of these discussions make stimulating reading, but perhaps the most surprising forecast is the dramatic conversion of Richard Dawkins to the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, described as an obscure branch of Orthodox Christianity. Needless to say, his last book charts this religious conversion and is entitled, appropriately, 'The Learning Gene.'