The perceived decline of Christianity, a hallmark of European culture, has engendered substantial anxiety over its replacement. Especially since September 11, 2001, it has been feared that radicalized Islam will replace Europe's ailing Christianity to fill the religious void left by modernity. In his third book on the current and future state of Christianity, Philip Jenkins' God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis departs from the typical sensationalized discussion of religion and politics and instead offers a well-researched, balanced, and matter-of-fact look at the religious “crisis” facing Europe today. Jenkins provides a meticulous history of Christianity and Islam in Europe and argues that rather than a decline in one and a radical surge of the other, both religions are adapting and developing in new ways. Europe has become a “laboratory for new forms of faith … that can accommodate to a dominant secular environment” (19). These new ways and forms, therefore, will not inevitably lead to the often-feared ideas of “Eurabia” or “Eurosecularity” that have been at the heart of discussions regarding religion in Europe.

The book addresses three main themes: the rise, fall, and renewal of Christianity; the presence and adaptability of Islam in Europe; and religion's relationship to Europe's changing political, economic, and social contexts. Each of these themes is supported by an overwhelming amount of data and history; a quick glance at the footnotes reveals that Jenkins cast his research net widely. Information is drawn from newspaper and journal articles, online resources, and academic books to offer the reader a better understanding of religious decline and (re)development in Europe, broadly understood. For example, his discussion of Marian pilgrimages in Europe spans from Fatima, Portugal to Sergiev Posad, Russia. With such a wide-angle view of Europe, the case for Christianity's actual decline becomes questionable.

Yet, the often-noncommittal tone of Jenkins's argumentation raises the question of what exactly is the cause of Europe's crisis. Chapter One's examination of religion concludes with the image that “New specters are haunting Europe” (25), but the subsequent six chapters are dedicated to explaining Christianity's revival and how a cultural, rather than religious, Islam is present in Europe. A fickle European media is also responsible for often discrediting Islam in Europe. Radical Muslims are usually the media's focus since “easygoing and tolerant people simply are not newsworthy” (123). Thus, is there even a religious crisis? What is the nature of the specter?

Jenkins's remaining chapters extensively discuss how integration, toleration, diversity, migration, generational gaps, economic, social, and racial grievances are the underlying causes of religious tension. “[R]eligion will never become a dominant theme in social conflict. European nations may indeed face a threat from religiously motivated violence, but they are still a long way from open crisis” (150). The title of the book, therefore, is a bit misleading; at root, Europe's crisis is political, economic, or social (specifically racial) — not religious. Even terrorism, most recently associated with religion, is mainly a political issue: “Terrorism goes with the neighborhood, regardless of the composition of Europe's own populations” (209). Europe is clearly God's continent, but there is no apparent religious crisis.

With the focus on specifically non-religious causes, it is unclear at times if Islam is in fact “threatening” Europe. With liberal nationalism clearly not working in Europe (246), what happens when religion does override any other identification (as Jenkins says it may or may not)? What then will become of Europe? Jenkins does argue that one of the ways religion will survive in Europe will be by becoming more rigorous, focused, and inevitably smaller: “Pruning can promote growth, and the sharper the pruning, the stronger the growth” (69). Will Europe potentially experience a moral revival or crisis of the terrorist sort? Jenkins argues that both are possible; he seems to suggest that Christians more likely would be responsible for the former, and Muslims the latter. Furthermore, as Muslims become more fully socially and politically integrated into Europe, they may constitute a large voting bloc with significant policy implications, particularly for the United States. This may lead to a more sympathetic position toward Palestinians in the Arab-Israeli debate, a more tempered approach to military deployment, and a greater Euro-Muslim alliance, all of which go against the grain of current United States foreign policy. Perhaps Europe does have something to fear after all and the United States even more so.

Overall, Jenkins's book is one that should be an integral part of any discussion or course on politics and religion. Scholars and students will benefit from his historical analysis, which deepens discussions on issues such as identity and multiculturalism. Within the broader framework of politics and religion, his discussion of the increased political recognition of Islam in Europe falls in line with political scientist Alfred Stepan's description of religion in political life as the “twin tolerations”; that constantly must negotiate and renegotiate the boundaries of freedom and action (“Religion, Democracy, and the ‘Twin Tolerations.’” Journal of Democracy 11(4) [2000]). Christianity and Islam will continue to adapt themselves to Europe, and they will learn from one another: Muslims will assess their compatibility with modernity and national ideologies and Christianity will redefine itself in terms of faith and public life (281). In the end, based on the material Jenkins provides, Europe is and will remain God's continent. Whether one refers to this superior being as God or Allah is not the point; Europe will not, any time soon, bid farewell to that particular fervor only religion can incite.