The story of Christianity has always featured unexpected
resurrections. Eras of corruption give way to eras of reform;
sinners and cynics cede the floor to a rush of idealists and
saints; political and intellectual challenges emerge and then
are gradually surmounted. There is no single form of Christian
civilization, in the same sense that there is no stereotypical
Christian life; across two millennia, the faith has found ways
to make itself at home in the Roman court and the medieval
monastery, the Renaissance city and the American suburb alike.
In The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton describes what he calls
the "five deaths of the faith" - the moments in Western history
when Christianity seemed doomed to either perish entirely or
else fade to the margins of a post-Christian civilization. It
would have been natural for the faith to decline and fall with
the Roman Empire, or to disappear gradually after the armies of
Islam conquered its ancient heartland in the Near East and North
Africa was conquered by the