The Vanishing: The Twilight of Christianity in the Land of the Prophet with Janine di Giovanni

Some of the countries that first nurtured and characterized Christianity – along the North African Coast, on the Euphrates and across the Middle East and Arabia – are the ones in which it is likely to first go extinct. Christians have fled the lands where their prophets wandered. From Syria to Egypt, the cities of northern Iraq to the Gaza Strip, communities are losing any living connection to the religion that once was such a characteristic feature of their social and cultural lives. In her new book The Vanishing, Janine di Giovanni writes of small, hardy communities that have become wisely fearful of outsiders and where ancient rituals are quietly preserved.

To discuss her new book, New America welcomes Janine di Giovanni. In addition to being the author of The Vanishing, Janine di Giovanni is the winner of a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2020 was awarded the Blake Dodd Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for her lifetime achievement in non-fiction. She is a Senior Fellow at Yale University, the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a fellow with New America’s International Security program as well as the author of eight other books on conflict and war. She has written and reported from the Balkans, Africa and the Middle East.

Speaker:

Janine di Giovanni
Author, The Vanishing: Faith, Loss, and the Twilight of Christianity in the Land of the Prophets
Senior Fellow, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs
Fellow, New America International Security Program

Moderator:

Peter Bergen
Vice President, New America

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