Questions for Diarmaid MacCulloch on Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years?

I snagged Diarmaid MacCulloch for a LibraryThing interview about Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years.

I'm reading it now, and I recommend it heartily. I'm doing it by audiobook, which means it's basically taken over my life.

I asked if he'd mind questions from the Christianity group and he said yes. Anyone have anything you want to ask him about the book, the past and future of Christianity, the perils and joys of writing such a wide-ranging book, etc.?

Some pages:

NYT review by Meacham, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/books/review/Meacham-t.html?pagewanted=all
NPR review by Rowan Williams, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/19/history-christianity-diarmaid-mccull...
Telegraph review by Eamon Duffy http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/6271890/A-History-of-Christianity-The-F...

Without having read his book, I'd be interested in his comments on the shift of focus of Christianity from Europe and north America to the Global South.

>2 John5918: ...shift of focus of Christianity from Europe and north America to the Global South...

In MacCulloch's history Reformation--if I remember correctly--he observed that the Reformation continues to unfold in the US (and in Counter-Reformation and Southern Hemisphere?), I think? Interesting to think that the ripples continue hundreds of years later...

(Johnthefireman, you started a thread on rise of secularism and fundamentalism. In Clash of Civilizations, Samuel Huntington mentioned (I think!) that the moderate middle is in decline while secularism and fundamentalism rise. Does Diarmaid MacCullough see that pattern unfolding, I wonder?)

Does he have a comment on the rise of the megachurches in the U. S. I mean large nondenominational congregations with an emphasis on personal happiness over theology. Any comment on churches who were closed when Christmas fell on Sunday in 2005.

There were churches closed on Sunday in 2005?

>5 timspalding:, 6 For years, it has been an open secret that many mainline Protestant churches are half empty - or worse - on Christmas Day whereas in many Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, known for their rich liturgical traditions, Christmas Day attracts far more worshippers than an average Sunday

The second part of that certainly fits my experience in several countries. Christmas Day (including the Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve) is the one day in the year when even people who don't normally attend Mass make an effort to come.

Very odd, and sad. But, I don't see it as that terrible if people are going to evening services. By the traditional reckoning, the day starts at sundown, so it "counts." If it makes them feel more connected, that's okay.

Indeed, the Vigil Mass the previous evening is very much part of the day. In the Liturgy of the Hours, for Sundays and feast days, the day's prayer begins with Evening Prayer I on the previous evening, then Morning Prayer, etc, then Evening Prayer II.