Christianity's Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution- A History From the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First

Alister E. McGrath is a historian, biochemist, and Christian theologian born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A longtime professor at Oxford University, he now holds the chair in theology, ministry, and education at the University of London. He is the author of several books on theology and history, including Christianity's Dangerous Idea, In the Beginning, and The Twilight of Atheism. He lives in Oxford, England, and lectures regularly in the United States.

Alister McGrath is a professor of Historical Theology at the University of Oxford. He is the author of several highly acclaimed studies of Protestantism, including The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation and In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture. He lives in Oxford, England and lectures regularly in the United States.

The "dangerous idea" lying at the heart of Protestantism is that the interpretation of the Bible is each individual's right and responsibility. The spread of this principle has resulted in five hundred years of remarkable innovation and adaptability, but it has also created cultural incoherence and social instability. Without any overarching authority to rein in "wayward" thought, opposing sides on controversial issues can only appeal to the Bible---yet the Bible is open to many diverse interpretations. Christianity's Dangerous Idea is the first book that attempts to define this core element of Protestantism and the religious and cultural dynamic that this dangerous idea unleashed, culminating in the remarkable new developments of the twentieth century.

At a time when Protestants will soon cease to be the predominant faith tradition in the United States, McGrath's landmark reassessment of the movement and its future is well-timed. Replete with helpful modern-day examples that explain the past, McGrath brings to life the Protestant movements and personalities that shaped history and the central Christian idea that continues to dramatically influence world events today.

(Review of the hardcover edition) This is McGrath's third book title borrowed from his atheist bete noir Richard Dawkins. But don't let the titular borrowings fool you: this is an original and important book. Someone had to imitate the long, popular works of history being written on secular subjects from Lewis & Clark to FDR, and McGrath has the theological and historical expertise necessary to tell a story stretching from the Reformation's origins in the 16th century to today. The "dangerous idea" was Martin Luther's: that individual believers could and should read the Bible for themselves. The result was occasionally violent (as in the peasants' revolt and the English Civil War), occasionally brilliant (musicians like Bach, theologians like Calvin and Jonathan Edwards, poets like Milton) and certainly world altering (the Calvinist Reformation clearing space for the rise of secular science and capitalism). McGrath concludes not with the faith practices of present-day England or America, but with the increasingly Pentecostal global south. The book occasionally falls into the dry tone of a textbook and assumes points that historians would want to debate, but is still the most readable introduction to the history, theology and present-day practices of Protestantism. (Oct.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

“Alister McGrath presents a daringly ambitious idea, nothing less than a systematic history of Protestantism and its variant forms - evangelicalism, Pentecostalism - from the Reformation through the modern-day rise of world Christianities. This highly readable survey is at once wonderfully wide-ranging, and impressively fair-minded.” - Philip Jenkins, author of God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis

“It is great, good news that I, without human intermediaries of any kind, can enter into full fellowship with God. And, it is great, good news that I, with full soul competency, can come to the Bible and understand its spiritual treasures, apply its life-giving message to my heart, and live in joy-filled obedience to its wonderful words of life. This is the powerful reality Alister McGrath explores so well and so helpfully in Christianity’s Dangerous Idea.” - Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline

“An original and important book... the most readable introduction to the history, theology and present-day practices of Protestantism.” - Publishers Weekly

“The idea that individuals are competent to understand and apply God’s Word to themselves and their world is an explosive idea with unbounded implications for social structure and personal life. It provides indispensable cognitive and practical content to the teaching of Jesus that The Kingdom of God is “at hand.” Alister McGrath’s book is a unique and invaluable aid in understanding what has developed from this idea and what it may mean for the present and future of global Christianity. ” - Dallas Willard, author of The Divine Conspiracy

“A unique, much needed, and well written review and reinterpretation of Protestantism and its history, showing both its amazing variety and its inner coherence, and combining detailed research with insightful panoramic interpretations.” - Justo L. Gonzalez, author of The Story of Christianity