archives
Protestantism's big idea
Posted on Mar 5, 2008 07:56am CST.| NCR Book Club |
Reviewed by ROBERT BIRELEY
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CHRISTIANITY’S DANGEROUS IDEA: THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION -- A HISTORY FROM THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE TWENTY-FIRST By Alister McGrath HarperCollins, 560 pages, $29.95 |
Noted Oxford professor of historical theology Alister McGrath has undertaken the daunting task of telling the story of Protestantism, including all its denominations from Anglicans to anti-Trinitarian Socinians, from the beginning up to the present day.
The result is a lucidly written, stimulating and sometimes brilliant synthesis that is accessible to the educated public as well as to scholars. It is, to be sure, as the author tells us, an interpretative history that concentrates on those elements of Protestantism that play a significant role in its ongoing development and especially on its “big” idea.
