Christianity's Dangerous Ideas

Liberty Theological Seminary

A book critique

Of McGrath’s Book
Christianity’s Dangerous Ideas

Submitted to
Dr. David Alexander

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Course
Church History I
CHHI 520

Masters of Divinity Candidate

September 2012

With Christianity’s Dangerous Idea—The Protestant Revolution: A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First, author Alister McGrath provides a fairly comprehensive chronicle of Protestantism from its earliest roots to present day conceptions. McGrath is a prominent theologian and priest in the United Kingdom and the author of several books, many of which detail some aspect of Protestantism. In this…show more content…
The uniformity and rigid adherence to the Catholic Church, and its various forms of debauchery in the 16th century, spawned the idea that such an entity was not truly needed. To that extent, the author proves that the individualistic component of Protestantism is the commonality between its many scions, as in this religion “the individual’s relationship with God is direct” (McGrath, p. 44). And although the author spends a substantial amount of time chronicling several different varieties of Protestantism and some of the more notable and lesser known figures who have helped to extend its principles in defense of this central premise (such as Martin Bucer and John Calvin), the very nature of this historical accounting does not allow him to do so with a depth of analysis that would truly benefit his thesis. Unfortunately, Christianity’s Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution: A History from the Twenty-First Century to the Sixteenth “often sacrifices depth and focus for breadth and span”…show more content…
(no date). “Review of McGrath, Christianity’s Dangerous Idea”. Western Reformed Seminary. Retrieved from http://www.wrs.edu/review-of-mcgrath-christianitys-dangerous-idea/
McGrath, A. (2007). Christianity’s Dangerous Idea—The Protestant Revolution: A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First. New York: HarperOne.
Van Houten, D. (no date). “Alison McGrath, Christianity’s Dangerous Idea”. www.reformedinstitute.org. Retrieved from http://www.reformedinstitute.org/documents/VanHoutenReview.pdf
HRSA Press Office. (2011). “News Release”. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
No author. (2012). “Health Care Providers and the Affordable Care Act”. HealthCare.gov. Retrieved from http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/2010/07/health-care-providers.html
No author. (2011). “Health care reform law begins to have effect on nursing”. www.rwf.org. Retrieved from http://www.rwjf.org/content/rwjf/en/about-rwjf/newsroom/newsroom-content/2011/03/health-care-reform-law-begins-to-have-effect-on-nursing.html
Harper Collins Publishers website