Book description
Atheism is one of the most important movements in modern Western
culture. For the last two hundred years, it seemed to be on the verge
of eliminating religion as an outmoded and dangerous superstition.
Recent years, however, have witnessed the decline of disbelief and a
rise in religious/spiritual devotion throughout the world. In this
highly readable book, the distinguished historian and theologian,
Alister McGrath examines what went wrong with the atheist dream and
explains why religion and faith are destined to play a central role in
the twenty-first century.
A former atheist who is now one of Christianity's foremost scholars,
McGrath traces the history of atheism from its emergence in
eighteenth-century Europe as a revolutionary worldview that offered
liberation from the rigidity of traditional Christianity and the
oppression of tyrannical monarchs, to its golden age in the first half
of the twentieth century. Blending thoughtful, authoritative
historical analysis with incisive portraits of such leading and
influential atheists as Sigmund Freud, Marx and Richard Dawkins,
McGrath exposes the flaws at the heart of atheism and argues that the
renewal of faith is a natural, inevitable and necessary response to
its failures.
Alister McGrath is Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford
University and Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He is the author of
numerous books, including
In the Beginning: The Story of the King
James Bible
,
The Reenchantment of Nature
, and
The Journey
; a consulting editor of
Christianity Today
and the general editor of
The NIV Thematic Study Bible
. He lives in Oxford, UK.
