About the Author

ALISTER McGRATH is a professor of Historical Theology at Oxford University and Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He is author of numerous books, including In the Beginning, 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, England.

Reviews

Praise for Alister McGrath’s In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture
“Engrossing . . . McGrath’s elegantly clear account is worthy of his great subject.”
—Los Angeles Times
“An absorbing narrative chronicling three centuries of cultural, religious, and political history . . . McGrath’s engrossing book is a necessary read for anyone interested in understanding why [the King James] Bible stands apart from any other translation.”
—Boston Globe
“An engaging chronicle . . . This is a tale ripe for the telling.”
—Publishers Weekly
“McGrath’s book condenses a library of research materials, impenetrable to anyone but a theologian and historian, to present a straightforward, stirring, mercifully unsubtle account of a cultural icon we take for granted.”
—The Times (London)

Oxford University's McGrath has distinguished himself not just as an historical theologian, but as a generous and witty writer who brings life to topics that would turn to dust in others' hands. Here he explores the history of atheism in Western culture, observing that atheism seems to be succumbing to the very fate irrelevance and dissolution that atheists once predicted would overtake traditional religion. How did atheism ("a principled and informed decision to reject belief in God") become so rare by the turn of the 21st century? McGrath leaves no stone unturned, nor any important source unconsulted, in tracing atheism's rise and fall. Beyond the usual suspects of Marx, Freud and Darwin, McGrath surveys literature (George Eliot, Algernon Swinburne), science (Jacques Monod, Richard Dawkins) and philosophy (Ludwig Feuerbach, Michel Foucault), managing to make such intellectual heavy lifting look effortless. As a lapsed atheist himself, McGrath is a sympathetic interpreter, but he also relentlessly documents what he contends are the philosophical inconsistency and moral failures of atheism, especially when it has acquired political power. Yet believers will find no warrant here for complacency, as McGrath shows how religion's "failures of imagination" and complicity with oppression often fostered the very environment in which atheism could thrive. Indeed, he warns, "Believers need to realize that, strange as it may seem, it is they who will have the greatest impact on atheism's future." Readable and memorable, this is intellectual history at its best. (June 15) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Praise for Alister McGrath's In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture
"Engrossing . . . McGrath's elegantly clear account is worthy of his great subject."
-Los Angeles Times
"An absorbing narrative chronicling three centuries of cultural, religious, and political history . . . McGrath's engrossing book is a necessary read for anyone interested in understanding why [the King James] Bible stands apart from any other translation."
-Boston Globe
"An engaging chronicle . . . This is a tale ripe for the telling."
-Publishers Weekly
"McGrath's book condenses a library of research materials, impenetrable to anyone but a theologian and historian, to present a straightforward, stirring, mercifully unsubtle account of a cultural icon we take for granted."
-The Times (London)