[Church History] Book critique assignment: "Christianity's Dangerous Idea" (183/200, 8/1/2025)

Christianity’s Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution—A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First. By Alister McGrath. New York, NY: HarperOne, 2008, 552pp., $16.99.

       Christianity’s Dangerous Idea is a comprehensive sweeping ecclesiastical account of the transformations which the church had gone through from the short time before the arrival of Martin Luther to the time when the Protestantism firmly took a shape in much of Europe and America by the dawn of the nineteenth-twentieth century and the present.

      So, what is the Dangerous Idea then--one might wonder: It is a revolutionary idea, concept which came out of necessity, a fight against the religious tyranny, if one may, wielded by the Catholic church’s monopolizing its political power in all aspects of the laity’s religious activities in essence. This movement to bring the hermeneutical power and right down to the level of individuals against the overbearing and tyrannical corrupt authority spawned the dawn of the Protestant Revolution, the author claims. It is a wild journey of a roller-coaster full of heroes but villains and plenty talks of Divinity/Providence guiding the way.

        The book is largely divided into three main sections; the first Roman Numeral part with Eight Chapters (1-8) discusses the pre-events leading up to the Reformation led by Martin Luther through the birth of the Protestantism in America. This section is the foundation of the whole book, so to speak, and McGrath carefully and arduously lays the groundwork covering various places, events and people encompassing the Moors from North Africa, the Ninety-Five Theses, Zwingli, Calvin in Geneva, Cromwell, the expansion of the Protestantism into America, et al.

      The second Roman numeral part covers Five Chapters (9-13) focusing on the development of the translated bible, sacraments, the different thoughts emerging as in the scholasticism, pietism, the Wesleys (the Holiness movement), the Renaissance, the birth of distinct modern European culture et al.

       The third Roman numeral part is then left to cover the remaining Four Chapters (14-17) as the focus is shifted to the New Frontiers as in American, Asian and African Protestantism in the twentieth century: “the Western recognition of the need for the indigenization” (“Ethiopian” and “African” Churches), the Pentecostal revolution (“Tongues of Fire”), prognostication of the traditionally Catholic regions, e.g., Latin America, Philippines, and the future of Protestantism are described as McGrath ends it, “The future of Protestantism lies precisely in Protestantism being what Protestantism actually is.”

         Christianity’s Dangerous Idea’s two strengths are as follows; first, it cannot be denied that it is a well-researched and well-written book. McGrath presents a various set of events, people, and circumstances interconnecting them surrounding a particular idea to draw a comprehensive picture in very captivating and descriptive vernacular language.  This is not some perfunctory glance into the past. The complexity, multiplicity and inevitability which McGrath builds up and depicts to the readership are pedagogical and methodical in effect as it reaps benefits in greatly increasing the understanding and the appreciation of the birth of the Protestantism in socio-cultural context—the focal point of the book.

For example, the pre-reformation movements which McGrath goes to describe such as the Lollards, Hussites, the  laity’s desire for personal interpretation of the Bible, etc., helps paint a broadened set of  perspectives and societal changes/drives which paved the way for the Reformation with the birth of the Protestantism soon to follow.

Second, the updated and inclusive nature of the latest evangelical  movements or happenings around the world at the global scale and dimension should make a large contingent of the readership feel as though he is a part of the book itself or a part of the Protestantism movement. For example, the well-deserved attention and adequate description given to the Korean Protestantism should be helpful in understanding the main Asian Protestantism as  a whole in context of other nations on Asian continent, where the Christianity usually has struggled to be embraced by the locals, as the globalization and high tech communication platforms and tools have increasingly brought the world to be far more closely connected than it ever imagined in the past.

Thirdly, McGrath being exceptionally analytical and intelligent as a good historian  with a good storytelling skill does help in drawing well-balanced and accurate worldviews of the events which did bring about the birth of the Protestantism as the book aimed to accomplish. He is a great storyteller. Lastly, one obvious advantage of this book is its affordability; for such a big book with enjoyable reading content comprising over 500 pages is sold for under $16.31 at Amazon with a discount applied. That is a bargain!

        The Christianity’s Dangerous Idea could possibly have some (minor) weaknesses if one chooses to be nitpicky; due to its comprehensiveness, the breadth it aims to cover, in some instances, it lacks the depth as in failing to present the excruciating details as some readership may want. For example, a particular segment of the readers may want to know what exactly happened to Calvin’s theocratic reign in Geneva, the specifics, right down to the nitty gritty details, instead of having it loosely termed as “successes and failures”. That is the book’s limitations, unfortunately, when the scope is so wide and broad. Secondly, as can be the case with the books written by a single person, and of the dominant cultural background, its interpretation and reception can be varied on a broad spectrum. McGrath could have used a co-author of a minor role or co-co k,ntributor or even an editor to appeal to a broader and bigger audience of vastly different cultural and ethnic backgrounds at large, perhaps, with wholesomeness, in this ever-so conscientiously charged world of political correctness to mute and buttress against such an unpleasant but sometimes unavoidable gesture and injection.

       As McGrath showed the truly dangerous idea would be when an institution or denomination or a leadership decides that they are the ultimate authority with the last word to say regarding the faith matters of an individual. By that assumption then, what led to the Protestant Revolution described in the book is the emancipation of the souls for the independence or freedom to freely interpret the scriptures and worship God in personal one-to-one relationship as it ought to be. After all, the covenant God made with Abraham to bless all the nations was a set of personal and private blessings applicable and available to everyone should he choose to be a part of. Only Jesus stands in the way as an intercessor.