Antichrist

Rating:
Summary: review of last review
Review: How can a review be taken seriously when the reviewer can't even spell "professor" correctly? Dr. McGinn is a brilliant scholar and clear writer. His multivolume work: The Presence of God strikes a stupendous chord for those interested in Christian mysticism and spirituality.

Rating:
Summary: Good overview. Some nice stuff on the Reformation
Review: Much of this book concerns the role of the Papacy in forming anti-Christ legend, with Martin Luther's transformation from wanting to the reform the church to wanting to trash it coming to the forefront. Much of the work focuses on Anti-Christ accusations and "The anti-Christ within" which is very dissimilar from the Anti-Christ you see in the Left Behind series.

Surprisingly the Anti-Christ isn't pegged as Muhammed throughout history but is usually a Christian that is being criticized. The book is a little sketchy at the beginning in the Christian origins (especially using only Catholic translation of the Bible in regards to the book of Daniel when discussing an exclusively Jewish phenomena) but it picks up once the church is in place. It really picks up during the Reformation where the scisms within the church break out into Peasant revolts, towns being overrun and Martin Luther the radical. It loses steam towards the end as the author can't find anything original or interesting in the period between the Reformation and teh Victorian era.

The author also has less to say about the modern world than you might expect, although modern fascination with Anti-Christ being mostly in the realm of fundamentalist circles is pretty easy to find in either Jack T. Chick tracts, the Left Behind series or the internet.

Good book for anyone interested in Christian history. Not as good if you are interested in the more kooky elements of Christianity as Anti-Christ was normal theology for its time.(the ... and ... versions of the middle ages notwithstanding)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!!
Review: This book is not a statement of faith. Readers will not feast on endtimes paranoia and fanciful imaginings of who, today, the anitchrist may be. Instead, McGinn offers a well-researched, historical investigation of the figure of the antichrist.

Beginning with Jewish apocalyptism, McGinn lets each successive "wave" of Christianity speak for itself. The recurring themes through which the antichrist has been understood, used and villified, are detailed in chronological fashion.

His survey is guite comprehensive, including not only the theological, but also the artistic and political uses of the antichrist image. Obbviously, any historical survey of a Christian image will be dominated by western European sources, but McGinn is careful to include brief accounts of Russian usage of the antichrist figure (e.g. Dostoevsky) and even contemporary American images (e.g. - The Omen). Frankly, I was surprised to find reference to C. G. Jung in this book, but this simply indicates the completeness of this survey.

To me this book described how Christianity has struggled to understand the reality of human evil. It may have raised more questions than it answered. For this reason alone I am glad that I read it.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting subject that reads like a boring professor
Review: While the historical aspects of this book are interesting, the author expects you to know too much about the bible and religious philosphy and stresses signifigance without bothering to explain those aspects. It's almost as if the author is writing to impress his contemporaries and the vernacular is very onanistic. It's almost insulting. Imagine that you are in a very boring class, catching snippits of interesting info if can remain awake. Once again there are some interesting parts, but was ultimatly dissapointed after reading this book. This is not something to read if you are new or want to continue reading about this subject.