Alister McGrath holds a doctorate from Oxford and is an atheist convert to Christian faith. This book is an attempt by McGrath to demonstrate both the value to the Christian of an engagement with Christian theology and to directly engage the critique of Christianity advanced by the new atheism.
In the first section of his book, McGrath contends that rigorous theological reflection liberates us from the confines of our own narrow spiritual perspectives by engaging us in a conversation with the greatest minds of two millenia. He illustrates this with the theological poetry of George Herbert and the reflections of Martin Luther and C.S. Lewis on suffering and God’s embrace of this in the cross of Christ. He shows how a deeply Christian mind is one opened up to the study of the natural world and how theology aids our engagement in the defense of the faith known as apologetics. [Read more…] about Book Review: The Passionate Intellect (2)