Antichrist [Paperback]

Bernard McGinn (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0231119771 | ISBN-13: 978-0231119771 | Publication Date: March 15, 2000

In this timely and sweeping exploration, one of the greatest living historians of Christian thought traces the concept of Antichrist from its Judeo-Christian origins to the present day. Rooted in Second Temple Judaism--a period of intense religious and political disruption--Antichrist developed out of belief in malevolent angelic and human forces. McGinn demonstrates how Antichrist has often reflected the human need to comprehend the persistence of evil in the world, and examines how it has haunted popular imagination in both the form of indivuduals--such as Nero, Napoleon, and Saddam Hussein--and groups--Jews, heretics, Muslims.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rarely has a historian of Christianity pierced a murkily inchoate human impulse with so much enlightenment as McGinn, a leading apocalypticist and the editor of Paulist Press's Classics of Western Spirituality series, does here. McGinn interweaves evidence from history, theology, biblical interpretations, literary references from Dante to Dostoyevski and even pop bestsellers to rivetingly discuss the concept of Antichrist. From the closing of the first millennium A.D. and Christian end-time speculation about the coming of the Antichrist ("a final human opponent of all goodness"), he traces the evolution of the Antichrist belief from its Judeo-Christian origins to its high point in the Middle Ages and on through present-day televangelists What McGinn also reveals is how a myopically constricted worldview often has led to intolerence and persecution.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Religious historian McGinn (Univ. of Chicago Divinity Sch.) traces the fascinating history of the concept of the Antichrist from pre-Christian origins to the present. Chapters cover the changing role of the Antichrist in the early church, Middle Ages, Reformation, and post-Reformation eras, as well as in contemporary religion. The author sees the Antichrist as a powerful symbol for the concept of evil in Western thought, providing deep insights into our cultural development. He also warns that in every age, including our own, it has been used to label opponents as adherents of absolute evil. Intolerance and persecution can often accompany literal belief in the Antichrist. This is an excellent, scholarly, and well-documented examination of this persistent element in Christian apocalyptic thought. Recommended for academic libraries.
C. Robert Nixon, MLS, Lafayette, Ind.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 369 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (March 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231119771
• ISBN-13: 978-0231119771
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,162,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Historical, but not heavy. Surprises galore., May 23, 2000

By 

Peter A. Kindle (Kansas City, Missouri) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Antichrist (Paperback)

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.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview. Some nice stuff on the Reformation, March 27, 2001

By 

Tim Lieder "Founder of Dybbuk Press" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Antichrist (Paperback)

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)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tough reading, but still worthwhile, November 22, 2005

By 

Stefan Isaksson (Malmoe, Sweden) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Antichrist (Paperback)

There is this one word that's useful when describing Bernard McGinn's impressive book Antichrist. And that word is "very".

Because it's a book whose adjectives all can be preceded by "very". First and foremost, it's very well written. Very well written indeed. Every page, every paragraph, every single sentence is packed with facts. Names, important years, classic and unknown works of writing, historical events, and much, MUCH more. Very much more, so to speak. It's not a heavy book, it's a VERY heavy book, and it takes a lot of energy and mental strength in order to finish it all.

But, it's well worth the effort to try. McGinn attempts, and indeed succeeds, to give a description of the Antichrist ever since his, or its, conception. Many probably think that the Antichrist is simply the son of the Devil and that's he nothing more than the opposite to Christ, but as McGinn beautifully describes, the story is tremendously more complex and complicated.

The study of the Antichrist bears many resemblances to the study of evil; what it is, why it exists, and who is responsible for it. Throughout the ages all sorts of people, events, faiths and so on have been connected to the Antichrist, and McGinn is extremely thorough and almost painfully academic in his very precise chronological resume. While reading it one finds oneself more or less drowning in a huge ocean of academia, and it doesn't take long to realize that it's more or less impossible to read it all in one go.

But that's ok, because the book is divided into different chapters detailing different ages, making it easy to choose whatever period interests you the most. To the everyday reader with a more casual interest in the phenomenon, the last chapter, "Antichrist Our Contemporary" will be of most interest. Here McGinn discusses such things as the Omen motion pictures and how Saddam Hussen has been labelled the Antichrist by fundamental Christians in America, but he also discusses why it is that the phenomenon of Antichrist is not as "hot" anymore, compared to earlier eras when practically everyone was convinced that the end was near.

So, so what if he makes the mistake of naming the killer in the Halloween-series Jason and not Michael Myers; the book is still a masterpiece in thorough academic religious research. To students of religion the entire book is of interest, but the everyday reader will probably only be able to fully enjoy the last chapter.