Knowing Christ [Paperback]

Alister McGrath (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 2002

Alister McGrath is a widely acknowledged master of contemporary spirituality, and in Knowing Christ he has written a profound meditation on one of the most deceptively simple-sounding tenets of the Christian faith, the centrality of Christ in the life of his followers.

Written in an accessible style that will appeal to Christians of all denominations, Knowing Christ aims to stimulate a more direct and intimate relationship between Christ and the reader by engaging not just the intellect but, more important, the heart and imagination. It is a work of spirituality saturated with biblical texts and themes, but it also draws on the rich tradition in art and literature of Christian reflection on the centrality of Christ throughout the ages. The result is a lively, engaging, and always inspiring book of twenty-first century spirituality from one of the world's most popular and respected Christian writers, a book that will strengthen the faith of all who read it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Oxford theologian McGrath, whose recent In the Beginning chronicled the history of the King James Bible, offers here a personal look at his own spiritual journey. He admits that his own early attempts to know Christ were marked by rational investigations of Jesus' life and times, as well as intellectual struggles with church doctrine. McGrath's turning point came about a year and a half after he became a Christian, when he read Philippians 3:8 (I regard everything as a loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord). As a result of this personal epiphany, McGrath immersed himself in the classical writings of Christian spirituality, ranging from Bernard of Clairvaux and Francis de Sales to Teresa of Avila. He concludes from his search that Christ must be known not only with the mind but also with the heart, imagination and memory. He asserts that Christ can be discovered in the experiences of loneliness, anxiety, doubt and suffering, and he uses biblical descriptions of encounters with Christ to demonstrate the many ways that Christ can be known. McGrath counsels Christians against falling in love with the world, and cites an unwillingness to grow spiritually as a barrier to knowing Christ fully. But his memoir-cum-devotional is little more than a series of religious tracts stretched into a full-length book. Unreflective, repetitious and didactic in tone, McGrath's book provides few new insights into the spiritual journey.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

“A remarkably profound piece of work by an author who has a gift for story-telling, as well as a deep grasp of theology.” --The Tablet

“Engaging and touching--a professional theological takes us into his confidence about the Christian’s relationship with the living savior as he himself has come to know it. This is a good read, which will nourish and refresh. I heartily recommend it.” --J.I. Packer

“Blending the simplicity of a good storyteller with the scholarship of a great teacher, Alister McGrath opens his heart as he leads us along the road of his personal journey to Christ. It is an enthralling read, warmly recommended to spiritual searchers and bruised pilgrims.”
--Jonathan Aitken

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press (June 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385503164
• ISBN-13: 978-0385503167
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,022,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alister E. McGrath is a historian, biochemist, and Christian theologian born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A longtime professor at Oxford University, he now holds the chair in theology, ministry, and education at the University of London. He is the author of several books on theology and history, including Christianity's Dangerous Idea, In the Beginning, and The Twilight of Atheism. He lives in Oxford, England, and lectures regularly in the United States.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving Christ from Head to Heart, December 12, 2002

By 

Pamela B. Garrud "seeker963" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Knowing Christ (Paperback)

In this book, evangelical theologian Alister McGrath appears to be making a case to Christians for moving the location of one's knowledge of God from one's head to one's heart. He does this partly by recounting his own personal spiritual journey and partly by writing a gentle apologetic for why simply having "sound teaching" or "correct doctrine" isn't all there is to being a Christian.

Using the classic evangelical cry of "relationship with Christ", McGrath explains why this relationship rests in our hearts and in our every-day experience rather than in our heads. Then he goes further to help his readers by providing examples of different ways that Christians encounter Christ in both our lives and in our theology.

Although McGrath is a respected academic theologian, this book is not for academics but for the "person in the pew". I found the chapters on the different ways of encountering Christ to be inspirational and worthy of meditation. One caveat: people averse to evangelical terminology might find this book slightly off-putting; most evangelicals should love it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A needed return to the foundation of Christianity: Christ, August 3, 2009

By 

G. Alterton "My2Cents" (Sacramento, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Knowing Christ (Paperback)

This book is timely. As one who accepted Christ in college, right around the same time as McGrath, and settled into American evangelicalism's brand of Christianity, I've witnessed my generation of evangelicals essentially waste their opportunity in history by pursuing a watered-down "seeker-friendly" Churchianity, and trying to impact the world through political action. A few have opted to focus on Christ, but they've been a minority for most of the past 30 years.

Alister McGrath's book comes along at a time when many are realizing that the church needs to offer more than what church consultants in the '80s and '90s advised as the lowest common denominator of mass appeal; at a time when the mega-church experiment has proven only to raise up a generation of shallow believers wracked with the same problems as the non-Christian society around them; and when conservative Christian political activism is losing steam. McGrath points to the only thing that makes sense and brings vitality to the Christian religion: knowing Christ -- knowing who he is in us, knowing who he is to us, understanding the nature of the union believers have with the indwelling Christ, recognizing that Bible knowledge does not necessarily equate with knowledge of Christ, and that while the mind is not shut off when one comes to faith in Christ, recognizing that a true knowledge of Christ and his love are deeper than the mind can comprehend, as Paul points out in Ephesians 3.

There are some who say that the conservative church, at least the conservative church in America, is entering a period characterized as "post-evangelical." Wouldn't it be great if this new "post-evangelical" era was founded and focused on Jesus Christ and knowing him, having that knowledge expressed in the lives of individual believers and the church? Should that be the case and direction of Christianity in the early 21st Century, McGrath's book may well be credited with helping to steer Christians in that direction.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, but not good either, April 7, 2011

By 

David Withun (FORT GORDON, GA, US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Knowing Christ (Paperback)

Interesting, but not insightful. I didn't entirely "dislike" it, but I wouldn't recommend it. Honestly, this book, in my opinion, is indicative of the poverty of spirituality in so much of the West.