Biologist, Professor, Theologian,
Anglican Priest, Author
(1953 - )
O Patrick from this child you got
(A
Phádraig ón
leanbhsa fuair) A sign of grace, the staff of Jesus,
(Bachall
Íosa mar
bhuaidh
grás,) Conceived without stain in the womb,
(A ghein
gan domblas id
chlí,) And please stay with us for always, O Brigid.
('S a
Bhrighid, bí
linn
de ghnáth.)
O patrons of this sainted isle,
(A phátrúin
oileán na naomh,) Obtain graces for us from God;
(Faghaidh grása ó
Dhia
dhúinn;) Like a worm in God’s cave this very night
(Mar
chruimh in
uamhaidh
Dé
a-nocht) Let a poor little friar from Down be tolerated.
(Glacthar
bráithrín
bocht ó Dhún.)
---Franciscan Archbishop
Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil, a.k.a. Mac
Aingil {Son of an angel} translated by Barry
Tobin, excerpted from "O Holy Child; A Christmas Poem"
There
is no empirical evidence that people regard God, Santa Claus and the
Tooth Fairy as being in the same category. I stopped believing in Santa
Claus and the Tooth Fairy when I was six, and after being an atheist
for some years discovered God when I was 18. Many people come to
believe in God when they're older, but I've yet to meet somebody who 'God
was a baleful relic of the past, revealed as a delusion by scientific
advance' has started to believe in Santa Claus later on in life.
--Alister McGrath in an
interview with Judith
Cole
Guiness Genesis
When we are born we cry that we are come to this great
stage of fools. --William Shakespeare
Alister Edgar McGrath, was providentially born January 23, 1953,
where his mother
worked: in the Victoria
Royal Hospital, Belfast,
Northern
Ireland
(Tuaisceart Éireann). But he was raised 22
miles
south, in the County Down in
Downpatrick (Dún Phádraig), named for the final
resting
place of Saint Patrick in 461, and where notable Archbishop, expounder
of Scotism, (based on another from Down, John Duns Scotus) and
poet, Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil (or Mac Caghwell) was born in 1571.
This ancient site, Dún, meaning a fortified place, was named
Dunum as early as AD 130, but had Bronze Age inhabitants much earlier
who had left landscaped rings at the nearby Ballynoe Stone Circle, as
permanent
calling cards.
John Wesley preached here, and later they established a Methodist
College in Belfast, which will eventually intersect with Alister.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as
a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away
childish things. --1 Corinthians 13:11
As a lad of 10 he began his interest in nature and science,
building
his own telescope to search the skies deeper, and for the cellular
level, he was aided by his Royal Victoria Hospital head of pathology
department Great Uncle's hand-me-down German microscope.
He would go from schools in Downpatrick to finally graduate from Down
High School in 1966, around the same time as The Troubles renewed with violent
clashes between the Catholic Irish and the Royalist Protestants. He
admitted that the sectarian fighting led him to lose his faith, even
to the point of wanting to start an Atheists' Club at his next school,
the
Methodist College, where he pursued a degree in physics, chemistry and
pure and applied mathematics. While devouring astronomy and other
science books, he was also reading Bertrand Russell, and concurred at that time what he quoted above that "God was a baleful relic of the past, revealed as a delusion by
scientific advance."
Higher learning and a higher Power
♩♪You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it...♫ --Bob Dylan
He succeeded so well in chemistry that he obtained an open major
scholarship in
October 1971 for Wadham College, Oxford University. He recalls his
radical change of mind during his first year at
the prestigious university:
By the time I arrived in Oxford in
October
1971 to
start
the serious study of chemistry, I had realized that I had a lot of
rethinking to do. Up to that point, I had assumed that, when science
could not answer a question, there was no answer to be had. I now began
to realize that there might be limits to the scientific method and that
vast expanses of intellectual, aesthetic, and moral territory might lie
beyond its compass.
Christianity was much more intellectually robust. And so I experienced
an intellectual conversion. It wasn't shining bright lights or
great
emotional releases. It was just ‘This is right, that’s for me.’
My own work in the sciences brought home to me that the link between
science and atheism was much weaker than I thought, and also being
confronted with very articulate Christians in Oxford showed me that my
thinking was quite shallow. I realised that Christianity makes much
more sense of things, and of life, than anything else. C.S. Lewis
wrote:
"I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only
because I see it but because by it I see everything else". I would also
argue that in terms of its own place in history the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus is extremely well grounded. And above all, it's
relevant.
Mentored by Jeremy
R. Knowles and R. J. P. Williams, he achieved first class honors
and his BA for Natural Sciences (Chemistry) in 1975. His quest for
knowledge not
satiated, he came under the 'wing'
of Professor Sir George K. Radda, FRS resulting in an E.P.A.
Cephalosporin Research Studentship at Linacre College, Oxford, for the
academic year through 1976. That year too he obtained the Visiting
Short-Term Fellowship, European Molecular Biology Organization. The next three years, as he continued
scientific research while following a Christian calling, was fulfilled with a Domus
Senior Scholarship at Merton College, Oxford ending with a Masters of
Arts in 1978.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and
vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the
world, and not after Christ --Colossians 2:8
He also received a Ph.D from Oxford's Faculty of Biological Sciences
in 1978, and additionally that year he
was awarded his BA with first class honors in Theology along with the
Denyer and Johnson Prize. He then procured a Naden
Studentship in Divinity at St. John's College, Cambridge and while
working there until 1980, he studied for ordination in the Church of
England at Westcott House, Cambridge, proceeding in that endeavor by
achieving Deacon-ship in September. He would next make his home in the
east midlands to be curator at the St. Leonard's Parish Church,
Wollaton, Nottingham. At Southwell Minster a year later he was ordained
an Anglican Priest. He received his Doctor of Divinity from Oxford in
1983. This Irish-English man of the cloth would not
change his name to Latin, however, the same way
Aodh Mac Aingil become Hugo Cavellus.
Turning Pro
God has given you one face, and you make yourself
another.
--William Shakespeare
Obviously Alister, known by friends with the 'nick', Alice, had
too
many academic and scientific accouterments on his cassock and
turned-collar to became a simple parish priest. He was back to those
ancient edifices at Oxford to wear two other caps, one being a lecturer
in Christian doctrine and ethics at Wycliffe Hall, while, naturally, of
course, at the same time he was a member of their theology faculty.
And this, our life, exempt from public
haunt,
finds
tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and
good in everything. --William Shakespeare
Somewhere a-midst all this studying, learning from his elders like Peter
Medawar, and lecturing, Alister found
time
to read quite a lot, from various people and writers, from
Michael Polanyi to
Benjamin B.
Warfield and
William James --and more. He assimilated
"Education without values, as useful
as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil,"
from another English-Irish Protestant,
C.S. Lewis, (McGrath just
published the biography,
C. S.
Lewis -
A
Life
, in Spring 2013, which I will discuss further along).
Also he concurred with
G.K. Chesterton, that "The riddles of God are
more satisfying than the answers of man." Additionally there was Lewis'
friend,
J.R.R. Tolkien, the latter of which he quipped,
"His fussiness threatened to overwhelm his creativity.” McGrath
mentions that Chesterton
...pointed out how we can accept "a very good working
belief" long before "we can get absolute proof." The "big bang" is
accepted today mainly because it is more consistent with our
observations of the universe than its "steady state" rival. It can't be
proved (after all, it's a singular event). But it does make a lot of
sense of things.
Alister also
began to publish about this time, emulating the above-mentioned
Christian
intellectuals.
(I bought three of his books around this time, several used as a
reference, 1990's
Understanding the Trinity), and
Understanding
Jesus). Interestingly, they are not on McGrath's works' list on his
website. Although his book was
given a good review by apologist Robert M. Bowman, Jr., even lauding
him
with "McGrath's books bear a striking resemblance to C. S. Lewis's
popular works on Christian doctrine," thought it not a good idea that
McGrath pushed analogies to their limits --like
the Trinity is akin to
a triangle or two
parents and a child-- to explain
such important doctrines, as revealed in his reasons here:
As it stands his explanation still seems more
monarchian (the third-century heresy which regarded God as a lone
person playing three roles) than trinitarian. At best his explanation
seems to imply what theologians call an economic Trinity (i.e., the
belief that God acts in three distinctly personal ways or roles)
grounded in an ontological unitarianism (i.e., the belief that behind
God's many roles or ways of acting God is really only one person).
There seems to be no room in his explanation for an ontological Trinity
(one God existing eternally as three really distinct persons) -- no
room for a preexistent Son and Holy Spirit co-existing eternally with
the Father.
Besides making that clear to me in my conversation with him, he leaves
some indicators in his book of his orthodox view of the Trinity. For
one thing, earlier in the same book McGrath strongly affirms that the
Father sent the Son and that the Father and Son then sent the Holy
Spirit (pp. 126-29). Further, even in offering his monarchian-sounding
explanation McGrath warns, "The following is a simplified account of
the idea of 'person' which may be helpful, although the reader must
appreciate that simplifications are potentially dangerous" (p.
130)
Academic Circuit Rider
Taking advantage of the Denyer and Johnson Travelling
Scholarships, in 1990 he took a trip to the United States to
Madison, New Jersey,
where Drew University offered him a position as a Ezra Squire Tipple
Visiting Professor of Historical Theology for the fall semester, but
like a jet-setter with robes instead of Hawaiian shirts, he was back in
Oxford to give Bampton Lectures on early Christian creeds and doctrinal
statements. Not daunted by multitasking, in 1993 he started both to
become University Research Lecturer in Theology, Oxford University
until 1999, while until 1997 additionally being Research Professor of
Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada. That must have given him
frequent
flyer miles. Then, in 1995
assuming the role of Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford
overlapped him not a small bit until the latter responsibility ended in 2004.
Still the ever multifarious academic, in 1999 he was, because of
Oxford's “Recognition of Distinction” exercise, he was given the
titular, or personal chair professorship of Historical Theology until
2008. After resigning that Wycliffe Hall role he then became
Director of the newly-established Oxford Centre for Christian
Apologetics.
His first major published work was his three volumes
of theology: A Scientific
Theology: Volume 1 – Nature ( 2001), A Scientific Theology:
Volume 2 – Reality (2002), and A Scientific Theology: Volume 3
–
Theory (2003). Another interesting job he had in 2005, was as
Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures
& Commerce (FRSA). To finalize Doctor McGraths credentials,
in 2013 his continuing research into science and religion, and natural
theology at Oxford, earned him his DLitt (Doctor of Letters), Division of
Humanities.
No Apologies, but Yes Apologetics
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places
--Ephesians 6:12
His confidence for apologetics grew exponentially coinciding his
increasing studies in science, history, philosophy and theology. From
his essay "Science and Faith at Odds?", he explains his main driving
vision:
Do the natural sciences pose a challenge to the
Christian faith? This is a hot question at the moment, given the high
profile by works such as Richard Dawkins’ God Delusion. 1 Real
scientists do not believe in God! This sound byte will be very familiar
to Dawkins’ readers. Many in Western culture seem prepared to accept it
as the wisdom of our age. So how reliable is this idea? And how should
Christians respond to it? This is one of the greatest challenges to
faith in the public domain at present, and we need to know what to say.
But it’s more complex than that. It’s not just Richard Dawkins who is
asserting that science — especially evolutionary biology — leads to
atheism. This same slogan is found in many fundamentalist Christian
circles, where it is argued that Darwinism is necessarily atheistic.
Why, many wonder, are so many Christians, especially American
evangelicals, so wary of science in general, and the theory of
evolution in particular? Given evangelicalism’s characteristic emphasis
upon the authority of Scripture, it is not surprising to find that one
of the major concerns within the movement concerns apparent challenges
to biblical authority arising from scientific advance. This is seen
most acutely in evangelical concerns about challenges to traditional
interpretations of the Genesis creation accounts posed by evolutionary
biology. My goal, therefore, is to explore these important issues,
beginning with Dawkins, who is now widely regarded as the high priest
of the “science disproves God” belief system.
So Professor Richard Dawkins becomes his 'Professor James Moriarty',
not so much a thorn
in his side, and the 'New Atheism', but a stimulant. For example,
Dawkins quipped,
Alister McGrath has now written two books with my
name in the title. The poet W. B. Yeats, when asked to say something
about bad poets who made a living by parasitizing him, wrote the
splendid line, "...was there ever dog that praised his fleas?"
Ladies and Gentlemen! Get Ready for the Ultimate Smackdown!
McGrath continues to explain the debate of belief and science
from that essay:
So why are so many scientists religious? Why is
Dawkins so wrong in suggesting that all real scientists are atheists,
or demanding that scientists ought to be atheists? The obvious and most
intellectually satisfying explanation of this is not difficult to
identity. It is well known that the natural world is conceptually
malleable. It can be interpreted, without any loss of intellectual
integrity, in a number of different ways. Some “read” or “interpret”
nature in an atheist way. Others “read” it in a deistic way, seeing it
as pointing to a creator divinity, who is no longer involved in its
affairs. God winds up the clock, then leaves it to work on its own.
Others take a more specifically Christian view, believing in a God who
both creates and sustains. Others take a more spiritualized view,
speaking more vaguely of some “life force.”
Like some kind of a tag team match, there was also Daniel Dennett,
and the late Christopher Hitchens with whom to contend.
O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me
in temper; I would not be mad! --William Shakespeare
They had one of
several debates on October 11, 2007, where one said about the Hitchens
event, "Hitchens ripped the lily-livered, 'sophisticated' theologian
limb from limb." Even if opponents from the New Atheism sometimes
rudely
verbally abused McGrath and bragged on their success, he said on this
and their methods:
You just think: my goodness if their arguments must
be really weak if they have to resort to personal abuse. But I won’t
repeat it. If they use abusive language about me, I’m not going to use
it back. I’m a Christian, and always try to be gracious in debate.
I’m saying it {New Atheism} has run out of steam. It’s just recycling the same old
ideas. And when the ideas have been tried and tested and they don’t
work, the only option you have is to turn up the volume and get more
abusive. And that’s what we see in the new atheism. They aren't using
new arguments. They’re just making the same old points more
aggressively and more loudly
It seems true for McGrath that even though he is perched high on
Academia's Towers, he still has
detractors of various stripes.
Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them
before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to
the subverting of the hearers. --2 Timothy 2:14
One commented about the debates,
"I watched about 20 minutes of
an hour long discussion McGrath had with Richard Dawkins...when the
residing Pope of Atheism thinks you're a reasonable/rational Christian,
you've probably abandoned Christian thinking. I couldn't stomach it."
For some liberals, he is too Orthodox, but he is examined with scrutiny
from those
to the right of him. He is not immune to some serious examination, on
some of his writing echoed by PCA Reverend
David Wegener:
McGrath is indeed a very prolific author and most
of his
writing is on historical theology (much of it Reformation history), the
whole range of systematic theology, and the relationship of science and
Christianity. But, don’t be intimidated by the sheer volume of his
books. There is a fair bit of cutting and pasting going on...
Yet McGrath continues to maintain a perspective that has been shown to
be false and one used to dismiss the relevance of Puritan and Reformed
thinking for today.
It is surprisingly difficult to find out what McGrath actually
believes. His systematic theology text is really historical theology.
There is no Scripture index and very little discussion of the meaning
of actual Bible verses and how they speak to the normal loci of
systematic theology. Even after a long historical presentation, he
rarely if ever says, “these are the range of views presented in the
history of the church, but I am persuaded that the Scriptures teach
this because …” So, for example, in the chapter on “The Doctrines of
Human Nature, Sin and Grace,” McGrath first discusses, “The Place of
Humanity within Creation.” Genesis 1:27 is quoted and its meaning is
explored by quoting and summarizing from Tertulliian, Origen,
Augustine, Lactantius, Athanasius, the Cappadocians, Cyril of
Jerusalem, and then back to Augustine. At the end, we’re never told
what McGrath believes or even how he evaluates what these theologians
have taught.
His defense of Archbishop
Rowan Williams, who voted with other bishops
against
a defense of a conservative view on Homosexuality, caused some stir.
(McGrath had written: "He will see his role as raising uncomfortable
questions, and keeping them open, catalysing the crystallization of the
'mind of the church.' ) There is also some criticism about how he
borrows
heavily from his own materials, and in
those works, there are lots of other experts that he cites making his
case for this or that. For example. one disdaining comment, by Janet MacDougall, on
September 20, 2007 stated,
I had the
misfortune to use McGrath's Christian Theology Reader together with a
book which he calls "systematic theology"
The Reader is a mishmash of short excerpts from a collection of writers.
McGrath "cuts and pastes" these selections, for instance taking a
sentence from Calvin's Institutes, leaving out a considerable part of
Calvin's argument and then quoting a second sentence. There are
references at the bottom of the selection which give this technique
away, but I suspect, that most of the readers do not notice this.
In April of 2008 he was part of the huge “King James and his Bible”
lecture given at the Middle Temple to mark the 400 years of its
charter. He made the case for the Wycliffe version's superiority over the one that really took hold under King Charles in 1660. His lecture tours have been extensive, and some of the
latest have
been to promote what he touts as
"Natural Theology." "The Open Secret: A New Vision for Natural
Theology" was the first promotion of it in 2008 at University of
Newcastle-upon Tyne.
He followed it in 2009 at the University of Aberdeen with "A Fine Tuned
Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology." As recently as
2011 the “Darwinism and the Divine: Evolutionary Thought and Natural
Theology” Hulsean Lectures were given at Cambridge.
One can
find his debates on the BBC site, or on YouTube, of
course, and you can judge for yourself his abilities. He made time in
the hectic schedule to wed the psychologist, educator and theologian,
Joanna Collicutt. They have two children, and she co-wrote with
her husband, The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the
Denial of the Divine out in 2007. (I was not kidding about 'tag
team'.) She is an Anglican Priestess whose specialty is spirituality
for those in need of special education. (This female being a Reverend
ruffled some old-school feathers.) It all depends on how one balances
the Apostle Paul's "There is neither male nor female, Jew or Greek in
Christ Jesus," and "I do not allow a woman to teach a man."
November 22: A Sad Day for Three
♫For we, we are not long here,
Our time is but a breath, so we better breathe it.
And I, I was made to live,
I was made to love,
I was made to know you.
Hope is coming for me.
Hope, He's coming.
--"C.S. Lewis Song", Brooke Fraser
That above-mentioned date was recently remembered in the States for
John F. Kennedy's assassination, but it was also the day Aldous Huxley
(Doors to Perception) died, and more importantly, for
Evangelicals, Clive Staples Lewis, at age 63. It is a
no-brainer that Professor McGrath would provide us with another
biography of this author, C.S. Lewis: A Life, who for most
contemporary folks know his
Narnia tale from the big screen. Of course some might
unfortunately
remember him from that other cinematic portrayal, Shadowlands,
though it is an example
how one can be salvaged from low places (the affair with the divorcee
and his heavy drinking) by the Holy Spirit led Grace of God through His
Son. (They married, and his wife died at 45).
The one advantage McGrath
has over all the other books on Lewis, he had special access to his
letters, and therefore made an attempt to sort through legend and
truth. He,
however, was more interested in the theology than the sordid opera of
C.S.' earlier life. As McGrath prefaced it as, "... another rehearsal
of the vast army of facts and figures concerning his life, but an
attempt to identify its deeper themes and concerns, and assess its
significance. This is not a work of synopsis, but of analysis.” Most
reviewers liked McGrath's book, Bruce
Charlton said:
Aside from a mild but recurrent dash of chronological
snobbery resulting from McGrath's centre-Right social liberalism (such
that he sometimes simply assumes without argument that Lewis was wrong
on those points where he clashes with modern shibboleths in relation to
sex, politics, education, scholarship etc.), I have nothing negative to
say about this book! ---It was gripping, insightful, informative and
thoroughly worthwhile.
The Washington Post wrote, "...an immense amount has been written about C.S. Lewis, but if you’re looking for a lively, general introduction to this multifaceted thinker and writer, Alister McGrath’s new biography is a good place to start." And the Huffington Post, gushed it was "a thoroughly readable biography that opens up the man behind the myth." However Sam Leith's in the
Guardian was not so kind as witnessed by these (and they are not the
worst, i.e., "wretched with cliché") barbs:
McGrath's work on Lewis's theology in this volume is
much the best of it. There are good, clear explanations of Lewis's
ideas about myth, the distinctions he made between the "imaginary" and
the "imaginative", or "allegory" and "supposal"{sic}. McGrath – no objection
in itself, but a clue as to the weighting of his book – reads Lewis's
fiction primarily through its importance as a work of "imaginative
narrative apologetics" (as opposed to rational apologetics – a
distinction that he handles well) rather than as literary artefacts.{sic}
The cloth ear returns when it comes to literary history. That matters:
Lewis's chair was in literature, not theology. I love The Lord of the
Rings, too, but calling it "one of the great works of 20th-century
literature" seems a bit much. To say that the Narnia stories
"captivated the imagination of a generation", to earnestly affirm that The Waste Land is
"still widely acknowledged as one of the finest and most discussed
poems of the 20th century" or that Ulysses showed "radical literary
innovation" is not exactly high-wattage stuff. A final chapter on
Lewis's reputational {sic} afterlife gives more detailed attention to his
popularity in the US as a cross-denomination Christian apologist, and
to his being taken up by the evangelical movement that once spurned him
as a heretic, than it does to his literary or scholarly legacy.
More culpably, even when on home turf McGrath seldom takes Lewis to
task. He gives a lucid account of Lewis's line on "chronological
snobbery", for instance – the idea that it's arrogant to read the past
as an imperfect version of the present, rather than realising that
every stage of the past was once the present, and that present
orthodoxies will in due course seem just as muddled as those of the
past do to us. But he gives the idea a free pass (clearly it's less
true of some aspects of intellectual life – such as medicine or
mathematics – than others), and he raises no flags in this context over
Lewis's blatantly whiggish notion of Christianity: not as one myth
among others, but as the encompassing expression of a truth partially
and imperfectly grasped in other systems of religious ideas.
Now we get to the summation of his life, it is in his vast prolific oeuvres as evidenced below, but hopefully he does not foresee fading like C.S. Lewis who feebly and incorrectly foretold that his legacy would evaporate in half a decade's time. Personally, I think this erudite
Christian, Doctor, Professor, Reverend Alister E. McGrath still has the best output to come.
Body of Work:
Also in these languages:
Afrikaans; Arabic; Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin); Croatian;
Czech; Dutch; Farsi; Finnish; French; German; Hungarian; Icelandic;
Indonesian; Italian; Japanese; Korean; Norwegian; Polish; Portugese;
Romanian; Russian; Spanish; Swedish; and Vietnamese.
Popular
1.
In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible (New
York:
Doubleday, 2001).
2.
The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the
Modern World (New York: Doubleday, 2004).
3.
The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of
the
Divine. With Joanna Collicutt McGrath. (London: SPCK, 2007).
4.
Why God Won’t Go Away: Engaging the New Atheism (London:
SPCK, 2011).
North American edition published as
Why God Won’t Go Away: Is the
New
Atheism Running on Empty? (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2011).
Works written for clergy and others engaged in ministry
The main works here are comprise the “Truth and the Christian
Imagination” series, which uses works of art as a means of
communicating and exploring central Christian ideas. The five volumes
in the series are as follows:
1.
Creation (London: SPCK, 2004).
2.
Incarnation (London: SPCK, 2005).
3.
Redemption (London: SPCK, 2006).
4.
Resurrection (London: SPCK, 2007).
5.
The Christian Vision of God (London: SPCK, 2008).
Other books written for this audience
1.
The Journey (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999).
2.
The Unknown God: Searching for spiritual fulfilment (Oxford:
Lion
Publications, 1999).
(voted the best book on Christian spirituality published in
1999 by
Christianity Today.)
3.
Mere Theology: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind
(London: SPCK, 2010).
North American edition published as
The Passionate Intellect:
Christian
Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind (InterVarsity Press, 2010).
4.
Surprised by Meaning: Science, Faith, and How We Make Sense of
Things (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011).
10.
Mere
Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith (Grand Rapids:
Baker Books, 2012).
Academia
1.
Luther’s Theology of the Cross. Martin Luther’s Theological
Breakthrough (Blackwell: Oxford, 1985); paperback edition published
January 1990. Second edition due to be published in 2011.
2.
The Making of Modern German Christology. From the Enlightenment
to
Pannenberg (Blackwell: Oxford, 1986).
3. “Reformation to Enlightenment (1500–1800)”, in P. D. L. Avis (ed.),
The History of Christian Theology I: The Science of Theology (Eerdmans:
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1986), 105-229.
Book-length article.
4.
Iustitia Dei.
A History of the Christian Doctrine
of
Justification (2 vols; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1986;
paperback edition 1989, 1991). Second edition (in one volume) published
by CUP in 1998. Third edition, completely revised, 2005.
5.
The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation
(Blackwell:
Oxford, 1987); paperback edition, 1992. Second edition, completely
revised, 2003.
6.
The Genesis of Doctrine (Blackwell: Oxford, 1990). Second
edition:
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997. The 1990 Bampton Lectures, Oxford
University.
7.
The Renewal of Anglicanism (London: SPCK, 1993).
8.
The Foundations of Dialogue in Science and Religion (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1998).
9.
Thomas F. Torrance: An Intellectual Biography
(Edinburgh: T.
&
T. Clark, 1999).
10.
The Future of Christianity
(Oxford: Blackwell, 2000).
11.
A Scientific Theology: Volume 1 – Nature (London: T. &
T.
Clark, 2001).
12.
A Scientific Theology: Volume 2 – Reality (London: T. &
T.
Clark, 2002).
13.
A Brief History of Heaven. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002).
14.
A Scientific Theology: Volume 3 – Theory (London: T. &
T.
Clark, 2003).
15.
Dawkins’ God: Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life.
(Oxford:
Blackwell, 2004).
16.
The Science of God: An Introduction to Scientific Theology.
(London: T. & T. Clark, 2004).
17.
The Order of Things: Explorations in Scientific Theology
(Oxford:
Blackwell, 2006).
18.
Christianity’s Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution from
the
Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century. (San Francisco: HarperOne,
2007).
19.
The Open Secret: A New Vision for Natural Theology. (Oxford:
Blackwell, 2008). The 2008 Riddell Memorial Lectures, University of
Newcastle.
20.
A Fine-Tuned Universe? Anthropic Phenomena and Natural Theology
(Louisville, KY: Westminster/
John Knox Press, 2009).
This book is an expanded version of the 2009 Gifford Lectures at the
University of Aberdeen.
21.
Heresy: A History of Defending the Faith (San Francisco:
HarperOne,
2009).
22.
Darwinism and the Divine: Evolutionary Thought and Natural
Theology
(Oxford: Blackwell-Wiley, 2011).
This book is an expanded version of the 2009 Hulsean Lectures at the
University of Cambridge.
Textbooks
1.
Reformation Thought: An Introduction
First edition, 1988; second
edition, 1993; third edition, 1999. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing).
2.
Christian Theology: An Introduction First edition, 1993;
second
edition, 1997; third edition, 2001; fourth edition, 2006; fifth
edition, 2011 (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing).
3.
The Christian Theology Reader First edition, 1995; second
edition,
2000; third edition, 2006; fourth edition, 2011 (Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing).
4.
Christianity: An Introduction First edition, 1997; second,
completely revised edition, 2006. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing).
5.
Science and Religion: An Introduction. First edition, 1999;
second,
completely revised edition, 2009 (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing).
6.
Theology: The Basics First edition, 2004; second edition,
2007;
third edition 2011. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing).
7.
Theology: The Basic Texts First edition, 2007; second edition
2011
(Oxford: Blackwell Publishing).
Edited Academic Works
1. Editor,
Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Modern Christian Thought
(Oxford/Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1993).
2.Editor,
A Handbook of Anglican Theologians (London: SPCK,
1998).
3. Editor, with Darren C Marks, of
The Blackwell Companion to
Protestantism (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004).
Natural Sciences
1. "Photobleaching: A Novel Fluorescence
Method for Diffusion Studies
in Lipid Systems”, Biochimica at Biophysica Acta 426 (1976): 173-85.
2. “
Positron Lifetimes in Phospholipid Dispersions”, Biochimica at
Biophysica Acta 466 (1977): 367-72.
3. “Lipid Asymmetry, Clustering and Molecular Motion in Biological
Membranes and Their Models”, in S. Abrahamsson and I. Pascher (eds),
Nobel Foundation Symposium: Biological Membranes and Their Models (New
York: Plenum Press, 1977), 389-407.
Note that all these were co-authored with Professor G. K. Radda and
others.
Theological
1. "The Anti‑
Pelagian Structure of ‘Nominalist’ Doctrines of
Justification”, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 57 (1981) 107‑19.
2. “Rectitude: The Moral Foundations of
Anselm of Canterbury’s
Soteriology”, Downside Review 99 (1981) 204‑13.
3. “‘Augustinianism’? A Critical Assessment of the so‑called ‘Mediaeval
Augustinian Tradition’ on Justification”, Augustiniana 31 (1981) 247‑67.
4. “Justification: Barth, Trent and Küng”, Scottish Journal of
Theology 34 (1981) 517‑29.
5. “Humanist Elements in the Early Reformed Doctrine of Justification”,
Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 73 (1982) 5‑20.
6. “Justice and Justification. Semantic and Juristic Aspects of
the Christian Doctrine of Justification”, Scottish Journal of Theology
35 (1982) 403‑18.
7. “Forerunners of the Reformation? A Critical Examination of the
Evidence for Precursors of
the Reformation Doctrines of
Justification”,Harvard Theological Review 75 (1982) 219‑42.
8. “‘The Righteousness of God’ from Augustine to Luther”, Studia
Theologica 36 (1982) 63‑78.
9. “Mira et nova diffinitio iustitiae. Luther and Scholastic
Doctrines of Justification”, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 74
(1983) 37‑60.
10. “
Karl Barth and the articulus iustificationis. The
Significance of His Critique of
Ernst Wolf within the Context of his
Theological Method”,Theologische Zeitschrift 39 (1983) 349‑61.
11. “Homo iustificandus fide. Rechtfertigung, Verkündigung und
Anthropologie”, Kerygma und Dogma 29 (1983) 323‑31.
12. “Divine Justice and Divine Equity in the Controversy between
Augustine and Julian of Eclanum”, Downside Review 101 (1983) 312‑9.
13. “Homo assumptus? A Study in the Christology of the Via
Moderna, with Particular Reference to
William of Ockham”, Ephemerides
Theologicae Lovanienses 60 (1984): 283‑97.
14. “The Influence of Aristotelian Physics upon St
Thomas Aquinas’
Discussion of the Processus Iustificationis“, Recherches de
théologie
ancienne et médiévale 51 (1984) 223‑9.
15. “Karl Barth als Aufklärer? Der Zusammenhang seiner Lehre vom Werke
Christi mit der Erwählungslehre”, Kerygma und Dogma 30 (1984) 273‑83.
16. “Der articulus iustificationis als axiomatischer Grundsatz des
christlichen Glaubens”, Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 81 (1984)
383‑94.
17. “Some Observations concerning the Soteriology of the Schola
Moderna”, Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 52 (1985):
182‑93.
18. “The Moral Theory of the Atonement. An Historical and
Theological Critique”, Scottish Journal of Theology 38 (1985): 205‑20.
19. “
John Calvin and Late Medieval Thought. A Study in Late
Medieval Influences upon Calvin’s Theological Thought”, Archiv für
Reformationsgeschichte 77 (1986): 58-78.
20. “Christology and Soteriology. A Response to Wolfhart Pannenberg’s
Critique of the Soteriological Approach to Christology”, Theologische
Zeitschrift 42 (1986): 222‑36.
21. “Geschichte, Überlieferung und Erzählung: Überlegungen zur
Identität und Aufgabe christlicher Theologie”, Kerygma und Dogma 32
(1986): 234-53.
22. “Karl Barth on Jesus Christ, Theology and the Church”, in Reckoning
with Barth: Essays in Commemoration of the Centenary of Karl Barth’s
Birth (Oxford: Mowbrays, 1988): 27–42.
23. “Christian Ethics”, in R. Morgan (ed.), The Religion of the
Incarnation: Anglican Essays in Commemoration of Lux Mundi (Bristol:
Classical Press, 1989), 189–204.
24. “The Eucharist: Reassessing
Zwingli”, Theology 93 (1990): 13–20.
25. “Dogma und Gemeinde: Zur soziologische Funktion des christlichen
Dogmas”, Kerygma und Dogma (1990): 24–43.
26. Articles “Reformation” and “
Martin Luther” in The Dictionary of
Biblical Interpretation, ed. J. L Houlden (London: SCM Press, 1990).
27. “The Christology of Hugolino of Orvieto”, in Schwerpunkte und
Wirkungen des Sentenzenkommentars Hugolins von Orvieto, ed. K. W.
Eckermann (Würzburg: Augustinus-Verlag, 1990), 253–62.
28. “Religion”, in J. W. Yolton et al. (eds), The Blackwell Companion
to the Enlightenment (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991), 447-52.
29. Articles on “Justification” and “Cross, Theology of the” for A
Dictionary of Paul and His Letters ed. G. F. Hawthorne, R. P. Wallace
and D. G. Reid (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993).
30. Articles on “Justification”, “Sanctification” and “Scholasticism”
for Encyclopaedia of the Reformation ed. H. Hillebrandt (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1995).
31. “The Transition to Modernity, 1400–1750”, in J. L. Houlden and
Peter Byrne, Encyclopaedia of Theology (London: Routledge, 1995).
32. “Theologiae Proprium Subiectum: Theology as the Servant and Critic
of the Church”, in W. P. Stephens (ed.), The Bible, The Reformation,
and the Church (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995), 150-65.
33. Articles on “Justification”, “Martin Luther”, “John Calvin”,
“Calvinism” and “Lutheranism” in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian
Church, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).
34. Articles on
Gabriel Biel,
Martin Bucer,
J. H. Bullinger,
M.
Flacius,
A. von Karlstadt,
Philip Melanchthon,
Johann Oecolampadius,
Vadian and
Huldrych Zwingli for Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation,
ed. John H Hayes (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1998).
35. “Reality, Symbol and History: Theological Reflections on N. T.
Wright’s Portrayal of Jesus”, in Carey C. Newman (ed.), Jesus and the
Restoration of Israel: A Critical Assessment of N. T. Wright’s Jesus
and the Victory of God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999),
159-79.
36. “Profile: Thomas F. Torrance,” Epworth Review 27 (2000): 11-15.
37. “Newman on Justification: An Evaluation,” in Terrance Merrigan and
Ian T. Ker (eds), Newman and the Word (Louvain: Peters, 2000), 91-108.
38. “The Origins of A Scientific Theology.” Interdisciplinary Science
Reviews 28 (2003): 259-65.
39. “Theologie,
Christliche, 4-5: Reformation bis Neuzeit”, in
Theologische Realenzyklopädie, ed.
Gerhard Krause, Gerhard Müller, and
Horst Robert Balz. (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004).
40. “Intelligibility and Responsibility: The Doctrine of Creation and
Modern Science”. China Graduate School of Theology Journal 37 (2004):
103-37.
41. “On Writing a Scientific Theology: A Response to
Ross H.
McKenzie.”, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 56 (2004),
255-9.
42. “Jesus for Modern Man: The Historical Significance of
John
Robinson”s Christology”, in Colin Slee (ed.), Honest to God: Forty
Years On(London: SCM Press, 2004), 111-32.
43. “A
Blast from the Past? The Boyle Lectures and Natural Theology.”
Science and Christian Belief 17 (2005): 25-34.
44. “Has Science Eliminated God? Richard Dawkins and the Meaning of
Life.” Science and Christian Belief 17 (2005): 115-35.
45. “Spiritual Information and the Sense of Wonder: The Convergence of
Spirituality and the Natural Sciences.” In C. L. Harper (ed.),I
Spiritual Information, edited by Charles L. Harper (Philadelphia:
Templeton Foundation Press, 2005), 1-5.
46. “Spirituality and Well-Being: Some Recent Discussions”
Review
Article, Brain: A Journal of Neurology 129 (2006): 278-82.
47. “Darwinism”, in P. Clayton (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Science
and Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 681-96.
48. “The Doctrine of the Trinity: An Evangelical Reflection”, in T.
George (ed.), God the Holy Trinity: Reflections on Christian Faith and
Practice(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 17-35.
49. “Theologie als Mathesis Universalis? Heinrich Scholz, Karl Barth,
und der wissenschaftliche Status der christlichen Theologie.”
Theologische Zeitschrift 63 (2007): 44-57.
50. “Dogma, Identität und soziale Existenz: Kritische Reflexionen über
die soziale Funktion der christlichen Dogmatik in der Aufrechterhaltung
von Gruppenidentität.” Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kulturgeschichte 2
(2007).
51. “Science and Religion”, in P. Clarke (ed.), The World’s Religions:
Continuities and Transformations 2nd edn (London: Routledge, 2008),
609-20.
52. “The secularization of providence: Theological reflections on the
appeal to Darwinism in recent atheist apologetics”, in Philip G.
Ziegler and Francesca Murphy (eds), The Doctrine of Providence (London:
T&T Clark, 2009), 194-208.
53. “The Story of the
King James Bible.” In D. G. Burke (eds),
Translation that Openeth the Window: Reflections on the History and
Legacy of the King James Bible. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical
Literature, 2009), 3-20.
54. “Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen’? Gedanken über die Zukunft der
natürlichen Theologie”. Theologische Zeitschrift 65 (2009): 246-60.
Professor James Moriarty
55. “The Great Tradition:
J. I. Packer and Engaging with the Past to
Enrich the Present” in T. George (ed.), J. I. Packer and the
Evangelical Future (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009), 19-27.
56. “Is religion evil?” in William Lane Craig and Chad Meister (eds),
God is Good, God is Great: Why Believing in God is Reasonable and
Responsible (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 119-33.
57. “Deism or Trinitarianism? The Case of Natural Theology.” A Theology
of Japan: Monograph Series, vol. 5. (Tokyo: Seigakuin University Press,
2009), 102-14.
58. “The Shaping of Reality: Calvin and the Formation of Theological
Vision.” Toronto Journal of Theology 25 (2009): 187–204.
59. “The ideological uses of evolutionary biology in recent atheist
apologetics” in R. Numbers and D. Alexander (eds), Ideology and
Biology: From Descartes to Dawkins (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2010), 329-49.
60. “Water: A Navigable Channel from Science to God?”, in Ruth M.
Lynden-Bell, Simon Conway Morris, John D. Barrow, and John L. Finney
(eds), Water and Life: The Unique Properties of H2O (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2010), 341-52.
61. “Religious Education in Great Britain”
in Japanese. Published in
book form. Tokyo: Kirisuto Shimbun, 2010.
62. “Holy Communion: Its History and Practice”
in Japanese. Published
in book form. Tokyo: Kirisuto Shimbun, 2010.
63. “Gli ateismi di successo: Il nuovo scientismo.” Concilium:
rivista
internazionale di teologia 46 (2010): 625-37.
64. “Truth, Beauty and Goodness: A New Vision for Natural Theology”, in
A.
L. C. Runehov, N. H. Gregerson, and J. Wolf (eds), The Human Project in
Science and Religion (Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen Press, 2010),
21-38.
65. “Erzählung, Gemeinschaft und Dogma: Reflexionen über das Zeugnis
der Kirche in der Postmoderne.“ Theologische Beiträge 41 (2010): 25–38.
I
66. “De grenzen aan de darwinistische wereldbeschouwing: een
filosophisch en religieus perspectief”, in Luc Braeckmans, Willem
Lemmens, Mark Nelissen, and Walter van Herck (eds), Darwin en het
hedendaage mensbeeld (Antwerp: University Press Antwerp, 2010),113-32.
67. “Faith and Tradition”, in Gerald McDermott (ed.), The Oxford
Handbook of Evangelical Theology (New York: Oxford University Press,
2010), 81-95.
68. “Evangelicalism and Science”, in Gerald McDermott (ed.), The Oxford
Handbook of Evangelical Theology (New York: Oxford University Press,
2010), 434-48.
69. “Protestantism”, in David Fergusson, Karen Kilby, Iain
Torrance
(eds), Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, to be published 2011).
70. “Transcendence and God: Reflections on Critical Realism, the ‘New
Atheism,’ and Christian Theology”. In Mervyn Hartwig and Jamie Morgan
(eds), Theism, Atheism and Meta-Reality: Realist Perspectives on
Spirituality. (London: Routledge, to be published in 2011).
71. “The Natural Sciences and Apologetics”, in Andrew Davison (ed.),
Imaginative Apologetics: Theology, Philosophy and the Catholic
Tradition( London: SCM Press, to be published 2011).
72. “The Cultivation of Theological Vision: Theological Attentiveness
and the Practice of Ministry”. In Pete Ward (ed.), Perspectives on
Ecclesiology and Ethnography (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, to be
published 2011).
73. “The Lord is my Light: On the Discipleship of the Mind.”
Evangelical Quarterly 83 (2011): 000-00.
74. “Anglicanism and Pan-Evangelicalism”, in Mark Chapman (ed.), The
Oxford Handbook to Anglican Studies. Oxford University Press, to be
published in 2012.
75. “Christianity”. In Mark Cobb, Christina Puchalski, and Bruce
Rumbold (eds), The Textbook of Spirituality in Healthcare (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, to be published in 2012).
76. “The Church as a Visionary Community: Ecclesiology and
Intellectual, Aesthetic, and Moral Discernment.”
Australian
Broadcasting Corporation
“Religion and Ethics”
"Stephen Hawking, God, and the Role of Science"
September 2010
"Could anyone believe in Pullman’s Jesus?"
November 2010
A series of postings on the “New Atheism”, January – March 2011:
1. "Thank God for the New Atheism!"
2. "There is nothing blind about faith."
3. "Faith and the prison of mere rationality"
Sources:
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mcgrath/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/08/lewis-genius-prophet-mcgrath-reviewhttp://www.qideas.org/essays/science-and-faith-at-odds.aspxhttp://www.shelfari.com/authors/a734718/Alister-E-McGrath/books?http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/622-interview-with-alister-mcgrath-author-of-39-the-dawkins-delusion-39 http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/alister-mcgrath-3745698.htmlhttp://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/dlancash/dawkinsdelusion.htm http://baylyblog.com/blog/2007/09/alister-mcgrath-several-caveatshttp://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2013/03/dr-alistair-mcgrath-resurrection.html
he Resurrection