About the Book
About the Book
Atheism is one of the most important movements in modern Western culture. For the last two hundred years, it seemed to be eliminating religion as an outmoded and dangerous superstition. Recent years, however, have witnessed its decline and rise in religious devotion throughout the world. In this bold and thought-provoking book, the distinguished historian and theologian Alistair McGrath examines what went wrong with the atheist dream and explains why religion and faith are destined to play a central role in the twenty-first century.
A former atheist who is now one of Christianity’s foremost scholars, McGrath traces the history of atheism from its emergence in eighteenth-century Europe to its golden age in the first half of the twentieth century. Blending thoughtful, authoritative historical analysis with incisive portraits of such leading and influential atheists as Karl Marx and Richard Dawkins, McGrath exposes the flaws at the heart of atheism, and argues that the renewal of faith is a natural, inevitable and necessary response to its failures.