Scan barcode
A review by mediaevalmuse
Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil by Amy Simmons
5.0
McGinn’s book is a historical survey, tracing the origins and evolution of the antichrist legend from ancient history to the modern day. Using a number or primary sources ranging from Biblical commentaries, political propaganda, letters, histories, plays, and poems, McGinn argues that antichrist has, over time, been used to embody various anxieties and theological views about evil and the end of the world. Though this book does not cite every appearance of the antichrist in literature, it selects a good representative body of work that shows how different historical eras contributed to the evolution of the antichrist legend.
I very much appreciated the wide scope of this book and was delighted by the way McGinn could cover such a broad historical scope yet still make each chapter feel incredibly detailed. It's very clear that McGinn has done a lot of research and has methodically presented what he feels best represents each era he writes about; as a reader, it's hard not to be incredibly impressed.
I think McGinn's strongest chapters are the early ones in which he covers Jewish literature and developing Christianity before the Middle Ages. This isn't to say his later chapters are bad, but I did get the sense the McGinn was writing in his wheelhouse early on, as those chapters felt much richer and varied in the way they approach history and literature. Later chapters also tend to focus almost exclusively on (Western) Europe, and while I understand that Europe is kind of a hotbed of Christian development and conflict, I was still a bit curious as to how non-European Christianity was handling the legend of the antichrist. Maybe Europe is a special case in that it took a particular interest, so I don't know how valid this critique is.
All that being said, I don't think I'd recommend this book to casual readers. Though the scope is large, McGinn doesn't waste time explaining much historical context, so you have to go in with at least a basic understanding of Christian history. This isn't to say this is a failing for McGinn; rather, I don't want to give the impression that this academic book is "pop history."
TL;DR: Anti-Christ is a fascinating survey of the history of the anti-Christ legend from about 50 BC to the late 20th centuries. Readers with a scholarly interest in the history of Christianity and theology will surely appreciate this book, and I can't recommend it enough for anyone wanting to do work on apocalypticism.
I very much appreciated the wide scope of this book and was delighted by the way McGinn could cover such a broad historical scope yet still make each chapter feel incredibly detailed. It's very clear that McGinn has done a lot of research and has methodically presented what he feels best represents each era he writes about; as a reader, it's hard not to be incredibly impressed.
I think McGinn's strongest chapters are the early ones in which he covers Jewish literature and developing Christianity before the Middle Ages. This isn't to say his later chapters are bad, but I did get the sense the McGinn was writing in his wheelhouse early on, as those chapters felt much richer and varied in the way they approach history and literature. Later chapters also tend to focus almost exclusively on (Western) Europe, and while I understand that Europe is kind of a hotbed of Christian development and conflict, I was still a bit curious as to how non-European Christianity was handling the legend of the antichrist. Maybe Europe is a special case in that it took a particular interest, so I don't know how valid this critique is.
All that being said, I don't think I'd recommend this book to casual readers. Though the scope is large, McGinn doesn't waste time explaining much historical context, so you have to go in with at least a basic understanding of Christian history. This isn't to say this is a failing for McGinn; rather, I don't want to give the impression that this academic book is "pop history."
TL;DR: Anti-Christ is a fascinating survey of the history of the anti-Christ legend from about 50 BC to the late 20th centuries. Readers with a scholarly interest in the history of Christianity and theology will surely appreciate this book, and I can't recommend it enough for anyone wanting to do work on apocalypticism.