Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth Book

Attempting a herculean task, Alister McGrath's "Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth" not offers a history of heresy from a Christian perspective, but also attempts to define the term. As history, McGrath does a fine job explaining the various movements within Christianity, though on occasion he can be selective with his use of sources in order to maintain his position with regards to the supremacy of Christian orthodoxy. For example, one might think from this work that the Arian "heresy" died in the 4th Century only to rear its head again in the 18th Century, when in fact this non-Trinitarian idea survived for further centuries, and continues today in groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses. However, his attempt to define heresy proves far from successful.

McGrath tries mightily to find a definition (and for obvious theological reasons one which leaves Protestants on the "right" side of the divide. And yet, none of his efforts survive much scrutiny, his argument turning almost tautological. Thus, he describes Arianism as heretical because it lacks "internal coherence," yet one can just as easily imagine a counter narrative, where Arianism succeeded and could describe Trinitarians in similarly derisive terms. Likewise, his efforts to present the early Church as generally unified, do not stand up to serious historical scrutiny, as is clear from the diversity of texts in wide circulation during the period. Even within the New Testament itself, one can already infer charges and counter charges of heresy between the Jerusalem Church and Paul's work among Greek speaking Gentiles.

In many ways, the whole history of the Church could be read as a series of heresies, one following the other; early Christianity being a Jewish heresy, Paul's missionizing a Christian heresy, all the way forward to the heresies of Luther and his intellectual offspring. The same can be said of McGrath's suggestion that a heresy can be discerned when Christians seek to adopt to the larger culture, a thing which was clearly true in the case of Paul and to an even great degree as Christianity entered the Roman mainstream. As for defining heresy as those movements which don't survive, who can know whether Cathars, plainly a heresy in McGrath's view, wouldn't have flourished if not for the ironically named Innocent III willingness to engage in the questionably Christian effort to murder several hundred thousand of them.

While Christian readers may take comfort in McGrath's writings, he fails to counter much of the evidence offered by secular scholars, such as Bart Ehrmann.
In the end, McGrath offers an interesting history, but theological arguments which are less than persuasive.