Christianity’s Dangerous Idea

By Nigel Tomes


Alister McGrath, Prof. of Historical Theology at Oxford University, is a prolific writer. His recent book is entitled Christianity’s Dangerous Idea: the Protestant Revolution from the sixteenth Century to the twenty-first.  

What’s this “dangerous idea”?

So what was this “dangerous idea”? Some might say— “justification by faith alone.” McGrath argues there’s a more basic and radical idea. “The idea that lay at the heart of the sixteenth century Reformation… was that the Bible is capable of being understood by all Christian believers—that they all have the right to interpret it and to insist upon their perspectives being taken seriously …The dangerous new idea… was that all Christians have the right to interpret the Bible for themselves.” [p. 2]

What was this idea’s impact?

What was the impact of this “dangerous idea”? McGrath contends that Martin “Luther’s radical doctrine of the ‘priesthood of all believers’ empowered individual believers. It was a radical, dangerous idea that bypassed the idea that a centralized authority had the right to interpret the Bible. There was no centralized authority, no clerical monopoly on biblical interpretation.” [p. 3] Even today the Roman Catholic Church claims this monopoly. In Catholicism, the individual Christian has neither the right nor the responsibility to interpret the Bible and declare its meaning. The Protestant Reformation restored that right to every believer. This (McGrath says) was its core concept which generated 500 years of growth and adaption in (non-Catholic) Christianity— the missionary movement, the church’s rapid rise in the global South, the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement, etc.

Why is it “dangerous”?

But why does McGrath call this idea “dangerous”? What’s the “down side”? McGrath contends that “this new approach was dangerous and ultimately uncontrollable” [p. 3] Events in Germany [the Peasants’ War (1525)] convinced Luther that “if every individual was able to interpret the Bible as he pleased, the outcome can only be anarchy and radical religious individualism.” [p. 3] It is “dangerous” because “Protestantism is uncontrollable.” [p. 477] Among Catholics the Vatican limits innovation in biblical interpretation and practice. But among Protestants, “with no centralized Protestant validating agency equivalent to the Vatican, there is no enforceable means by which… innovation can be controlled.” [p. 472] How can deviations from orthodox belief and practice be controlled? “Without an overarching authority… opposing sides on controversial issues can only appeal to the Bible—yet the Bible is open to many diverse interpretations,” says McGrath.  Hence, “Protestantism is uncontrollable.”  

Is this Christianity’s ‘Achilles Tendon’?

Has McGrath found Christianity’s ‘Achilles Tendon,’ the fatal flaw among Protestants and evangelicals? From a human viewpoint it might appear so. But this ignores God’s presence among his people via the Holy Spirit. There’s no need for man’s “centralized power,” “validating agency” or “institutionalized authority,” if believers heed God’s Spirit.  The Ark of the Covenant didn’t need a human hand to steady it, as Uzzah discovered (2 Sam. 6:6-7). As Christians today we have the Scriptures in our hand and the Holy Spirit in our hearts; our God is living. The Christian path is marked by a dynamic interaction between God and His people in an unfolding environment. “Every location, every generation, every challenge forces the community of faith to reread the Bible, asking what it might have to say in this situation that it did not say in other situations.” [p. 466] Here McGrath nails it! With the Spirit of Truth guiding us (John 16:13) we will progress along the path of God’s purpose to his goal.

Alister E. McGrath, Christianity’s Dangerous Idea: the Protestant Revolution from the sixteenth Century to the twenty-first, HarperOne, 2007, 552 pp