Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination With Evil

Bernard McGinn

Columbia University Press, 2000 - Religion - 369 pages

In this timely and sweeping exploration, one of the greatest living historians of Christian thought traces the concept of Antichrist from its Judeo-Christian origins to the present day. Rooted in Second Temple Judaism--a period of intense religious and political disruption--Antichrist developed out of belief in malevolent angelic and human forces. McGinn demonstrates how Antichrist has often reflected the human need to comprehend the persistence of evil in the world, and examines how it has haunted popular imagination in both the form of indivuduals--such as Nero, Napoleon, and Saddam Hussein--and groups--Jews, heretics, Muslims.

What people are saying

Review: Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil

User Review  - Katharine Holden - Goodreads

Obscure, tedious. Full of jargon and far too much Jung.

Review: Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil

User Review  - Angela Wade - Goodreads

Unreadable.

About the author

Bernard McGinn, Naomi Shenstone Donnelly Professor of Historical Theology and History of Christianity at the University of Chicago, is the author of many books, including "Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages" (Columbia).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination With Evil
• Author: Bernard McGinn
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2000
• ISBN: 0231119771, 9780231119771
• Length: 369 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Christian Theology / Angelology & Demonology; Religion / Christianity / History; Religion / Cults; Religion / Eschatology