Protestants

Author Alec Ryrie
Publisher Collins £25
Format hbk
ISBN 9780007465033

This major work is a majestic and engrossing account of the history and development of our Protestant tradition – a real page-turner. Ryrie claims ‘Protestantism is about the…reckless pursuit of an unmeditated love affair with God’. He covers the peaks and pitfalls of the affair, from Luther onwards. The book comprises three parts: ‘The Reformation Age’, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; ‘The Modern Age’, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as Protestantism spreads from the Empire; and ‘The Global Age’ describes Protestantism in South Africa, Korea, China, ending with the worldwide spread of Pentecostalism. An epilogue reflects on the present worldwide situation. To quote Ryrie again – ‘my argument throughout this book has been that Protestants are best treated as family: a sprawling, diverse, extremely quarrelsome family, to be sure, but one that is tied together by more than an accident of birth’. His lively style will engage the reader – and what better way to become better acquainted with our relatives than with this enthralling book.

ROGER THORNINGTON