Whatever else Richard Dawkins’s book The God Delusion may have achieved, it has inspired very grand refutations. Impressive essays by Pulitzer prizewinner Marilynne Robinson, wild man of the academic left Terry Eagleton and leading biologist H. Allen Orr set out to tell Dawkins how wrong he is. Now enter Alister McGrath, professor of historical theology at the University of Oxford.
McGrath’s extended essay covers some similar ground to the others, notably in analysing the extent of Dawkins’s ignorance of theology. Of course, the point about that attack, from Dawkins’ perspective at any rate, is that it is no attack at all. For him, theology is a…
