The Books of Gerald McDermott: An Overview
A Prolific Anglican Author
The Rev. Dr. Gerald R. McDermott, scholar and Anglican priest, has devoted much of his career to publishing and editing Christian books. Of course, he has also written an abundance of articles, including many at Anglican Compass! With books aimed at the scholar, the student, and the interested layman alike, there is something for everyone. This article presents an overview of these works, listed by category and in chronological order. Book descriptions include publisher summaries.
Dr. McDermott is a specialist in the study of the great American Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards, doing much to offer a fuller picture of Edwards and his theological project. In the study of comparative religion, Dr. McDermott has produced multiple introductions to the belief systems of non-Christians, including several books interacting with Mormon beliefs. He has a series of volumes dedicated to reassessing the relationship between Christianity, Judaism, and the nation of Israel. Dr. McDermott’s works on Anglican theology and identity offer a helpful glimpse at the diverse landscape of orthodox Anglican belief in a global context. Finally, he has written miscellaneous volumes on wide-ranging topics, including cancer and those who stutter.
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Jonathan Edwards Studies
One Holy and Happy Society: The Public Theology of Jonathan Edwards (Penn State Press, 1992). McDermott shows that Edwards thought deeply about New England’s status under God, America’s role in the millennium, the nature and usefulness of patriotism, the duties of a good magistrate, and what it means to be a good citizen. In fact, his sociopolitical theory was at least as fully developed as that of his better-known contemporaries and more progressive in its attitude toward citizens’ rights.
Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods: Christian Theology, Enlightenment Religion, and Non-Christian Faiths (Oxford University Press, 2000). This is a study of how American theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) battled deist arguments about revelation and God’s fairness to non-Christians.
Seeing God: Jonathan Edwards and Spiritual Discernment (Regent College Publishing, 2000). This lively update of Edward’s classic “Treatise Concerning Religious Affections” analyzes today’s spiritual life with vivid illustrations.
Understanding Jonathan Edwards: An Introduction to America’s Theologian, editor (Oxford University Press, 2008). This collection offers an introduction to Edwards’s life and thought, pitched at the level of the educated general reader. Each chapter briefly introduces one of Edwards’s major topics, including revival, the Bible, beauty, literature, philosophy, typology, and even world religions.
The Theology of Jonathan Edwards (Oxford University Press, 2011). This book is the most comprehensive survey of Jonathan Edwards’ theology yet produced and the first study to fully use the recently completed seventy-three-volume online edition of the Works of Jonathan Edwards.
The Other Jonathan Edwards: Selected Writings on Society, Love, and Justice (University of Massachusetts Press, 2015). Widely regarded as perhaps America’s greatest theologian, Jonathan Edwards still suffers the stereotype of a hellfire preacher obsessed with God’s wrath. In this anthology, Gerald McDermott and Ronald Story seek to correct that common view by showing that Edwards was also a compassionate, socially conscious minister of the first order.
A New History of Redemption: The Work of Jesus the Messiah through the Millennia (Baker Academic, 2024). In the spirit of Jonathan Edwards’s History of the Work of Redemption, distinguished theologian Gerald McDermott traces the progress of redemption throughout the Bible and Church history. This book connects the dots surrounding Israel, redemption by the Jewish Messiah, secular and sacred history, world religions, and Jewish-Christian worship through liturgy and sacraments. It shows how Jesus as Messiah was redeeming throughout Old Testament history and carries that story up through the last two millennia.
World Religions
Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions? Jesus, Revelation, and Religious Tradition (InterVarsity Press, 2000). First book-length evangelical reflection on the possibility of revelation in non-Christian religions. Arguably, the church’s greatest challenge in the next century will be the problem of the scandal of particularity. Christians must explain why they follow Jesus and not the Buddha, Confucius, Krishna, or Muhammed.
God’s Rivals: Why Has God Allowed Different Religions? Insights from the Bible and the Early Church (InterVarsity Press, 2007). This comprehensive handbook provides a Christian perspective on religion and its many manifestations worldwide. Written by top religion scholars from a broad spectrum of Christianity, it introduces world religions, indigenous religious traditions, and new religious movements.
Claiming Christ: A Mormon-Evangelical Debate (Brazos Press, 2007). Ask an evangelical and a Mormon what the other believes, and you may get many opinions, but not all of them are accurate. Ask professors Gerald McDermott and Robert Millet to discuss their beliefs, and you get a frank, informative comparison of both. Though sometimes on opposite poles, these scholars and close friends are determined to model love and respect despite serious theological differences.
The Baker Pocket Guide to World Religions: What Every Christian Needs to Know (Baker Books, 2008) is a succinct, affordable resource for busy people who want a quick overview of the world’s major faiths. This illustrated and fact-filled guide puts the answers at readers’ fingertips and sheds light on our rapidly shrinking world. It also provides a brief Christian analysis of each world religion.
Evangelicals and Mormons: Exploring the Boundaries (Regent College Publishing, 2010). In a debate format, the authors focus on Jesus’s person and role while exploring issues such as authority for faith and practice, whether Mormons are Christians, what salvation means, and the church and its sacraments.
World Religions: An Indispensable Introduction (Thomas Nelson, 2011). In World Religions, Gerald R. McDermott explains what you need to understand about major world religions in order to be equipped to engage people of other faiths. McDermott offers an overview of the central beliefs of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto.
A Trinitarian Theology of Religions: An Evangelical Proposal (Oxford University Press, 2014). Over the last four decades, evangelical scholars have shown a growing interest in Christian debates over other religions, seeking answers to essential questions: How are we to think about and relate to other religions, be open to the Spirit, and at the same time remain evangelical and orthodox?
Handbook of Religion: A Christian Engagement with Traditions, Teachings, and Practices, co-editor (Baker Academic, 2022). This comprehensive handbook provides a Christian perspective on religion and its many manifestations worldwide. Written by top religion scholars from a broad spectrum of Christianity, it introduces world religions, indigenous religious traditions, and new religious movements.
Israel-Christian Studies
The New Christian Zionism: Fresh Perspectives on Israel and the Land, editor (IVP Academic, 2016). Can a theological case be made from Scripture that Israel still has a claim to the Promised Land? Christian Zionism is often seen as the offspring of premillennial dispensationalism. However, the historical roots of Christian Zionism came long before the rise of the Plymouth Brethren and John Nelson Darby.
Israel Matters: Why Christians Must Think Differently about the People and the Land (Brazos Press, 2017). This book challenges the widespread Christian assumption that since Jesus came to earth, Jews are no longer special to God as a people, and the land of Israel is no longer theologically significant. It traces the author’s journey from thinking those things to discovering that the New Testament authors believed the opposite of both.
Understanding the Jewish Roots of Christianity: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Essays on the Relationship between Christianity and Judaism, editor (Lexham Press, 2021). In this volume, leading scholars and theologians explore the relationship between Judaism and Christianity through biblical, historical, theological, and ecclesiological angles. This cutting-edge scholarship will enrich readers’ understanding of this centuries-old debate.
Anglican Studies
The Future of Orthodox Anglicanism, contributor/editor (Crossway, 2020). In 11 essays by prominent Anglican scholars and leaders representing perspectives from East Africa, North Africa, and North America, this book clarifies what distinguishes Anglicanism from both Roman Catholicism and other Protestant denominations, reflecting on the tradition’s rich legacy in the past while offering a winsome proposal for the future.
Deep Anglicanism: A Brief Guide (Nashotah House, 2024). This guide to the “Deep Anglican” tradition begins with Christianity’s earliest appearance in the British Isles and explores major developments in the tradition over nearly two thousand years, from the Middle Ages and the Reformation to the modern expansion of Anglicanism around the world.
Miscellaneous
Cancer: A Medical and Theological Guide for Patients and Their Families, with William A. Fintel, M.D. (Baker Books, June 2004). In-depth answers to both the medical and theological questions surrounding cancer. It contains updated medical chapters and new chapters on alternative medicine and the mind-body connection.
The Great Theologians: A Brief Guide (IVP Academic, 2010). McDermott informs us about eleven pivotal theologians from Origen to von Balthasar and helps us sort out what is of continuing value today. With study questions at the end of each chapter, this book is perfect for small groups to go through together.
The Oxford Handbook of Evangelical Theology, editor (Oxford University Press, 2010). This volume surveys the state of the discipline on topics of greatest importance to evangelical theology. Each chapter has been written by a theologian or scholar widely recognized for his or her published work and is considered a leading thinker on that particular topic.
Famous Stutterers: Twelve Inspiring People Who Achieved Great Things while Struggling with an Impediment (Wipf and Stock, 2016). Moses, Aristotle, Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain, King George VI, Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, distinguished historian Peter Brown, TV journalist John Stossel, Senator’s wife Annie Glenn, ABC correspondent Byron Pitts, novelist John Updike. For all of these accomplished persons, stuttering was an enormous difficulty. The persistence and courage they displayed tell us that there might be ways we, too, can survive and achieve—despite our own challenges.
Everyday Glory: The Revelation of God in All of Reality (Baker Academic, 2018). Bringing together insights from some of the tradition’s greatest thinkers—Edwards, Newman, and Barth—Gerald McDermott resurrects a robust theology of creation for Protestants. He shows how and where we may find meaning outside the church and discusses special revelation in various realms of creation, including nature, science, law, history, animals, sex, and sports.
Race and Covenant: Recovering the Religious Roots for American Reconciliation, editor (Acton Institute, 2020). This anthology explores the theme of national covenant in scripture, history, and contemporary American society, as well as the theology and practices of covenant communities. Its authors suggest new strategies for finding racial reconciliation in this troubled time.
Cover image composited from book covers (various publishers).
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