God's Rivals: Why Has God Allowed Different Religions? Insights from the Bible and the Early Church

This book presents an evangelical-Christian take on why religions flourish in light of the evangelical view that the only completely true religion is the one of the Christian's. God's Rivals is a follow up of sorts to McDermott's Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions, published seven years earlier. In God's Rivals, McDermott takes what was one chapter in Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions and writes an entire book on the attitudes of the church fathers concerning the world's religions. He expounds on the "scandal of particularity"; the biblical tradition of God among the nations (Gentiles); the Israelite understanding of the gods of its neighbors; the NT (particularly Pauline) understanding of the powers of darkness that some say may have manifest themselves in other gods; and finally the heart of the book -- a chapter each on Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and their understanding of the other-than-Christian religions.

Provides plausible thoughts on the subject from a biblical/christian perspective. While not meant to be a definitive treatment on the subject by any means, this work does a fine job of exploring it's subject matter and is a good read to help christians think in more widely aware ways in relation to biblical content and "non-christian religions". I personally have a few disagreements with some things in the book, but still, I think it's a great read to get one thinking. Also worth checking out is his other book, Can Evangelical Learn From World Religions.

This is an important work that deserves a wide reading for two reasons. First, it does a good job treating the key issues that surround the question of the Christian understanding of salvation and world religions. The author condenses a lot of material on this subject and offers it up in an easily readable fashion. Secondly, and I think more importantly, this book deserves a reading because it re-examines the worldviews of both the Old and New Testaments for their understanding of the existence of a "middle realm" of gods and powers and spirits. There is in the Bible "a whole class of intermediate beings between the high God and his human creatures" (p. 45). For the biblical authors at least, such entities play an important role in the lives of men, cultures, nations and world religions. Can this be true? If it is, it demands a substantial rethinking of the world religions and our modern, Christian worldview. [Disclosure: This reviewer is a personal friend of the author.]

Dr. McDermott has written extensively on the world religions from the orthodox Christian perspective. God's Rivals sets forth to answer the questions of whether or not there are other gods, and more importantly Why? Past that the questions really flow, and I personally love his style of giving enough facts from the Bible and historical writings to let the reader begin to form his or her own opinion. The "continuous red thread" is a helpful concept guiding this reader through a difficult forest. Bill Fintel