Alister E. McGrath is a prominent academic writer on religious and theological topics. His publications include the international bestseller The Dawkins Delusion? (2007), the award-winning biography C. S. Lewis: A Life (2013), and the market-leading textbook Christian Theology: An Introduction (2016). He has also written some acclaimed monographs dealing with the history of Christian thought.

Part I. Justification: The Emergence of a Concept: 1. The Hebraic context: semantic aspects of the concept of justification; 2. Paul and the shaping of the Christian tradition; 3. The fountainhead: Augustine of Hippo; Part II. The Middle Ages: The Consolidation of the Doctrine: 4. The nature of Justification; 5. The righteousness of God; 6. The concept of grace; 7. The human appropriation of justification; 8. Justification and the two powers of God; 9. The concept of merit; 10. Justification and the sacraments; Part III. Protestantism: The Reformation Debates on Justification: 11. Is there a 'Reformation' doctrine of justification?; 12. Luther's early approach to justification; 13. Justification in Lutheranism, 1516-1580; 14. Reformed theology, 1519-1560; 15. The English Reformation: from Tyndale to Hooker; 16. Protestant Orthodoxy: 17. Anglicanism: the Caroline Divines; 18. Puritanism: from the Old World to the New; 19. Pietism: justification and the 'new birth'; Part IV. Catholicism: The Council of Trent on justification; 20. The development of the doctrine within Catholicism, 1490-1545; 21. Catholic responses to early Protestant doctrines of justification; 22. An attempt at rapprochement: the Regensburg Colloquy (1541); 23. Catholic theological schools during the Tridentine debates on justification; 24. The Tridentine debates on justification; 25. The Tridentine decree on justification; 26. Post-Tridentine discussions of justification; Part V. The Modern Period: 27. The Enlightenment: justification, moralism, and rationalism; 28. The long nineteenth century: retrieval and reconfiguration; 29. Contemporary renewal: justification and theological reconstruction; Conclusion: reflections on a study of doctrinal history.