I must be too used to reading polemical works because I was always expecting to find just over the next page something on the KJV-only controversy, or why Christianity is better than anything else—but alas, this book sticks to history! Now history is the bedrock of good polemics, however, so I will still try to see if McGrath's book has use for them in this review (spoiler: it does!).
Media philosopher Marshall Mcluhan used to say "the medium is the message", by which he meant that the medium – e.g. TV – changes the content of whatever message is presented through it. The medium is a message itself, not just the content presented through it. So, before the TV was invented there was radio and newspaper, and the average person wouldn't be able to recognise their politicians on the street, but could recognise them by their writing. But when the TV came in, very few could recognise their writing, but they could all recognise them on the street—and their three word slogans! Some would say the TV dumbed down the level of conversation, and they'd be largely correct. The medium totally changed the conversation, regardless of what worldview they were coming from.
I'm off my phone and loving it! I've exchanged Evernote for notepaper (and offline HTML pages); Asana (task/project management) for a diary and A5 ring-binder; and I've fitted a CRM in that ring-binder too! Here's why I've found the switch so good.