Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt - Hardcover

Praise for Protestants

‘A book about Protestants could so easily mirror crude stereotypes. Protestants are supposedly staid, prudish, law-abiding and dull. Ryrie instead exposes their infinite variety ― the weird, wicked and wonderful. This is a fun book about people obsessed with sin’ Books of the Year, The Times

‘A treat. Its scholarship showcases one of the leading historians of Protestantism writing today, but the delight of it is the crisp prose, the quiet, cool wit, the wise judgements and the sheer scope from the gates of Wittenberg to the streets of Seoul. Ryrie has a gift for showing how the history of religion is the history of people, in all their glorious, baffling, frightening and endearing variety’ Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of ‘Reformation and Christianity’

‘This is a book of breathtaking range and penetrating insight. It will shape our perception of the Reformation and its long shadow for years to come’ Andrew Pettegree, author of ‘Brand Luther’

‘Spectacularly good. Ryrie guides us sure-footedly along the broad paths of Protestant history without neglecting its many fascinating by-ways. He writes with empathy but without illusions; his trademark combination of wit and erudition makes the journey as enjoyable as it is enlightening’ Prof. Peter Marshall, University of Warwick

Alec Ryrie was born in London. He studied History and Theology at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and is now Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University. A specialist on the Reformation, he is the author of ‘The Sorcerer’s Tale: Faith and Fraud in Tudor England’, the prize-winning ‘Being Protestant in Reformation Britain’, and is the co-editor of the Journal of Ecclesiastical History.