"Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil" by Bernard McGinn, Columbia University Press, 1999:
In this timely and sweeping exploration, one of the greatest living historians of Christian thought traces the concept of Antichrist from its Judeo-Christian origins to the present day. Rooted in Second Temple Judaism--a period of intense religious and political disruption--Antichrist developed out of belief in malevolent angelic and human forces. McGinn demonstrates how Antichrist has often reflected the human need to comprehend the persistence of evil in the world, and examines how it has haunted popular imagination in both the form of indivuduals--such as Nero, Napoleon, and Saddam Hussein--and groups--Jews, heretics, Muslims.
Bernard McGinn (born August 19, 1937) is an American Catholic theologian, religious historian, and scholar of spirituality. A specialist in medieval mysticism, McGinn is widely regarded as the preeminent scholar of mysticism in the Western Christianity. He is best known for his comprehensive series on mysticism, The Presence of God.
