Books on the Attributes of God
The attributes of God are one of the most foundational things we can study as Christians. When we speak of God’s attributes, we are talking about who God has revealed himself to be in his Word. This is how we answer the question of Who is God? What is he like? Is he kind, angry, fickle, faithful, truthful, absent, or easily irritated? Even as you’re reading those hypothetical questions you’re probably realizing that you do already know something about this topic! Entire books have been written on who God is because it is one of the most foundational questions we can ask and answer as Christians! These books are a great place to start – either for you or as a gift for a friend!
The Doctrine of God (Contours of Christian Theology)
What is theology? What is the nature of God? How should we think about the relationships among the persons of the Trinity? In a carefully reasoned style Gerald Bray distills the essence of these questions and introduces readers to a theological understanding of the personal, trinitarian existence of God. Engaging classical and contemporary theology along the way, Bray also leads us into conversation with the Eastern Orthodox tradition, where he finds valuable insights sadly neglected by evangelical theology.
Here is a substantial introduction to the nature and subject of God, and a compelling call for evangelicals to renew their commitment to the solid foundation of a truly trinitarian theology.
Doctrine of God
In recent years, the doctrine of God has once again become a central focus of theological discussion and debate. In this ecumenical, international, and contextual introduction, internationally respected scholar Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen offers a global survey of understandings of God in Scripture, Christian history, and contemporary theology. This new edition incorporates developments in theological research over the past decade and has been substantially updated throughout.
Who Is God? Key Moments of Biblical Revelation
Internationally respected scholar Richard Bauckham offers a brief, engaging study of divine revelation in Scripture. He probes the deep meaning of well-known moments in the biblical story in order to address the key question the Bible is designed to answer: Who is God?
Accessible for laypeople and important to scholars, this volume begins by exploring three key events in the Bible in which God is revealed: Jacob’s dream at Bethel (the revelation of the divine presence), Moses at the burning bush (the revelation of the divine Name), and Moses on Mount Sinai (the revelation of the divine character). In each case, Bauckham traces these themes through the rest of Scripture. He then shows how the New Testament builds on the Old by exploring three revelatory events in Mark’s Gospel, events that reveal the Trinity: Jesus’s baptism, transfiguration, and crucifixion.
This book is based on the Frumentius Lectures for 2015 at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology in Addis Ababa and on the Hayward Lectures for 2018 at Acadia Divinity College, Nova Scotia.
The Attributes of God: An Introduction (Short Studies in Systematic Theology)
Throughout history, the church has recognized the importance of studying and understanding God’s attributes. As the Creator of all things, God is unique and cannot be compared to any of his creatures, so to know him, believers turn to the pages of Scripture. In The Attributes of God, renowned theologian Gerald Bray leads us on an exploration of God’s being, his essential attributes, his relational attributes, and the relevance of his attributes to our thinking, lives, and worship. As we better understand God’s attributes, we will learn to delight in who God is and how he has made himself known to us in Scripture.
None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God
For too long, Christians have domesticated God, bringing him down to our level as if he is a God who can be tamed. But he is a God who is high and lifted up, the Creator rather than the creature, someone than whom none greater can be conceived. If God is the most perfect, supreme being, infinite and incomprehensible, then certain perfect-making attributes must be true of him. Perfections like aseity, simplicity, immutability, impassibility, and eternity shield God from being crippled by creaturely limitations. At the same time, this all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-wise God accommodates himself, exhibiting perfect holiness, mercy, and love as he makes known who he is and how he will save us.
The attributes of God show us exactly why God is worthy of worship: there is none like him. Join Matthew Barrett as he rediscovers these divine perfections and finds himself surprised by the God he thought he knew.
The Majesty of Mystery: Celebrating the Glory of an Incomprehensible God
Christians may attempt to “know” God to the best of their ability–leading some to limit God as they contain Him within tidy answers for human understanding. In The Majesty of Mystery, K. Scott Oliphint encourages believers to embrace the mysteries of Christian faith: the Trinity, the incarnation, eternal life, and the balance between God’s sovereign will and human choices. Drawing from Reformed tradition and interacting with the biblical text, Oliphint shows how a profound recognition of our own limitations can lead us into a richer awareness of God’s infinite majesty.
Written with deep theological knowledge and threaded with everyday implications, The Majesty of Mystery connects the dots between humanity and God, belief and practice, mystery and worship. Oliphint invites readers to rediscover the purpose to which all theology aims–the worship of the incomprehensible God who faithfully reveals himself in Scripture.
