book review vol. nineteen: The Knowledge of the Holy

by D.O.

This book was given to me nearly a year ago by a dear friend following a conversation we’d had regarding my deep desire to know the Father. Not just know about Him or know Him like I know the names of all 50 states, but to really know the deep things of His character, of who He is. Now that I’ve finally finished reading all 120 of its pages (read at an astounding rate of 10 pages per month), I can safely say that this book has done nothing but help me in said pursuit.

A.W. Tozer, in the preface of The Knowledge of the Holy, says

The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.

Dang. This man doesn’t mess around. After making your way through the preface you’ll find yourself on the first line chapter 1 reading a line that has absolutely ruined me from the moment I first read it: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

He goes on to touch on 21 characteristics of God, spending 4 or 5 pages on each, and he does so in such a way as to make the reader leave with a larger picture of God than he or she had prior to having read the chapter. The eloquence with which Tozer writes is simultaneously beautiful, challenging, and fitting considering the topic at hand.

The book ends with a chapter called The Open Secret, in which Tozer explores the question “What can we plain Christians do to bring back the departed glory?” – referring to the Church and her loss of the once lofty concept of God. He says the answer is yes, and he closes out the book detailing five ways that this can happen, opening up the list like so:

Yet the answer may easily disappoint some persons, for it is anything but profound. I bring no esoteric cryptogram, no mystic code to be painfully deciphered. I appeal to no hidden law of the unconscious, no occult knowledge meant only for the few. The secret is an open one which the wayfaring man may read. It is simply the old and ever-new counsel: Acquaint thyself with God. To regain her lost power the Church must see heaven opened and have a transforming vision of God.

Yes. Yes. Yes. I highly recommend this book, and I’d let you borrow my copy, but I’ll forever be carrying it in whatever messenger bag I have on me for perpetual re-reading. Thanks Drew for the very thoughtful gift, and thanks Tozer for sharing your wisdom in such a beautiful, well-written, and doctrinally sound way.