A besetting sin of the modern mind is its tendency to “domesticate” God. We try to tame the Almighty and to make the Most High more manageable, lest he demand too much of us or make us feel uncomfortable about our sin or our compromises with the world.

We also fall into the trap of imagining that God is simply a bigger and better version of ourselves, thinking about the Creator in relation to the creature, rather than the other way around (we are made in his image, after all, not he in ours). Worshipping a god other than the one revealed in Scripture is, of course, idolatry, and it should be obvious that if we get our thinking about God wrong, our worship, walk and witness as believers are all adversely affected. For this reason, we should welcome Matthew Barrett’s new book None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God, which draws deeply from Scripture and the reflections of some of the great theological minds of church history to stimulate more fitting and thus more reverent thinking about God.

Some of the concepts explained by Barrett may be unfamiliar to readers – divine aseity, simplicity and impassibility to name an important three. But in becoming acquainted with these vital truths about God, our hearts and minds will be prompted afresh to bow before the divine majesty and to worship him for who he is: a being fundamentally unlike ourselves in vital and glorious ways. If our chief end is “to glorify God and to enjoy him forever” this book can help point us in the right direction.

This book is available to purchase from Amazon.

Robin Gray, Gardenstown New Church