Review: The Knowledge of the Holy - A.W. Tozer

Today I'm reviewing a book that has become a classic work on the attributes of God. A.W. Tozer wrote The Knowledge of the Holy in the early sixties with the aim to fill a gap he perceived in the church. He watched the church slide away from being a relevant influence on people's lives as the evangelical movement became splintered and riddled with inaccurate theology. So he wrote to fight that trend. In light of the modern fight for relevance within the church, one could almost say he was a man before his time, but then again such problems seem to arise in nearly every generation of the church.

This book strives to strengthen believers by responding to the church's lack of focus on the person of God. Tozer writes, "Were Christians today reading such works as those of Augustine or Anselm, a book like this would have no reason for being." He feels that the nature of the problem is one of a lack of focus: "Apparently not many Christians will wade through hundreds of pages of heavy religious matter requiring sustained concentration." Thus Tozer sets out to write a short, concise summary of some of the attributes of God in a non-technical, reader-friendly way. The strength of Tozer's writing here lies in his brevity. Tozer makes many clear, concise statements about God that explain his character well.

Besides keeping the words short and the contemplation deep, Tozer also does a good job reminding the reader not to think of God as the sum of separate parts. This is important. Sometimes we conjure an image of a god who has to conform to such and such standards, like being just or good or merciful or holy etc. But Tozer points out that when God does anything, he is just, good, merciful, and holy because he is God. When God acts, his acts are those things because when God acts he acts as Himself.

Neither does God have competing attributes. In the chapter on God's justice Tozer writes, "To think of God as we sometimes think of a court where a kindly judge, compelled by law, sentences a man to death with tears and apologies, is to think in a manner wholly unworthy of the true God. God is never at cross-purposes with Himself. No attribute of God is in conflict with another."

Tozer also leads each chapter with a prayer, asking God for the wisdom to understand the attribute at hand, thanking God for it, and requesting the grace to act in light of it. This could be one of my favorite aspects of The Knowledge of the Holy. It reminds us that good theology does not come by good studying techniques and training, but by grace through the Holy Spirit. Prayer is essential to knowing God in a way that brings us closer to him. Yet in many books on theology, there is much talk about correct prayer, and little actual talking to God. Tozer gets it right here. The Christian must pray, lest he become atheist in practice.

While The Knowledge of the Holy is a classic for good reason, I do have some things against it. One day I was reading the chapter on the goodness of God, and I felt like it was something I should focus on in Scripture, because that was where I was that week. So I turned to the back of the book where the Scripture is listed. There I found a mere two verses supporting the entire chapter of the goodness of God, and one of them was not about the goodness of God, but some other point that he quoted the verse for.

So I began to look at the other chapters, and realized very quickly that this book was really short on Scripture. I understand that this may have been purposeful, keeping with the brevity theme. But on the other hand, how does one do a study of the character of God without God's Word? All of these nice, concise statements became to me somewhat like paper houses on a movie set. They look good, but you can't live in a two-dimensional house. It would fall apart. Similarly, one could not rest in these statements, because they were not grounded in Scripture. I realized if Tozer's understanding of God's attributes were challenged, the reader would be the one to have to defend them. Because this book lacked Scripture, it also at the end of the day, lacked an enduring usefulness for me.

A smaller, but somewhat connected complaint I had with Tozer's book was his treatment of the sovereignty of God. He starts out with some great statements like, "God is said to be absolutely free because no one and no thing can hinder Him or compel Him or stop Him. He is able to do as He pleases always, everywhere, forever." But later, when he considers the problem between divine sovereignty and the will of man, he gives this as his view: "God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil."

Once again, this statement is not backed by any Scripture, so the reader is left thinking, "Where or when did God decree that? How do you know God decreed that, Mr. Tozer?" It seems to be a completely arbitrary statement. And it wouldn't have been so bad if he had said "God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man, since the fall, has fulfilled that decree by choosing evil every time since "the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God" (Romans 8:7-8). That would have made more sense, and at least sent the reader to Romans for proof. But, no dice. The statement, such as it is, is how Tozer wrote it.

So overall, I give this book about an 80%. It does good on being readable, concise and driven by a desire to get God back in the church. But it lacks Scripture and is therefore sometimes theologically unstable. I would recommend it to Christians who need a fresh look at God's character (and, given enough time, that's every Christian), and to those who may not be well acquainted with who God is, providing they have someone mentoring them who can also provide the Scripture where it is lacking.