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"At the heart of the universe is the passionate love between the members of the Trinity. Mike Reeves not only helps us grapple with a difficult doctrine but draws us to the magnetically attractive centre of all things. His light touch and theological wisdom combine to provide a truly helpful book which both clears your mind and warms your heart". --Terry Virgo, Newfrontiers, UK
Recent years have seen a number of books designed for a lay readership that sweep the doctrine of the Trinity off the dusty shelves of irrelevance, helping us see that God's trinity radically shapes every part of Christian faith and life. Here is one of the most lively, readable and stimulating to appear". --Jeremy Begbie, Thomas A. Langford Research Professor at Duke Divinity School, Duke University
"The Good God" is a wonderful read. Reading it feels like you're eating candy floss - sweet, fun, easy. But in fact you're getting a nourishing, nutritious meal of real substance. This book will enlarge your view of God and increase your love for God. You'll be blown away by the lavish love between the Father, Son and the Spirit that overflows to the world. If you want to enjoy God more then read this book!. --Tim Chester, Crowded House, Sheffield, UK
Recent years have seen a number of books designed for a lay readership that sweep the doctrine of the Trinity off the dusty shelves of irrelevance, helping us see that God's trinity radically shapes every part of Christian faith and life. Here is one of the most lively, readable and stimulating to appear". --Jeremy Begbie, Thomas A. Langford Research Professor at Duke Divinity School, Duke University
"The Good God" is a wonderful read. Reading it feels like you're eating candy floss - sweet, fun, easy. But in fact you're getting a nourishing, nutritious meal of real substance. This book will enlarge your view of God and increase your love for God. You'll be blown away by the lavish love between the Father, Son and the Spirit that overflows to the world. If you want to enjoy God more then read this book!. --Tim Chester, Crowded House, Sheffield, UK
Product Description
In this lively and refreshing book, Michael Reeves unfurls the profound beauty of the Trinity, and shows how the truine God of the Bible brightens everything in the way that is happily life-changing. Prepare to enjoy the Father, Son and Spirit!
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Trinitarian theology has seen a huge surge in interest in academic circles in recent years, but - sadly - is often functionally absent from the life of local churches and individual Christians. This is a disaster, not because every Christian should be able to complete a tick-box survey demonstrating their theological competence, but because a lack of understanding of God as Trinity is to be fundamentally lacking in understanding about who God is. Period.
The trouble is, discussions of the Trinity can soon become massively complex, and deeply abstract, and very dry. None of these things are failings of which The Good God could be accused. Mike Reeves has written something which is, truly, delightful. I would strongly recommend this book to be read as an aid to devotion and worship, for that is what it produces. You could do a lot worse than to start each morning by reading a couple of pages of this and letting it direct your heart and soul in worship to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
One of the features of the book I most enjoyed are the panels which delve into historical examples that help illustrate the significance of the doctrine of the Trinity. These range from a brief description of Yodo Shin-Shu Buddhism to the joyful theology of St Hilarius to the `lust for life' of William Tyndale. This is all very illuminating and enjoyable stuff.
But the key thing about this book is the way it stirs worship. Clearly and winsomely Reeves describes the nature of the God who lives in eternal, delightful, loving relationship - a love that has overflowed into the creation of all things, and a love into which we are invited to join. The God Reeves describes is very good, very delightful - a God you want to be close to! As Reeves expresses it in a description of the work of the Holy Spirit, "How great and lovely, then, is the work of the Spirit! He unites us to the Son so that the Father's love for the Son also encompasses us; he draws us to share the Father's own enjoyment of the Son; and he causes us to share the Son's delight in the Father. What could be more delicious than to keep in step with a Spirit whose purpose is that?"
What indeed! A delicious God - that is what Trinitarian theology is meant to bring us to, and it is where this book will help draw you.
Buy it. Read it. Enjoy it!
The trouble is, discussions of the Trinity can soon become massively complex, and deeply abstract, and very dry. None of these things are failings of which The Good God could be accused. Mike Reeves has written something which is, truly, delightful. I would strongly recommend this book to be read as an aid to devotion and worship, for that is what it produces. You could do a lot worse than to start each morning by reading a couple of pages of this and letting it direct your heart and soul in worship to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
One of the features of the book I most enjoyed are the panels which delve into historical examples that help illustrate the significance of the doctrine of the Trinity. These range from a brief description of Yodo Shin-Shu Buddhism to the joyful theology of St Hilarius to the `lust for life' of William Tyndale. This is all very illuminating and enjoyable stuff.
But the key thing about this book is the way it stirs worship. Clearly and winsomely Reeves describes the nature of the God who lives in eternal, delightful, loving relationship - a love that has overflowed into the creation of all things, and a love into which we are invited to join. The God Reeves describes is very good, very delightful - a God you want to be close to! As Reeves expresses it in a description of the work of the Holy Spirit, "How great and lovely, then, is the work of the Spirit! He unites us to the Son so that the Father's love for the Son also encompasses us; he draws us to share the Father's own enjoyment of the Son; and he causes us to share the Son's delight in the Father. What could be more delicious than to keep in step with a Spirit whose purpose is that?"
What indeed! A delicious God - that is what Trinitarian theology is meant to bring us to, and it is where this book will help draw you.
Buy it. Read it. Enjoy it!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
All of us are called to share and show Jesus to others; whatever else we may do we are Gods ambassadors. A vital question, then, is which God do we present?
Mike Reeves introduces the reader to a loving, giving, overflowing, relational God. With a light and accessible touch, Mike shares a profound taster of just how good God is. Some books on the Trinity can come across as a technical manual of heresies to avoid with little pulsing heart:- thankfully 'The Good God' is not such a book.
Energy, heart, insight and biblical faithfulness is brought to us by someone who clearly loves God and whose theology reads and beats as worship. Mike deconstructs falsehood, fears and fallacies in the nurture of gospel confidence for us. He wrestles with long-held myths about the Trinity, its interface with the moving compassion of the gospel, and resulting deep joy for the believer. In reading this you will find your view of God enlarged and beautified.
Mike's biblical rootedness throughout doesn't come across as defensive, but stirs the reader to a renewed Bible commitment . It's a dynamic and punchy title: singularly the best accessible read on the Trinity in the marketplace today! Faithful and fresh!
Mike Reeves introduces the reader to a loving, giving, overflowing, relational God. With a light and accessible touch, Mike shares a profound taster of just how good God is. Some books on the Trinity can come across as a technical manual of heresies to avoid with little pulsing heart:- thankfully 'The Good God' is not such a book.
Energy, heart, insight and biblical faithfulness is brought to us by someone who clearly loves God and whose theology reads and beats as worship. Mike deconstructs falsehood, fears and fallacies in the nurture of gospel confidence for us. He wrestles with long-held myths about the Trinity, its interface with the moving compassion of the gospel, and resulting deep joy for the believer. In reading this you will find your view of God enlarged and beautified.
Mike's biblical rootedness throughout doesn't come across as defensive, but stirs the reader to a renewed Bible commitment . It's a dynamic and punchy title: singularly the best accessible read on the Trinity in the marketplace today! Faithful and fresh!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
Buy. Read. Be amazed.
27 May 2012
Format:Paperback
I must admit to being a little indifferent to reading about the Trinity. Many standard systematic theologies make it sound like the dullest and most difficult Christian teaching. The readers of such tomes is often left wondering what the practical benefit of the Trinity is. Also, I may be like many people and like my doctrine to be easily grasped by the mind and simply dismiss something that is too difficult (at least for me.)
The Good God is not like some of the previous books and sections in books that I have read on the subject of the Trinity. Reeves frequently has a great turn of phrase that makes the book an entertaining read - "Far, far from theological clutter, God's being Father, Son and Spirit is just what makes the Christian life beautiful." (p. 82)
The point of the book, according to the author, is to help the reader see the real difference the Trinity makes:
"For all that we may give an orthodox nod of the head to belief in the Trinity, it simply seems too arcane to make any practical difference to our lives." (p. ix)
And what is the practical difference? Reeves summarizes:
"...but if God were just one person, then love of the other would not be central to his being. There would have been nobody in eternity for him to love. Thus the only God inherently inclined to show mercy is the Father who has eternally loved his Son by the Spirit. Only with this God do such winning qualities as love and mercy rank highly." (p. 91)
The book is structured very simply in to four chapters dealing with the Trinity as presented in the Bible and church history and a fifth chapter acting as a capstone focusing on the glory of the Trinity. These chapters are:
1. What was God Doing before Creation?
"Before creation, before all things, we saw, the Father was loving and begetting his Son. For eternity, that was what the Father was doing. He did not become Father at some point; rather, his very identity is to be the one who begets the Son. That is who he is. Thus it is not as if the Father and the Son bumped into each other at some point and found to their surprise how remarkably well they got on." (p. 15)
2. Creation: the Father's Love Overflows
"Single-person gods, having spent eternity alone, are inevitably self-centred beings, and so it becomes hard to see why they would ever cause anything else to exist ... [c]reating just looks like a deeply unnatural thing for such a god to do. And if such gods do create, they usually seem to do so out of an essential neediness or desire to use what they created merely for their own self-gratification. Everything changes when it comes to the Father, Son and Spirit. Here is a God who is not essentially lonely, but who has been loving for all eternity as the Father has loved the Son in the Spirit. Loving others is not a strange or novel thing for this God at all; it is at the root of who he is." (p. 23)
3. Salvation: the Son Shares what is His
"It means that this God makes no third party suffer to achieve atonement. The one who dies is the lamb of God, the Son. And it means that nobody but God contributes to the work of salvation: the Father, Son and Spirit accomplish it all. Now if God were not triune, if there was no Son, no lamb of God to die in our place, then we would have to atone for our sin ourselves. We would have to provide, for God could not. But - hallelujah! - God has a Son, and in his infinite kindness he dies, paying the wages of sin, for us. It is because God is triune that the cross is such good news." (p. 55)
4. The Christian Life: the Spirit Beautifies
"But the Spirit's first work is to set our desires in order, to open our eyes and give us the Father's own relish for the Son, and the Son's own enjoyment of the Father." (p. 80)
5. 'Who among the god is like you, O LORD?'
"Love for the Lord, love for neighbour - that is the heart of holiness and how the triune God's people get to be like him." (p. 95)
This book has given me a hunger to study more about the Trinity, in the Bible and in church history, but even more importantly, it has given me a great hunger for the triune God I claim to worship. I recommend it to all Christians as well worth a slow, contemplative read. It would be great for book clubs to read and discuss. Maybe it could result in healthier Christians who just want to overflow with love.
The Good God is not like some of the previous books and sections in books that I have read on the subject of the Trinity. Reeves frequently has a great turn of phrase that makes the book an entertaining read - "Far, far from theological clutter, God's being Father, Son and Spirit is just what makes the Christian life beautiful." (p. 82)
The point of the book, according to the author, is to help the reader see the real difference the Trinity makes:
"For all that we may give an orthodox nod of the head to belief in the Trinity, it simply seems too arcane to make any practical difference to our lives." (p. ix)
And what is the practical difference? Reeves summarizes:
"...but if God were just one person, then love of the other would not be central to his being. There would have been nobody in eternity for him to love. Thus the only God inherently inclined to show mercy is the Father who has eternally loved his Son by the Spirit. Only with this God do such winning qualities as love and mercy rank highly." (p. 91)
The book is structured very simply in to four chapters dealing with the Trinity as presented in the Bible and church history and a fifth chapter acting as a capstone focusing on the glory of the Trinity. These chapters are:
1. What was God Doing before Creation?
"Before creation, before all things, we saw, the Father was loving and begetting his Son. For eternity, that was what the Father was doing. He did not become Father at some point; rather, his very identity is to be the one who begets the Son. That is who he is. Thus it is not as if the Father and the Son bumped into each other at some point and found to their surprise how remarkably well they got on." (p. 15)
2. Creation: the Father's Love Overflows
"Single-person gods, having spent eternity alone, are inevitably self-centred beings, and so it becomes hard to see why they would ever cause anything else to exist ... [c]reating just looks like a deeply unnatural thing for such a god to do. And if such gods do create, they usually seem to do so out of an essential neediness or desire to use what they created merely for their own self-gratification. Everything changes when it comes to the Father, Son and Spirit. Here is a God who is not essentially lonely, but who has been loving for all eternity as the Father has loved the Son in the Spirit. Loving others is not a strange or novel thing for this God at all; it is at the root of who he is." (p. 23)
3. Salvation: the Son Shares what is His
"It means that this God makes no third party suffer to achieve atonement. The one who dies is the lamb of God, the Son. And it means that nobody but God contributes to the work of salvation: the Father, Son and Spirit accomplish it all. Now if God were not triune, if there was no Son, no lamb of God to die in our place, then we would have to atone for our sin ourselves. We would have to provide, for God could not. But - hallelujah! - God has a Son, and in his infinite kindness he dies, paying the wages of sin, for us. It is because God is triune that the cross is such good news." (p. 55)
4. The Christian Life: the Spirit Beautifies
"But the Spirit's first work is to set our desires in order, to open our eyes and give us the Father's own relish for the Son, and the Son's own enjoyment of the Father." (p. 80)
5. 'Who among the god is like you, O LORD?'
"Love for the Lord, love for neighbour - that is the heart of holiness and how the triune God's people get to be like him." (p. 95)
This book has given me a hunger to study more about the Trinity, in the Bible and in church history, but even more importantly, it has given me a great hunger for the triune God I claim to worship. I recommend it to all Christians as well worth a slow, contemplative read. It would be great for book clubs to read and discuss. Maybe it could result in healthier Christians who just want to overflow with love.
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