Mark R. Worden. He Is. West Bow, 2022.

He Is is a unique book. I do highly recommend it. I suspect, though, the author had a problem marketing it. Publishers always want something “new and different.” But if it is too different, they think it will not sell. It is the writer’s Catch-22.

The publisher markets He Is in the devotional category. That is fair, but someone looking for a typical devotional might be disappointed. A typical devotional book, whether religious like Streams in the Desert or secular like the Chicken Soup books, have brief inspiring articles, often a single page, so a person can take a few minutes and read one a day. We have reviewed one or two such books over the years on these pages.

He Is is like that because the articles take maybe five or ten minutes to read. But the book really asks more of the reader. There are a number of verses to look up to support the thesis. There are also some questions meant for us to meditate on. To top it all off, the author confesses in his introduction that this is a book of theology. And it is.

But it does not fit the usual format for theology books. First of all, it avoids theological language. Even when it uses a relatively well-known term from the Bible or religion, it defines the term. While the definitions come from various sources, more often than not, He Is uses the original Noah Webster dictionary from 1828. Webster was very conscious of his explanations, especially for abstract terms. This feature is extremely helpful and useful.

Not only that, but for whatever reason, most theology books try to be systematic. That is the term they use. They try to fit the study of God into one system or another. Worden does not do that. In this reviewer’s eye, that is wise and tolerant. In my life, I have witnessed so many people miss out or even make mistakes because something about God did not fit into their particular system. God cannot be put into a box, as much as we humans might like to.

Worden admits:

…if I could completely comprehend this creator God, it would make me equal with him. That is a scary thought because I know myself—limited, deceitful, selfish, thoughtless—well, you get the idea. I don’t want my God to be like that. If he were, he would not be worthy of my worship. (7)

So what we have are fifty articles. Maybe one should read one article a week and do the Bible study and meditation it suggests for that week. One would finish it in a year. Each article runs three to five pages and presents a characteristic of God’s personality. The theological term is attribute, but we realize these are not just impassive physical features but personality traits.

While its devotional use is one possibility, it seems this would make a good text or supplemental reading to a high school or 100-level college theology class. Look beyond a system for the truth.

So, yes, God is Beyond Us. But He is also Knowable. He is All-Present, All-Knowing, All-Powerful, and Eternal. He is also Holy, Patient, Kind. He also is Judge, Lawgiver, and a Consuming Fire. This is not systematic. Indeed, even just thinking about these few traits, we begin to see that God cannot be put into a box.

Lest I sound like systematic theologies are useless, they are not. Theology can help explain God to people, But do not expect completeness in theology. Even the Bible admits that it is not complete. Worden’s epigraph for the book is Deuteronomy 29:29:

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

The gospels end with this observation about Jesus:

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25)

After reading He Is, even in the non-meditative manner which I read the book to write this review, I come away with the conclusion that God is awesome. Sometimes, we just have to admire Him instead of always trying to figure Him out.

Having said that, I am a believer that God is not afraid of hard questions. Worden discusses hard things. He tells stories of things that happen that we know are wrong or unfair. God may be above some of these things, but He is not indifferent.

Every short chapter title begins with the term He is. And they work. Readers can find a quotation or a near quotation from the Bible for every one of these attributes. For example, one chapter is titled “He Is Our Shield.” Yes, that chapter discusses ways God protects us, but he also quotes directly from the Bible:

The Lord is my strength and my shield (Psalm 28:7)

He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him (Ii Samuel 22:31)

For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield (Psalm 5:12)

Although Worden does not quote it, he tells the reader to look up Genesis 15:1 in which the Lord speaks directly and says:

I am your shield; and your reward shall be very great.

In the approximately 250 pages of He Is, the Bible is quoted directly over 800 times. Many other times it is alluded to or paraphrased without citation. Worden tells some great stories. (The chapter “He Is a Shield” tells of his encounter with a moose!) But when He talks of God, he is not making this stuff up. Read He Is and be challenged. Read He Is and be blessed.