R.C. Sproul

The Holiness of God

R. C. Sproul's The Holiness of God is one of the most important and enduring works of popular theology of the twentieth century. Its central thesis is deceptively simple: God is holy — utterly, transcendently, overwhelmingly holy — and until we grasp that fact, we cannot rightly understand ourselves, our sin, our salvation, or our calling. Sproul argues that holiness is not merely one attribute among many but the very "Godness of God," the attribute that defines all others. Through careful study of Scripture, church history, and the witness of people who have encountered the living God — from Isaiah in the temple to Rudolf Otto's philosophical category of the "mysterium tremendum" — Sproul shows why the holy God simultaneously terrifies and attracts us, and why that tension is not a problem to be resolved but a reality to be embraced.