ONE THING
By Sam Storms
Christian Focus. 188 pages. £7.99
ISBN 1 85792 952 7
Small title, big book. The title tells you almost nothing, the subtitle, 'Developing a passion for the beauty of God', tells you everything. Only when we see Psalm 27.4 quoted after the title page do we remember that the 'one thing' David asked of the LORD was 'to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD'.
Sam Storms comes from John Piper's Desiring God stable, and taught theology at Wheaton College before becoming President of 'Enjoying God Ministries' in Kansas. He takes one step further Piper's thesis that our chief aim is to glorify God by enjoying him for ever. Storms shows that the more we know of the beauty of God the more we will desire him and enjoy him. In recent times evangelicals have not moved much beyond the thought of God's beauty in the natural world. This book, however, will 'waken your heart to the treasure of Christ who is the image of the Beauty of God' (Piper).
One small caveat. Am I the only one who wishes Piper and his friends could find a way to avoid the philosopher's jargon of 'Christian Hedonist'?
Few traditional systematic theologies list 'beauty' among God's attributes, but Storms amply demonstrates that Augustine, Aquinas, Jonathan Edwards and C.S. Lewis have trod this happy pathway before him. His careful exegesis gives the reader confidence that the avenues he opens up do arise from God's revelation of himself in Scripture.
This is a mind-expanding as well as a heart-enthralling book. He gives content to our fuzzy notions of infinity and helps the scientific layman to grasp how the immense scale and complexity of our universe 'declare the glory of God'. He takes us far beyond abstract aesthetics and shows how the concept of beauty calls us to reshape our lives and exposes the shabbiness of our conduct. There is moral imperative here to forge a new affection no earthly power can overcome.
His closing chapter is the best insight into heaven I've read for ages. Storms insists that heaven is not like the inert tranquillity of a lake but like the surging of a river in spate. 'The water level of love and joy and happiness rises higher and higher, never to abate or to any degree diminish' (p.170).
Thank you, Sam Storms, reading your book has really changed me. What more can I say?
Alan Gibson,
former pastor, now serving Wycliffe Bible Translators in Partnership Promotion
