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Incomparable: Explorations in the Character of God
God Most High. The LORD. I Am. YHWH. Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Maker of heaven and earth.
Andrew Wilson explores 60 names and descriptions of the one true God, weaving profound biblical insight into each short chapter, and so unfolding the greatest subject our minds and hearts can ever contemplate.
Endorsements
"Reading this is like sucking in lungfuls of mountain air. There is a craving for beauty, vastness and wonder that shallow books cannot satisfy. What people gasp for is God, the real God, the God of the Bible. Andrew does not domesticate Him, trivialise Him or dumb Him down. Buy and read. Then read it again." Joel Virgo
"Bite-sized chunks of great theology that will inform the mind and inspire the heart to worship." Tim Hughes
"Clearly written, full of truth, and containing a wealth of helpful illustrations, this book is accessible theology that will draw you into the worship of God." John Hosier
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 4, 2007
195 people are currently reading
693 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Wilson
14 books148 followersAndrew is Teaching Pastor at King's Church London, and has theology degrees from Cambridge (MA), London School of Theology (MTh), and King's College London (PhD). He is a columnist for Christianity Today, and has written several books, including Echoes of Exodus (Crossway, 2018) and Spirit and Sacrament: An Invitation to Eucharismatic Worship (Zondervan, 2018).
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
January 22, 2023
Absolutely incredible and soul refreshing. These bitesize chapters have helped me know God better and every one points to his glory!
December 6, 2024
Such an amazingly simple way to get to know God more deeply. Each reflection is short but thought-provoking. Definitely a good book to inform your prayers.
January 1, 2024
Absolutely brilliant. Short easily digestible chapters but still so helpful and encouraging.
April 20, 2025
A very helpful book on the character of God. Short chapters make it an easy read. I especially liked the interludes to stop and think. Theology is never for theology’s sake. The goal is always worship. This book achieves that. Thoroughly recommended.
February 24, 2020
Andrew Wilson thoroughly explores a vast topic with excellence. But there's so much to digest here, it would definitely require several re-reads. Not that that's a bad thing!
April 3, 2024
My worship pastor gifted this book to everyone in the worship ministry for Christmas. I read it as a daily devotional of sorts over the last few months. Each entry is a short, quick read with a specific theme that explores an attribute of God.
Smattered throughout the entries of attributes were brief calls to prayer or worship, further study, reading, and reflecting. I enjoyed the variety of these smaller "challenges" and the resources the author pointed to for readers to dig deeper.
The book is well-organized, a quick and easy read, but it's thought-provoking. I liked the exercise in dwelling on the many facets of who God is combined with the scriptural roots of each "devotional." A neat read and one I'd recommend to anyone interested.
Smattered throughout the entries of attributes were brief calls to prayer or worship, further study, reading, and reflecting. I enjoyed the variety of these smaller "challenges" and the resources the author pointed to for readers to dig deeper.
The book is well-organized, a quick and easy read, but it's thought-provoking. I liked the exercise in dwelling on the many facets of who God is combined with the scriptural roots of each "devotional." A neat read and one I'd recommend to anyone interested.
April 15, 2013
This was the first Christian book I ever read. I was recommended it being told, "This will fuel your worship."
It certainly did.
Reading it gave me a much clearer, broader, awe-inspired view of who God is and what He is like. I wouldn't hesitate to say that it lay the foundation of how I view God that still shapes how I see Him today.
Andrew Wilson explores God's character, names, Trinity and attributes in short, easy to read, and enjoyable chapters. Each chapter can be easily read in a matter of minutes, which makes it great for morning or evening reflections. Yet each one is packed with enough to make you ponder for much longer and leave you lost in awe: theologically rich and worshipful. Alternatively, you could read a collection of chapters together as I did with the first four to get a bigger picture. I really enjoyed the wealth of scientific facts in chapters such as The Wisdom of Yahweh that put God's wisdom, majesty and power into perspective. One of my favourite chapters was Yahweh is Majestic where he tells you not to read it unless you're sitting under a clear night sky and explains what you can see in space as you gaze upward, declaring the majesty of God. As I read that chapter one night, it was one of the most precious moments of worship I've had.
But more than just a devotional book, it also cleared up my view of God theologically by clearly explaining things such as what God is, the difference between grace and mercy, how He justifies us, etc. As well as fuelling my worship, it deepened my understanding. As my non-Christian friends began to ask tougher questions, I also found this book very helpful in providing sufficient and easy to understand answers.
As a younger Christian, it greatly benefitted me, but I would recommend this book to anyone: from a new Christian who wants to understand God more, to a Christian who wants to rekindle to passion in their worship, to a non-Christian who wants to find answers, to a long-time Christian who wants to rediscover fundamental truths about the God we worship.
It certainly did.
Reading it gave me a much clearer, broader, awe-inspired view of who God is and what He is like. I wouldn't hesitate to say that it lay the foundation of how I view God that still shapes how I see Him today.
Andrew Wilson explores God's character, names, Trinity and attributes in short, easy to read, and enjoyable chapters. Each chapter can be easily read in a matter of minutes, which makes it great for morning or evening reflections. Yet each one is packed with enough to make you ponder for much longer and leave you lost in awe: theologically rich and worshipful. Alternatively, you could read a collection of chapters together as I did with the first four to get a bigger picture. I really enjoyed the wealth of scientific facts in chapters such as The Wisdom of Yahweh that put God's wisdom, majesty and power into perspective. One of my favourite chapters was Yahweh is Majestic where he tells you not to read it unless you're sitting under a clear night sky and explains what you can see in space as you gaze upward, declaring the majesty of God. As I read that chapter one night, it was one of the most precious moments of worship I've had.
But more than just a devotional book, it also cleared up my view of God theologically by clearly explaining things such as what God is, the difference between grace and mercy, how He justifies us, etc. As well as fuelling my worship, it deepened my understanding. As my non-Christian friends began to ask tougher questions, I also found this book very helpful in providing sufficient and easy to understand answers.
As a younger Christian, it greatly benefitted me, but I would recommend this book to anyone: from a new Christian who wants to understand God more, to a Christian who wants to rekindle to passion in their worship, to a non-Christian who wants to find answers, to a long-time Christian who wants to rediscover fundamental truths about the God we worship.
August 29, 2025
I started reading this and soon realised it was too impactful to just read straight through, so then I started again reading one chapter a day and allowing time to reflect on each of the attributes of God. Andrew has a real gift for explaining things in ways I hadn’t heard before and found really helpful. I plan to come back to this book and reread and highlight bits that help me in knowing and worshipping our amazing, indescribable, incomparable God.
April 6, 2022
Accessible, worshipful book on the attributes and names of God. This is one I can easily recommend to people in my church.
June 17, 2023
Very helpful as a devotional. Take it slowly! And enjoy his brilliant writing too :)
July 21, 2023
Broad, accessible, clear, inspiring, and immediately applicable. The best intro to theology book I’ve seen.
January 19, 2024
Fantastic book. It's perfect for use in devotional time. Andrew Wilson helps turn our eyes to who God really is, marvelling at His enormity, beauty, and majesty. A must read.
July 19, 2024
Read this over the last few months and it was a great book of short reads about the character of God. Good reflections on how BIG He is.
April 11, 2022
Loved this book. I treated it in some ways like a devotional! Such awesome reminders of the character of God rooted in biblical truths.
October 20, 2022
A wonderful book filled with Bible-based wonderful truths about our God!!!!!
January 31, 2008
Sorry ... that was probably quite predictible but genuinely a good read!
August 6, 2015
I enjoyed it, but not as good as other character of God studies I've read. The author thinks outside the box and talks about attributes we don't normally think of.
July 22, 2017
This is a very good study of the doctrine of God. It is fairly comprehensive covering theological topics like: the being of God, the names of God, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the attributes of God.
What I LOVE about this book is its ability to discuss theological realities in a way that is down to earth and not arid or doctrinaire; you feel like you have read a book and not studied a math equation or analytic philosophy after reading this. You don't have to be a genius or have a preconceived commitment to becoming a 'theological stud' to enjoy and benefit from this book on the Doctrine of God.
It is simple, illustrated well, theologically impactful (new word!), and periodically devotional as he includes sections of praise and prayer throughout. This is great example of what theology in a church setting should be like.
Also, the chapter lengths are very sensible in that they are only a few pages. This gives the book the feel of being a compendium of theology on the Doctrine of God. And I will most certainly be referring back to this book many times.
There are some things I didn't like:
1) The broad schema is good and true to systematic theology (for the theology nerds!), but Wilson doesn't always follow it precisely. So, "The Goodness of God" is discussed under "The Being of God" rather than "The Attributes of God." There are other examples of that too, and some things get called 'names of God' or 'attributes of God' that, at least according to classical definitions are neither. But that's a minor criticism because even if mis-categorized what he says is usually good and worth reading.
2) FYI, Wilson is a continuationist in his view of spiritual gifts. This doesn't come out much, but it does come out in his discussion of "God the Healer," and a couple other small places.
3) Wilson seems to subscribe to the "eternal functional subordination of the Son," in that he points to the eternal relationship between father and Son as foundational to the authority structure between husband and wife. Again, this doesn't come out much, but does at least one place.
4) I don't know where he sits on the Calvinist/Arminian discussion, but some of what he says in the chapter on the Holy Spirit sound more Arminian than Calvinist. Again, not a frequent issue in the book, but it is there.
All this being said, I personally don't think these constitute reasons to pass by this book. Wilson writes sound theology in a way ordinary people could appreciate. That is always a blessed gift to the church.
What I LOVE about this book is its ability to discuss theological realities in a way that is down to earth and not arid or doctrinaire; you feel like you have read a book and not studied a math equation or analytic philosophy after reading this. You don't have to be a genius or have a preconceived commitment to becoming a 'theological stud' to enjoy and benefit from this book on the Doctrine of God.
It is simple, illustrated well, theologically impactful (new word!), and periodically devotional as he includes sections of praise and prayer throughout. This is great example of what theology in a church setting should be like.
Also, the chapter lengths are very sensible in that they are only a few pages. This gives the book the feel of being a compendium of theology on the Doctrine of God. And I will most certainly be referring back to this book many times.
There are some things I didn't like:
1) The broad schema is good and true to systematic theology (for the theology nerds!), but Wilson doesn't always follow it precisely. So, "The Goodness of God" is discussed under "The Being of God" rather than "The Attributes of God." There are other examples of that too, and some things get called 'names of God' or 'attributes of God' that, at least according to classical definitions are neither. But that's a minor criticism because even if mis-categorized what he says is usually good and worth reading.
2) FYI, Wilson is a continuationist in his view of spiritual gifts. This doesn't come out much, but it does come out in his discussion of "God the Healer," and a couple other small places.
3) Wilson seems to subscribe to the "eternal functional subordination of the Son," in that he points to the eternal relationship between father and Son as foundational to the authority structure between husband and wife. Again, this doesn't come out much, but does at least one place.
4) I don't know where he sits on the Calvinist/Arminian discussion, but some of what he says in the chapter on the Holy Spirit sound more Arminian than Calvinist. Again, not a frequent issue in the book, but it is there.
All this being said, I personally don't think these constitute reasons to pass by this book. Wilson writes sound theology in a way ordinary people could appreciate. That is always a blessed gift to the church.
April 20, 2018
I am always interested in reading and obtaining more knowledge and understanding about the identity and the character of God. I want to know Him. I was captivated by the title of this book, Incomparable; Explorations in the Character of God.
This book left me somewhat disappointed. The author didn't go far in his exploration of the topic. He would get to a point once the surface was scratched and he begins using word such as impossible, difficult, hard to understand. I will agree that one will never fully understand God until He is seen face to face. But I disagree with the author that it is impossible to fully know God.
The Bible from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 is all about God revealing who and what He is to humanity. Too often we rely on what others write and say about who and what God is and we do not go beyond scratching the surface of exploring God. I do understand that one could never complete a book that would fully define who God is and define His character. But do not conclude that it is impossible to fully know the identity and the attributes of God.
I rate this book with 3 stars as it is easy to read. And there are moments when the author brings more light to the topic. But if you are truly interested in exploring who and what God is then I recommend seeking God first. God will reveal what He needs to reveal to a hungry heart.
This book left me somewhat disappointed. The author didn't go far in his exploration of the topic. He would get to a point once the surface was scratched and he begins using word such as impossible, difficult, hard to understand. I will agree that one will never fully understand God until He is seen face to face. But I disagree with the author that it is impossible to fully know God.
The Bible from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 is all about God revealing who and what He is to humanity. Too often we rely on what others write and say about who and what God is and we do not go beyond scratching the surface of exploring God. I do understand that one could never complete a book that would fully define who God is and define His character. But do not conclude that it is impossible to fully know the identity and the attributes of God.
I rate this book with 3 stars as it is easy to read. And there are moments when the author brings more light to the topic. But if you are truly interested in exploring who and what God is then I recommend seeking God first. God will reveal what He needs to reveal to a hungry heart.
October 17, 2025
I’m not one for over-exaggeration in reading and usually read 30-50 books a year…not meaning in a prideful way, I just read a lot and in three years of being a Christian this is easily one of the best I’ve read (of probably 150ish books)
It’s my book of the year so far. Just hours of gazing at God. Well explained. Constantly referencing scripture, while helping me understand many things I’ve never ‘got’ before.
The ‘pause and reflection’ breaks (of a few pages) occur after every 5 or 6 chapters and recommend books, songs or an entire hymn’s lyrics or a prayer or passage of scripture to mull over.
I delayed finishing it because I enjoyed it so much & will be immediately checking out Wilson’s other books.
100% recommend
It’s my book of the year so far. Just hours of gazing at God. Well explained. Constantly referencing scripture, while helping me understand many things I’ve never ‘got’ before.
The ‘pause and reflection’ breaks (of a few pages) occur after every 5 or 6 chapters and recommend books, songs or an entire hymn’s lyrics or a prayer or passage of scripture to mull over.
I delayed finishing it because I enjoyed it so much & will be immediately checking out Wilson’s other books.
100% recommend
March 17, 2019
Such a helpful, enjoyable book!
Wilson explores 60 characteristics of God with accessible, clear prose and very helpful metaphors. Each one is only three pages long. He is biblically sound, bold and challenging. The result is very powerful.
Over the last year I've been using this book in my quiet time as a thought to remember throughout the day. Each chapter is quick to read and hard hitting, it has worked so well alongside my breakfast! What I have been most grateful for is that it is not just a brush up on doctrine, but fuels humble awe and worship of an incredible God.Would highly recommend to all Christians.
I suspect I will cycle through this book many times in my life!
Wilson explores 60 characteristics of God with accessible, clear prose and very helpful metaphors. Each one is only three pages long. He is biblically sound, bold and challenging. The result is very powerful.
Over the last year I've been using this book in my quiet time as a thought to remember throughout the day. Each chapter is quick to read and hard hitting, it has worked so well alongside my breakfast! What I have been most grateful for is that it is not just a brush up on doctrine, but fuels humble awe and worship of an incredible God.Would highly recommend to all Christians.
I suspect I will cycle through this book many times in my life!
December 17, 2018
On the back cover, Tim Hughes describes this book with the following words: "Bite-sized chunks of great theology that will inform the mind and inspire the heart to worship."
There really couldn't be a better, shorter, and more accurate review. Andrew Wilson doesn't go deep, yet he goes wide. In around 50 chapters with only 2-4 pages each, he gives the reader an easy to understand and yet very inspiring and often practical glimpse into a great variety of attributes and names of God.
There really couldn't be a better, shorter, and more accurate review. Andrew Wilson doesn't go deep, yet he goes wide. In around 50 chapters with only 2-4 pages each, he gives the reader an easy to understand and yet very inspiring and often practical glimpse into a great variety of attributes and names of God.
December 8, 2022
Andrew Wilson has set himself an impossible task - to describe the incomparable character of God in sixty short chapters. And the result is at the same time very successful, because he brings out so many different perspectives and makes them so accessible — and yet somehow not quite satisfying, because each chapter is so brief. But overall, this book is well worth reading, and very easy to dip into for a ‘thought for today’.
August 18, 2022
Such a fantastic book-- love the format- short chapters that allow for digesting the content. Truth-filled. "Selah" moments where the author recommends other resources or guides you to consider what has just been read. Loved this aspect of the book. Helpful in reminding me of immensely deep truths on who God is and how He works. A book that will be reread often.
July 29, 2023
One of the best Christian books that I have ever read. Andrew Wilson dives deep into the multiple attributes of God, scripture and what it truly means to worship our creator. I will recommend this book time and time again to any Christian out there seeking to know and study our Lord on a deeper level!
October 13, 2023
really enjoyed this book
I read a fair amount of theology, and I have read several systematic theologies. This is introductory, but extremely insightful, and really delightful to read. Multiple times, the author brought insights that I’ve never encountered, or thought of in that way. Really grateful for this book.
I read a fair amount of theology, and I have read several systematic theologies. This is introductory, but extremely insightful, and really delightful to read. Multiple times, the author brought insights that I’ve never encountered, or thought of in that way. Really grateful for this book.
May 17, 2024
A very accessible look into God's character as revealed to us in His word. I liked how Wilson brings in relatable and recent stories, and how faithful he is to scripture. I'd especially recommend to any new Christians or anyone struggling to understand who God is. Another recommendation would be AW Pink's The Attributes of God.
September 19, 2024
A great review of God's attributes. Each short chapter left me in praise of our God. Sometimes his descriptions were a little weird (he uses the concept of the name of God very broadly), it was still encouraging. Even though I disagreed with some interpretations, I appreciate his commitment to the biblical text as his basis for all his claims.
August 1, 2017
Regularly I would be reading this and have to stop to praise God - you just can't help it! Now, glory to God for being amazing enough to praise like this - but this book will set it out for you simply and in nice chunks. Read it now and get a small ( but still amazing ) peek at how great God Is.
October 7, 2017
Fantastic book! Ideal small chapters to use as a daily devotional, jam packed with amazing truths about God. Highly recommend. Great encouragement and helps create an Awe of God in your heart as you read!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews