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Building on years of research, writing, and cross-cultural ministry, renowned author and theologian David Wells calls our attention to that which defines God’s greatness and gives shape to the Christian life: the holy-love of God.

In God in the Whirlwind, Wells explores the depths of the paradox that God is both holy and loving, showing how his holy-love provides the foundation for our understanding of the cross, sanctification, the nature of worship, and our life of service in the world. What’s more, a renewed vision of God's character is the cure for evangelicalism’s shallow theology, with its weightless God and sentimental gospel.

Written by one of evangelicalism’s most insightful minds, this book will help you stand firm in your faith despite the changing winds and raging storms of the modern world.

Offering a remedy for evangelicalism’s superficial theology, Wells points readers to the paradox of God’s “holy-love,” exploring how the interplay of his characteristics reorient our lives and change the world.

David F. Wells (PhD, University of Manchester) is the Distinguished Research Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. In addition to serving as academic dean of its Charlotte campus, Wells has also been a member of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and is involved in ministry in Africa. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including a series that was initiated by a Pew grant exploring the nature of Christian faith in the contemporary, modernized world.

“Rich, deep, and faithful—God in the Whirlwind invites us to come before the very heart of God. No theologian understands the modern world better than David Wells, yet no theologian uses the modern world more powerfully to wrench us back to truths that are foundational and never to be superseded by the latest anything. To be read slowly and with prayer.”

—Os Guinness, cofounder, The Trinity Forum; author, The Call

“In this important book, David Wells begins the process of bringing his influential critique of late modern culture and the church down into practice. Here we have a ‘practical theology’ for conducting the church’s life based on the reality of a God of ‘Holy-love.’ This particular way of understanding and preaching the doctrine of God, Wells believes, protects the church from either being co-opted by the culture or becoming a ghettoized subculture. Decades of teaching theology is boiled down here into accessible, practical chapters. I’m glad to recommend this volume.”

—Timothy J. Keller, Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City; author, The Reason for God

“Almost fifteen years ago, I enrolled at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, in large part so I could learn from David Wells. His books opened my eyes to a host of ecclesiastical problems and to a lost world of glorious truth. As a student, I continued to learn from his deft analysis and careful theological critique. Now it’s my pleasure to commend this terrifically unique book, a fitting capstone to all that he has been building in the last two decades. Part biblical theology, part systematic theology, and part cultural reconnaissance, this is a powerful work that my generation—really any generation—cannot afford to ignore. After years of pointing out the shallowness of evangelicalism, this is Wells’s masterful summary of what should be our depth, our ballast, our center. What the world needs, and what the church needs, is a fresh encounter with the holy-love of God. This book will help you start down that path.”

—Kevin DeYoung, Senior Pastor, University Reformed Church, East Lansing, Michigan

“A timely and necessary antidote to the spirit of the age which is manifested in the prevailing man-centeredness of contemporary evangelicalism. Wells calls for the recalibration of our lives by a clear understanding of and a devout musing on the holy love of God. This book provides a fitting finale to the story line that began with No Place for Truth. Stott taught us how to preach between two worlds, and Wells teaches us to live there, at the intersection of faith (Christ) and culture.”

—Alistair Begg, Senior Pastor, Parkside Church, Cleveland, Ohio

“Drinking from the fire hydrant that is David Wells’s writing is worth the rush. The water is not only bracing but sweet. God in the Whirlwind, his latest, is such a torrent, first showing how we postmoderns have put ourselves at the center of the universe—and the center doesn’t hold. We have more of everything and less satisfaction with it. But Wells takes us to a place where God is at the center of the universe, where God’s ‘holy-love,’ the unique union of God’s holiness and his love, defines better what we need and provides more abundantly for it. Comprehending the ‘holy-love’ of God and its culmination in the life of Jesus Christ reinvigorates our walk with God, our worship, our service, and our work in a fallen world. Wells shows the way, and it’s a whirlwind indeed.”

—Mindy Belz, Editor, World magazine

“In his No Place for Truth and its companion volumes Professor David Wells blew a chilling, chaff-separating wind through contemporary Western Christianity. While he may have sounded like a latter-day Jeremiah, all along his vision was in fact Isaiah-like in its grandeur. Now, in God in the Whirlwind, this is made wonderfully, and at times thrillingly, clear. Here Dr. Wells is again the splendid biblical theologian he has long since proved himself to be—whose work is driven by devotion to the God who is Holy-love, and whose Luther-like desire to ‘Let God be God’ is clear on every page. Drink safely, deeply, and be satisfied.”

—Sinclair B. Ferguson, Professor of Systematic Theology, Redeemer Seminary, Dallas, Texas

“This is a beautiful book. The gospel is presented in all its power and significance for this and any generation. David Wells has the unique ability to make deep and rich truths accessible to any reader. Utterly biblical, thoroughly orthodox, yet fresh and alive, God in the Whirlwind takes us to the very heart of God’s character and makes us want, not to study him, but to worship him. I know of no better introduction to the deep, deep love of Jesus, ‘and it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee.’”

—William Edgar, Professor of Apologetics, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia

“David Wells has long been one of our most penetrating analysts of the cultural confusions that Christians today must contend with and that sometimes distort the Christian message. This book, as he says, emphasizes the ‘Christianity’ part of ‘Christianity and Culture.’ Here Dr. Wells models how to communicate the holiness and love of God—as manifested in the gospel, worship, and the Christian life—to a culture that has forgotten what they mean.”

—Gene Edward Veith, Jr., Provost and Professor of Literature, Patrick Henry College; Director, Cranach Institute, Concordia Theological Seminary

“David Wells is like a most-valued guest who after several earlier, eye-opening visits has now stopped back by to sit down and share with us the heart of the matter. Having in previous books shown a world that makes no place for truth, in this one he lights up truth. Theological discourse here becomes a powerful call to the church to see God who stands before us—full of overwhelming holy-love shown finally at the cross.”

—Kathleen B. Nielson, Director of Women’s Initiatives, The Gospel Coalition