Holy is His Name: The Transforming Power of God’s Holiness in Scripture

What does it mean to be holy? Andrea Bear reviews Dr. Scott Hahn’s new book about how God continually calls us to holiness.

As Christians, we know we should strive for holiness—but how to reach it seems like putting together a car from scratch without instructions. We know where the basic pieces might go but the small pieces and the details seem vague, yet we know enough not to discard the pieces of the car.

Dr. Scott Hann attempts to answer this question in his book, Holy is His Name: The Transforming Power of God’s Holiness in Scripture. What does it mean to obtain holiness? Dr. Hahn points out that the Church has never clearly defined the explanation of holiness, yet we use the word so regularly, especially to call others holy.

Holy Is His Name

The first idea of holiness that came to my mind was an even-tempered person. St. Teresa of Calcutta fits my idea of holiness. She was calm, loving, compassionate, and lived her life in poverty and obedience. But if that is the definition of holiness, what about more vocal saints like Padre Pio, who kicked people out of confessionals in an angry manner because they did not show true remorse in their confessions? Yet we know he was a holy man because of the many gifts bestowed on him.

The definition for the word holiness has much depth to it. When linguists look for equivalent words in English, they keep coming back to words like other, apart, peerlessness. Everything else is something. Only God simply is and this inspires awe in those creatures who have the ability to think about it. As Dr. Hahn points out, the word holy really drives from the word “other or to be set apart.” He goes on to say that “It is God’s otherness that mystifies, causes us to wonder, and seek.”

Dr. Hahn shows us God’s otherness, or Kadosh, and how He centers us throughout Scripture. Through covenants that are made such as marriage, from the story of Creation to Moses’ encounter of the burning bush, God’s holiness is continually shared throughout the Bible. Dr. Hahn takes us through the Old and New Testaments to understand how our God who is all loving, all knowing, and beyond our understanding makes us in His image and calls us to become holy, even though we are far from it.

This was a beautiful book that shows how God wants us to share in His holiness and continues to provide ways for us to join Him.

Ask for Holy Is His Name at your local Catholic bookseller, or order online from Amazon.com or the publisher, Emmaus Road Publishing.