Hospital Chaplain John Goodjohn’s New Book Examines Scripture ‘By the Bible Itself’

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John Goodjohn, a hospital chaplain with a background in pastoral ministry and seminary teaching, has released "The Gospel of Scripture," a book that sets out to examine what the Bible says about the Gospel of Jesus Christ using Scripture alone, without relying on outside commentary or denominational interpretation. The book, published through Page Publishing, is available in bookstores and through major online retailers including Amazon, Apple’s iTunes Store, Google Play and Barnes & Noble.

The book’s full title, "The Gospel of Scripture: The Gospel of Jesus Christ as Defined and Explained in the Bible, by the Bible Itself," signals its central method: allowing Scripture to explain itself, avoiding the lens of external interpretive materials. According to the announcement, Goodjohn intends the book as a tool for self-study, aimed at readers who want to work through Scripture’s own language directly rather than through devotionals or study guides built around a particular tradition.

Goodjohn’s path to writing it is unusual for religious publishing. Before entering pastoral work, he held jobs in competitive figure skating, roller-disco management in the Hamptons, organic farming, long-distance sailing and business ownership, according to the announcement. He has also worked in university administration and taught at Bible college and seminary level. By his own account, he was once an outsider to organized Christianity, and that distance is what the book draws on: an attempt to approach the text without inherited assumptions about what it’s supposed to say.

"My journey from skepticism about organized Christianity to a life grounded solely in biblical teaching has convinced me that readers hunger for authenticity," Goodjohn said in the announcement. "This book exists to help people encounter the Gospel through Scripture’s own voice, free from the complications of external influence."

The idea of returning to Scripture’s own internal logic, rather than accumulated interpretation, places Goodjohn’s book in a tradition that runs through much of Protestant devotional writing, from Jerry Bridges’ work on grace and sanctification to Brennan Manning’s "The Ragamuffin Gospel." What distinguishes Goodjohn’s approach, per the publisher’s description, is the explicit method: using the Bible to explain the Bible, with as little external framework as the author could manage.

For Studio CarryOnHarry, the more interesting story here isn’t the book’s theology but the author’s path to it — a chaplain who spent decades in roller-disco management and long-distance sailing before turning to seminary teaching is a biography worth knowing more about on its own terms.

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