The book was designed as a secular alternative to religious text, and to be read as a narrative drawing on non-religious philosophy, including that from Ancient Greek, Chinese, Roman, Indian and Arab civilizations, as well as the European Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment.

It is divided into fourteen books (Genesis, Wisdom, Parables, Concord, Lamentations, Consolations, Sages, Songs, Histories, Proverbs, The Lawgiver, Acts, Epistles, and The Good).

[2] Genevieve Fox wrote in The Telegraph, "If the humanists are in the ascendant, then Grayling's self-help book for the spiritually rudderless will be snapped up",[3] while Christopher Hart, reviewing it in the Sunday Times, concluded that: "Compared to the original, it's a molehill at the foot of Everest".

"[7] In the religious journal First Things, R. J. Snell writes: "While the marketing presents the author as provocateur, one finds instead the reflections of a decent, middle-aged man with a thorough education, now thinking about his loves and aspirations in light of the erosive power of time.

In a YouTube video at the Sydney Writers Festival, Grayling responded to criticisms of The Good Book, stating: "some of the reviews have been hysterically hostile".