J. I. Packer: An Evangelical Life
by leland ryken
crossway, 432 pages, $30
I
f Evangelical Protestants had a pope, who would it be? Until his death at age ninety in 2011, the most likely answer was John Stott, the longtime preaching and publishing powerhouse. Dignified and statesmanlike, Stott was learned, well-spoken, and unifying. Or maybe it would be Billy Graham, the open-air crusader heard by more than two billion people, including a few presidents.
Then there is J. I. Packer—less widely known than either Stott or Graham and yet one of the Evangelical movement’s most venerated and beloved leaders. As Leland Ryken explains in his new biography, J. I. Packer: An Evangelical Life, Packer was an improbable contestant for the role. As a Briton, he lacked the vastness of the American platform that Graham was able to command. As a seminary professor and author of careful, nuanced theological arguments (such as the classic Knowing God), he lacked the tract-writing flair of his peer Stott. As an Anglican, he spent his early years enmeshed in denominational affairs and appeared an unlikely candidate for drawing disparate Evangelical camps together. As a purveyor of Reformed theology, Packer defended high doctrines of divine sovereignty and predestination, leaving many of his fellow revivalist and conversionist Evangelicals dismayed.
