Considering J.I. Packer An Evangelical Life

With the recent death of J.I. Packer, I decided to read Leland Ryken’s biography of Packer. I had purchased it earlier this year on sale. I had finished the book I was reading in the mornings and decided this was a good time to read it.

In the past I’d read J.I. Packer: A Biography by Alister McGrath. It is one of the key sources for Ryken’s book (along with extensive interviews, personal reflections and of course Packer’s numerous volumes).

Though these two biographies cover the same territory (though Ryken has a few more years to cover), they are very different. Both men knew and appreciated Packer though their perspectives are a bit different since McGrath is British and Ryken an American. A bigger difference is that McGrath is a theologian and Ryken teaches literature.

McGrath takes a chronological approach to Packer’s life. The first 10 chapters cover different periods of his life. The last chapter is an assessment of Packer by McGrath. The book runs about 310 pages without the extensive end notes.

Ryken, on the other hand, breaks the book into 3 main sections. The first is The Life of J.I. Packer. This covers 13 chapters and about 181 pages. The second section, The Man, covers 3 chapters and about 60 pages. The last section is Lifelong Themes winds through 7 chapters and 140 pages. It wraps up with an afterword by Packer himself so the book is about 410 pages.

There are strengths and weaknesses to Ryken’s approach to this biography. He doesn’t want to just copy McGrath’s work, and that is admirable. He also addresses not just the details of his life, the facts, but tries to provide a portrait of Packer as a person in the second main section. In the third section he identifies the major themes throughout his life, helping us to understand how they shaped him and he served the church through those themes. For instance, there is more detailed coverage of the controversies of his life as they are found in the first section and a chapter of 30+ pages in the last section.

The weakness is that he covers some material 2-3 times. It can feel repetitive at times. Some quotes show up 3-4 times. They are good quotes, don’t get me wrong, but when you have ADD the repetition can be difficult at times.

His life reveals the providence of God in a way that few lives do. Obviously God is control of all our lives, but we can see it most clearly. The early accident shaped his life by limiting options to him as a child but developed a deep intellectual ability in him that might not have been cultivated as well had he been focused on sports or other interests that we cut off to him. While it may have been difficult for him to live through all those transitions, we can see God opening doors for Packer so he was increasingly useful for Christ and His church. One of those open doors was as an author through which he was of benefit to millions of people.

It is important for most of us to realize that Packer was a “churchman”. He loved the Anglican church and continually worked for its reformation. He saw the Puritans as people seeking to reform the Church of England. In this respect he was a modern Puritan. This difference in how to understand the Puritans, Ryken notes, explains the break between Packer and Lloyd-Jones after Lloyd-Jones pled with evangelicals to leave the Church of England. While Stott was more critical of Lloyd-Jones it was that Puritan connection that ended up creating the great distance between Packer and Lloyd-Jones. Even when he moved to Canada Packer was very involved in trying to reform the Church. Eventually he was ousted, along with others, over the issue of ordaining practicing homosexuals as priests. Packer and many other exiled Anglicans joined the Anglican Church of North America under the authority of African bishops.

It was those Puritans that saved his sanity as a young Christian. He fell under the influence of Keswick theology (let go and let God victorious living) while in college. He discovered John Owen and reading his books on indwelling sin and the mortification of sin changed his life. Packer would be devoted to the Puritans thereafter. As a modern Puritan, Packer held to a Calvinistic soteriology. He introduced many of us to Reformed Theology through Knowing God. That, and Keeping in Step with the Spirit, which focused on sanctification, we very helpful in my early Christian life.

It is hard to fit everything Packer did into 400 pages. At least to the depth I’d like. I wanted to learn more about his important work on the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. He and Sproul were important figures in that important document. Additionally, Ryken worked with Packer on the ESV, and the Packer was the general editor of the ESV Study Bible. I would have like to learn more about that, particularly the issue of the Eternal Submission of the Son which shows up in the notes. Did Packer miss this? Did he affirm it? Inquiring minds want to know.

As an Anglican who had a prominent role in evangelicalism, Packer also had an ecumenical spirit that got him into trouble periodically. For instance, Packer was involved with the Evangelicals & Catholics Together documents. It seemed to arise from a desire to be co-belligerents in the culture war, but there was over-reach on “common theology”. This cost Packer his working relationship (and friendship?) with Sproul.

This brings me to unmet expectations. I know, this is already a long book. But the repetition could be cut to include a few other subjects. To know Packer the man we should know something of Packer the husband and father. Kit is barely mentioned. There is one reference to his adopted daughters, and as an adoptive father this is of great interest in me.

Another aspect that grows more important to me as I age is friendships. There was little here about his friendship aside from how a few ended. Through the RTS grapevine, I’ve heard of his long-term friendship with Dr. Roger Nicole (called an “American professor” who was actually French but moved to America). I’d like to know more about these things because I want to understand the man and some of his struggles. I’m not interested in hagiography, but how God worked in, in addition to thru, the man.

Don’t get distracted by my minor complaints. This is a book well worth reading. I just wish there was more. There is plenty to chew on as Ryken spends time examining many of his most famous books. He also unpacks some of his sermons in his chapter on Packer the Preacher. This is worth the investment of your time, even if you’ve read McGrath’s biography.