To Know and Serve God
A biography of James I. Packer
By Alister McGrath. Hodder & Stoughton. 340 pages. £16.99 (hardback)
ISBN 0 340 56571 3
Perhaps a more appropriate subtitle for this interesting and unique book would be 'The Life and Times of James I. Packer', for unlike most biographies, very little is revealed about James Packer's family background, his marriage to Kit or their children, or indeed the character of the man himself. Instead, what the reader is treated to is a fascinating account of the development of mainly British evangelicalism in the post-war years which Dr. Packer was seminally involved in shaping.
As Alister McGrath charts the fortunes and misfortunes of Dr. Packer's career, the reviewer found himself alternately exhilarated and shocked. The sense of God's providential hand at work is certainly conveyed, particularly in the way he used Dr. Packer and others to promote an intellectually credible and robust reformed evangelical theology at a time when evangelicals were a despised minority. One cannot underestimate the morale-boosting effect (not to mention the apologetic value) of books like Fundamentalism and the Word of God and Evangelism and the sovereignty of God. His little booklet produced by Latimer House, Keep yourself from idols, was probably the best riposte ever written to Bishop John Robinson's Honest to God. Knowing God has become a modern classic, exhibiting the sure influence of the Puritans on the young Packer with its masterful combination of deep doctrine and pastoral wisdom.
