J. I. Packer | |
|---|---|
.png) Packer in the 1950s | |
| Born | James Innell Packer (1926-07-22)22 July 1926 Twyning, England |
| Died | 17 July 2020(2020-07-17) (aged 93) Vancouver,British Columbia, Canada |
| Nationality |
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| Spouse | [1] |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) | James Packer, Dorothy Packer |
| Ecclesiastical career | |
| Religion | Christian (Anglican) |
| Church | |
| Ordained |
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| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Corpus Christi College,University of Oxford (BA) Wycliffe Hall,University of Oxford (MPhil,DPhil) |
| Thesis | The Redemption and Restoration of Man in the Thought of Richard Baxter (1954) |
| Doctoral advisor | Geoffrey Nuttall[2] |
| Influences | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Theology |
| Sub-discipline | Systematic theology |
| School or tradition | |
| Institutions | |
| Notable students | |
| Notable works | Knowing God (1973) |
| Influenced | |
James Innell Packer (22 July 1926 – 17 July 2020) was anEnglish-born Canadianevangelical theologian, cleric and writer in thelow-church Anglican andCalvinist traditions. Having been considered as one of the most influential evangelicals in North America,[5] Packer is known for his 1973 best-selling bookKnowing God, along with his work as the general editor of theEnglish Standard Version Bible. He was one of the high-profile signers on the 1978Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, a member on the advisory board of theCouncil on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and also was involved in theecumenical bookEvangelicals and Catholics Together in 1994. His last teaching position was as the board of governors' Professor of Theology atRegent College inVancouver,British Columbia, in which he served from 1996 until his retirement in 2016 due to failing eyesight.
Packer was born on 22 July 1926 inTwyning,Gloucestershire, England to James and Dorothy Packer.[6][7] His sister, Margaret, was born in 1929.[7] His father was a clerk for theGreat Western Railway and his lower-middle-class family was only nominallyAnglican, attending the local St. Catherine's Church.[7][6] When he was seven, Packer suffered a severe head injury in a collision with a bread van, which precluded him from playing sports, so he became interested in reading and writing.[7] At 11 years of age, Packer was gifted with an oldOliver typewriter.[7] He went on to cherish typewriters for the rest of his life.[8] In 1937, Packer went toThe Crypt School, where he specialized inthe classics.[7] At age 14 he wasconfirmed at St. Catherine's church.[7]
He won a scholarship to theUniversity of Oxford, where he was educated atCorpus Christi College, obtaining hisBachelor of Arts degree in 1948. In a 1944 meeting of theOxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (OICCU), Packer committed his life to Christian service.[6][7] It was during this time that Packer became exposed to the Puritans through OICCU's library, which were an influence he carried for the rest of his life.[7] He also first heard lectures fromC. S. Lewis at Oxford, whose teachings would (though he never knew Lewis personally) become a major influence in his life.[8]
After college, he spent a brief time teachingGreek andLatin atOak Hill College in London.[7] During this 1949–1950 school year, he sat under the teaching ofMartyn Lloyd-Jones atWestminster Chapel, who also would have a great influence on his thinking, and who he would know and interact with later.[7] In 1949, Packer went back toWycliffe Hall, Oxford, in 1949 to study theology.[9] He obtained hisMaster of philosophy degree in 1954, andDoctor of Philosophy in 1954.[9] He wrote his dissertation underGeoffrey Nuttall on thesoteriology of the Puritan theologianRichard Baxter.[9] He wasordained adeacon in 1952 andpriest in 1953 in theChurch of England, within which he was associated with theevangelical movement.[6][9] He served as assistantcurate ofHarborne Heath in Birmingham from 1952 to 1954.[7] In 1954, Packer married Kit Mullet, and they had three children, Ruth, Naomi, and Martin.[6][8]
In 1955, his family moved toBristol and Packer taught atTyndale Hall, Bristol, from 1955 to 1961. He wrote an article denouncingKeswick theology asPelagian in theEvangelical Quarterly.[7] According to biographerAlister McGrath, it is widely agreed that his critique "marked the end of the dominance of the Keswick approach among younger evangelicals".[7] It was also during this time that he published his first book,Fundamentalism and the Word of God (1958), a defense of the authority of the Bible, which sold 20,000 copies in that year and has been in print since.[8] Packer moved back to Oxford in 1961, where he served as librarian ofLatimer House in Oxford from 1961 to 1962 and warden from 1962 to 1969, an evangelical research centre he founded withJohn Stott.[8][7] In 1970, he became principal of Tyndale Hall, Bristol, and from 1971 until 1979 he was associate principal of the newly formedTrinity College, Bristol, which had been formed from the amalgamation of Tyndale Hall with Clifton College and Dalton House-St Michael's.[9][10] He became editor of theEvangelical Quarterly in the 1960s, and eventually published a series of articles he wrote in the journal into a book,Knowing God.[7] The book, published byHodder & Stoughton in Britain andInterVarsity Press in the United States in 1973, became a bestseller of international fame and sold over 1.5 million copies.[7] In 1977, he signed theChicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.[8]
In 1979, one of Packer's Oxford friends persuaded him to teach atRegent College in Vancouver, eventually being named the first Sangwoo Youtong Chee Professor of Theology, a title he held until he was named a Regent College Board of Governors' Professor of Theology in 1996.[9] At Regent he taught many classes, includingsystematic theology and thePuritans.[9]
He was a prolific writer and frequent lecturer,[6] and a frequent contributor to and an executive editor ofChristianity Today.[8] Packer served as general editor of theEnglish Standard Version (ESV), an evangelical translation based upon theRevised Standard Version of the Bible, and theological editor of theESV Study Bible.[9][11][12]
Packer was associated withSt. John's Shaughnessy Anglican Church, which in February 2008 voted toschism from theAnglican Church of Canada over the issue ofsame-sex blessings. The departing church,St. John's Vancouver, joined theAnglican Network in Canada (ANiC).[13] Packer, on 23 April, handed in his licence from theBishop of New Westminster.[14] (ANiC eventually co-founded and joined theAnglican Church in North America in 2009.)[15] In December 2008, Packer was appointed an honorary clerical canon ofSt Andrew's Cathedral inSydney in recognition of his long and distinguished ministry as a faithful teacher ofbiblical theology.[16]
Packer had been the theologian emeritus of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) since its creation in 2009, being one of the nine members of the task force who wrote on a trial basisTexts for Common Prayer, released in 2013, and general editor of the task force who wrote for trial useTo Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism, approved on 8 January 2014 by the College of Bishops of the church.[17][18] He was awarded the St. Cuthbert's Cross at the Provincial Assembly of ACNA on 27 June 2014 by retiring ArchbishopRobert Duncan for his "unparalleled contribution to Anglican and global Christianity".[19]
In 2016, Packer's eyesight deteriorated due tomacular degeneration to a point where he could no longer read or write, consequently concluding his public ministry.[8][20]
Packer died on 17 July 2020, five days before his 94th birthday.[6]
Packer held to thesoteriological position known asCalvinism.[21]
Packer had signed theChicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, affirming the conservative evangelical position onbiblical inerrancy.[8]
On gender roles, Packer was acomplementarian and served on the advisory board of theCouncil on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. He thus subscribed to a view of gender roles such that a husband should lovingly lead, protect and provide for his wife and that a wife should joyfully affirm and submit to her husband's leadership. Complementarians also believe the Bible teaches that men are to bear primary responsibility to lead in the church and that as such only men should be elders.[22][23] In 1991 Packer set forth his reasons for this in an influential yet controversial article called "Let's Stop Making Women Presbyters".[24]
Packer endorsed and supported books that have advocated fortheistic evolution,[25][26] but also expressed caution towards the validity of evolution.[27]
In recent years, he had supported theecumenical movement, which drew criticism from other evangelicals. Specifically, Packer's involvement in the bookEvangelicals and Catholics Together: Toward a Common Mission (ECT) was sharply criticised,[7] but he defended ECT by arguing that believers should set aside denominational differences for the sake of winning converts to Christianity.[7]
Packer took the side of evangelical ecumenism in opposition toMartyn Lloyd-Jones in 1966, then co-authored a work with twoAnglo-Catholics in 1970 (Growing into Union) that many evangelicals felt conceded too much biblical ground on critical doctrinal issues.[7] The publication of that work led to the formal break between Lloyd-Jones and Packer, bringing an end to the Puritan Conferences.[7]
