The Collected Shorter Writings of J.I. Packer contain the majority of shorter pieces published by J.I. Packer over the past thirty years. The articles included in this four-volume set range from short devotional pieces published in church-sponsored journals, to opinion articles for popular journals like Christianity Today, to major articles for scholarly journals.
In this collection of articles, Packer sets out his beliefs about the authority of Scripture and the principles that should be applied when interpreting it. Important topics such as the adequacy of human language and the authority of reason and the Scripture's own view of itself are considered. Packer then applies his principles of interpretation to such controversial topics as creation, the role of women and eschatology. In the final section, Packer turns his attention to pastoral leaders and the importance of correct and responsible expository preaching.
J. I. Packer is Board of Governors' Professor of Theology at Regent College, Vancouver. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers and apologists for Christianity in the twentieth century. He is author of numerous books, including Knowing God, Rediscovering Holiness and Concise A Guide to Historic Beliefs.
What do J. I. Packer, Billy Graham and Richard John Neuhaus have in common? Each was recently named by TIME magazine as among the 25 most influential evangelicals in America.
Dr. Packer, the Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology at Regent College, was hailed by TIME as “a doctrinal Solomon” among Protestants. “Mediating debates on everything from a particular Bible translation to the acceptability of free-flowing Pentecostal spirituality, Packer helps unify a community [evangelicalism] that could easily fall victim to its internal tensions.”
Knowing God, Dr. Packer’s seminal 1973 work, was lauded as a book which articulated shared beliefs for members of diverse denominations; the TIME profile quotes Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington as saying, “conservative Methodists and Presbyterians and Baptists could all look to [Knowing God] and say, ‘This sums it all up for us.’”
In a similar tribute to Dr. Packer almost ten years ago, American theologian Mark Noll wrote in Christianity Today that, “Packer’s ability to address immensely important subjects in crisp, succinct sentences is one of the reasons why, both as an author and speaker, he has played such an important role among American evangelicals for four decades.”
For over 25 years Regent College students have been privileged to study under Dr. Packer’s clear and lucid teaching, and our faculty, staff and students celebrate the international recognition he rightly receives as a leading Christian thinker and teacher.