The Thesis

In J. I. Packer: An Evangelical Life, Leland Ryken aims to not merely recount the life events of leading evangelical scholar J. I. Packer, but also to show who he is as a man. Packer has served in various vocations and several areas of the world and has experienced significant setbacks and accomplishments. However, in his ever-changing external circumstances, amidst critique and admiration, his internal drive has remained the same for many decades: that is, to teach and represent to the world and the church an evangelical Christian worldview. Underlying his distinctives as an Anglican and a specialized academician has flowed a continual commitment to basic gospel truths, articulated with precision and applied to the church.

The Method

The uniqueness of Ryken’s book is his method, which he calls a “combination of chronological biography and thematic biography” (p. 10). He uses this method for the purpose of integrating plain facts on a timeline with charming stories about more intimate details of Packer’s life, which results in a display of Packer the man. To achieve this, Ryken separates his book into three sections, titled “The Life,” “The Man,” and “Lifelong Themes” and alerts the reader to certain signposts to look out for as they read.

The Content

At attempt to summarize the content of this book would only prove to obscure the complexity of that which is a Spirit-empowered human life, such as J. I. Packer’s. However, it is useful to mention some themes that stand out, namely, Packer’s 1) continual work in the institutional Anglican Church despite his Puritan convictions, 2) instincts as peacemaker and yet his involvement in many controversies, and 3) equally strong emphases on academic excellence and practical church ministry.

First, Packer has maintained both his commitment to Anglicanism and his Puritan convictions for a long time. His unabashed love for and specialized scholarship on the Puritans as well as his definitively Reformational theology are clearly seen in his written works, public addresses, and personal stories, as explained by Ryken. However, at various forks in the road during his lifetime, he chose to remain within the institutional Anglican Church, even when other viable (and, some may argue, significantly better) options were open to him. Ryken’s recounting of Packer’s professional life in England returns again and again to this theme: Packer was one of the foremost evangelical forces in the Church of England during his time, always working to garner support for this cause regardless of what role he was filling (and this included many, such as faculty and later principal at Tyndale Hall, warden and librarian at Latimer House, and leader on the Keele Congress). Furthermore, even after his expulsion from the Anglican Church of Canada, he found a way to remain within Anglicanism. Though Packer’s influence has spread beyond Anglicanism, much of his personal efforts have been directed towards the institutional Anglican Church.

In Formed for the Glory of God: Learning from the Spiritual Practices of Jonathan Edwards, Kyle Strobel aims to set forth an evangelical understanding of spiritual formation as inspired by Jonathan Edwards, an eighteenth century Puritan. Spiritual formation is “how Christ forms us by his Spirit that we may live a life for his glory” (p. 14). It is a continual journey that is focused on God, rather than a quick fix that is focused on self. Strobel divides his book into two parts. Part one paints the big picture of the path down which we travel as we aim to live for God’s glory. Part two describes the tools that are given for this journey.

In part one, Strobel identifies the destination of spiritual formation, the path to this destination, and how to walk this path well. The destination of this path is heaven, which is not the end of growth but rather a place where we continue to grow in our relational knowledge of God by seeing him more clearly. Seeing him makes us perfectly happy because the purpose of our lives is to know and love him.

The path to this destination is salvation, which goes beyond forgiveness to include continuous communion with God, in Christ and by the Spirit, as our glorious and beautiful Father. Since he is perfectly good and beautiful, his glory begins with glorifying himself, and extends to draw us into the love relationship within the Trinity. In Strobel’s words, “God knows and loves himself infinitely, enjoys and delights in his own life fully for eternity, and now calls us into that life,” which is a life characterized by beauty (p. 49). This beauty is “primarily a personal and relational reality” wherein we are “captivated, from the depths of [our] heart, by the other person” (p. 50).

Walking this path well involves orienting not only our minds towards God but also our affections because in salvation the Spirit changes our entire beings, not just a part of us. Orienting our affections to God means “having [our] heart inclined to [God] as beautiful” (p. 57). Edwards said that in order to walk in this way we must constantly see and taste God’s glory and beauty.

Overall, Strobel mines the depths of Edwards’s view of spiritual formation in a way that makes it accessible to readers today. Those wanting to begin or revitalize their devotional practices by grounding them in Scripture and learning from the saints of old (notably, those from a tradition that is known for its emphasis on the importance of spiritual formation as experiencing communion with God on a personal and practical level) would benefit from reading this work, regardless of denominational or academic background. In light of other contemporary books about spiritual disciplines that I have read, Edwards’s view and Strobel’s appropriation of Edwards regarding the topic at hand stands out as one that maintains a balance between God’s role and ours, Scripture and experience, and the mind and affections. Evangelicals today would do well to learn from the Puritans in this area and Strobel’s book provides an excellent starting point.

Reviewed by Jenny-Lyn de Klerk

Publisher’s page: http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=5653

Preview Formed for the Glory of God: https://books.google.com/books/about/Formed_for_the_Glory_of_God.html?id=PFjgAk_XxK0C

On February 11^th and 12^th 2015, Amos Yong delivered a two-part series of lectures at Ambrose University for the annual Murray W. Downey Lectureship. Ambrose University is a Christian institution of higher education in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, composed of a denominationally diverse community seeking to represent Christ in their respective fields. Yong is currently Professor of Theology and Mission and Director for Missiological Research at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is a prolific author who has written, edited, and contributed to scores of publications. At this lectureship, Yong explored the impact of Pentecostalism on Christianity in his lectures titled, “The Coming Global Christianity: Pietistic-Pentecostal Challenges and Opportunities.”

Murray W. Downey was a founding member of the faculty of the Canadian Bible College in 1941 and taught there for 31 years. An Academic Dean for six years, he was also Director of Christian Service for 30 years. In 1982, the Canadian Theological Seminary along with the Canadian Bible College established the Murray W. Downey Chair of Evangelism. The Downey Endowment and Scholarship Fund and Lectureship Series honours Mr. Downey’s service, passion, and commitment, and assists future M.Div. students.
From the Ambrose University page introducing the 2015 Downey Lectures.

In his first lecture, Yong introduced the issues at hand by defining his terms and then presented the challenges facing Pietistic-Pentecostalism. This stream of Christianity is “coming” in the sense that it is a present reality that has not yet arrived in its fullness, as seen in its continual growth. It is “global” in that it is affecting communities all over the world. Yong noted that some prefer the term “World Christianity” rather than “Global Christianity” because the former emphasizes not only the expanse of Christianity around the world (as the latter does) but also the diversity seen among the different Christianities. Pietistic-Pentecostalism is one of these expressions. While Pietism and Pentecostalism are not identical, they are related in many ways. In fact, a Pietistic form of Pentecostalism has emerged. The merging of strands from these two traditions into one unique expression of Christianity can be traced to the Azusa Street Revival in the twentieth century, where many of those involved in this Pentecostal movement came from Pietistic backgrounds. Thus, while not the same thing, these two traditions are organically interrelated and may be regarded as spiritual and historical cousins, perhaps even siblings.

After defining his terms, Yong identified two characteristics of Pietistic-Pentecostalism: first, its place within evangelicalism (in that it is committed to a born again experience, Christ-centered spirituality, a focus on the cross, and a commitment to evangelism a la David Bebbington’s definition) and, second, its emphasis on orthopathos (right feeling) and orthopraxis (right behavior). While it does not neglect orthodoxy (right thinking), it defines it differently—primarily in its necessary relation to both orthopathos and orthpraxis—rather than primarily in its relation to creeds and confessions. In order to illustrate this understanding of orthodoxy, orthopraxis, and orthopathos, Yong explained what a conversation between Pietistic-Pentecostals looks like. He said it is only after the two parties agree that they “love Jesus” that they would get into a discussion of other theological issues. None of the emerging theological issues, however, would ever be seen as being as important as the already established fact that they both love Jesus. While “loving Jesus” may need to be defined, this defining must not take precedence over the fact that love must be displayed in one’s actions. In fact, Yong proposed, this is exactly what theology is—a reflection on how one has experienced the risen Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not, primarily, abstract hypothesizing.