Reading the Next Classic Together (Honoring John Stott)

UPDATE: If you’d like to read along, Christian Audio has put the audio book on sale for just $2.98 until October 31. Use coupon code CH0811CC. Click here to order it [2].

Several years ago I began a program I called Reading Classics Together. The impetus for this project was the realization that, though many Christians have a genuine desire to read the classics of the faith, few of us have the motivation to actually do so. This has always been the case for me. This program allows us to read such classic works together, providing structure and accountability along with the added interest of comparing notes as we read in community.

Just last week we finished reading Gresham Machen’s Christianity & Liberalism. I was all set to announce the next classic today—the next classic Christian book to read together. I knew what I was going to propose, but I had a last-minute change of heart. As I received news of John Stott’s death yesterday, I thought that this might be the perfect time to read one of Stott’s best-known works, the one that most people consider his finest work.

I propose, then, that 3 weeks from today we begin reading The Cross of Christ. Here is a brief description of the book:

The work of a lifetime, from one of the world’s most influential thinkers, about the heart of the Christian faith.

“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross… . In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?”

With compelling honesty John Stott confronts this generation with the centrality of the cross in God’s redemption of the world- a world now haunted by the memories of Auschwitz, the pain of oppression and the specter of nuclear war. Can we see triumph in tragedy, victory in shame? Why should an object of Roman distaste and Jewish disgust be the emblem of our worship and the axiom of our faith? And what does it mean for us today?

Now from one of the foremost preachers and Christian leaders of our day comes theology at its readable best, a contemporary restatement of the meaning of the cross. At the cross Stott finds the majesty and love of God disclosed, the sin and bondage of the world exposed. More than a study of the atonement, this book brings Scripture into living dialogue with Christian theology and the twentieth century. What emerges is a pattern for Christian life and worship, hope and mission.

This is quite a large book, so we will need to read it over 13 weeks. But it is so theologically-rich and its subject so completely foundational to the Christian life that I believe it will prove a joy to read. 

The book comes very highly praised. J.I. Packer says, “This, more than any book he has written, is his masterpiece.” Michael Horton says, “As relevant today as when it first appeared, The Cross of Christ is more than a classic. It restates in our own time the heart of the Christian message” while D.A. Carson insists, “There are not many ‘must read’ books--books that belong on every minister’s shelf, and on the shelves of thoughtful laypersons who want a better grasp of what is central in Scripture--but this is one of them.”

So let’s read it together, beginning on August 18. If you would like to read it with us, simply find yourself a copy of the book and read chapter 1 (and the introduction, foreword, preface, etc.) prior to August 18. Then, on that date, drop by the site and there will be an article here that allows us to discuss that week’s reading. It’s that easy.

If you’d like to preview the book, you can do so at Google Books [3]. Also, if you visit Westminster Book’s product page [4], you can download the table of contents, the foreword and the first chapter.

Here are some places you can get yourself a copy. This is probably a good book to buy in hardcover and keep for a lifetime. However, CBD does have it available in paperback if you want to save some money.

• Amazon [5] ($17.16 Hardcover, $17.95 MP3 Audio)
• CBD Reformed [6] ($8.99 Softcover, $16.99 Hardcover, $16.98 MP3 Audio, $19.99 Audio CD)
• Westminster Books [4] ($16.90 Hardcover, $20.87 Audio CD)
• Christian Audio [2] ($2.98 MP3 Audio with coupon code CH0811CC)