Book Contest: J.I. Packer Edition

Since last week’s little contests went over well, I thought I’d try another one. The style is similar—here we have a list of 21 quotes. Each of these quotes are endorsements for a book and each is written by J.I. Packer (quite the prolific reader and endorser!). As I am flying to Vancouver for a meeting tomorrow, it seemed to me that Packer would be an appropriate subject.

Your task is to send me a list of the titles and author(s) for each of these books. Send your list (partial or full if you can figure out all of them). Whoever gets the most right will win a $50 gift certificate for Westminster Books. Should two or more correctly identify all of the books, I will randomly select a winner from among them. Where the book’s author or title is explicitly mentioned in the endorsement, I have replaced them with [Author] or [Title].

Now I know that you can probably Google most or all of these—and that is not against the rules. By why not at least think about them first and see if you can figure them out. There is no advantage to being the first to submit your answers, so don’t feel you need to hurry. Just get your answers in before 12 PM Eastern tomorrow and I will announce a winner as soon as I can get to a computer and tally it all up.

Submit your answers here [2].

1. “The healthy biblical realism of this study in Christian motivation comes as a breath of fresh air. Jonathan Edwards, whose ghost walks through most of [Author]’s pages, would be delighted with his disciple.”

2. “This extended declaration and defence of the penal substitutionary view of Christ’s atoning death responds to a plethora of current criticisms, many of them in-house, with a thoroughness and effectiveness that is without parallel anywhere. The book’s existence shows that a British evangelical theology which exegetically, systematically, apologetically and pastorally can take on the world is in process of coming to birth. I hail this treatise as an epoch-making tour de force, and hopefully a sign of many more good things to come.”

3. “[Author]’s insight into human nature, divine grace, and Christian life yields a better blueprint for marriage than the self-absorbed rule-ridden role-play with which too many stop short. This is a wise and liberating book for struggling couples—and many others, too.”

4. “In this crowded world of Bible versions [Author]’s blend of accurate scholarship and vivid idiom make this rendering both distinctive and distinguished. [Title] catches the logical flow, personal energy, and imaginative overtones of the original very well indeed.”

5. “It is a privilege to commend so sensible, clear and fruitful an overview of basic Christian belief.”

6. “[Author]’s disarming introduction to personal faith is a modern classic. Long life to it!”

7. “Following in the footsteps of the late great Francis Schaeffer, two leading scholars here give wide-ranging guidance on how today we may show we are Christians by our love.”

8. “Brilliant [Author] is one of God’s best gifts to our decaying Western church, and would-be learners and teachers of the faith will gain hugely from these fascinating pages.”

9. “Clear, well informed, up to date, and firmly anchored in the mainstream of Christian wisdom. Oriented to the church, the Holy Spirit, and the future in a biblically proper way, this work transcends the rationalism and individualism that mar some of its predecessors…An outstanding achievement.”

10. “[Author] rises grandly to the challenge of the greatest of all themes. All the qualities that we expect of him—biblical precision, thoughtfulness and thoroughness, order and method, moral alertness and the measured tread, balanced judgment and practical passion—are here in fullest evidence. This, more than any book he has written, is his masterpiece.”

11. “[Author]’s offensive against Arminian-type views of election among evangelicals is a very solid piece of work. The thoroughness of its arguments gives it conclusive force.”

12. “Here is a modern reader’s edition of a classic Puritan work by a classic Puritan author. It is a powerful Trinitarian profiling from Scripture of the truth that fellowship with God is and must ever be the inside story of the real Christian’s life. The editing is excellent, and the twenty-seven-page introduction and the thirty-page analytical outline make the treatise accessible, even inviting, to any who, with Richard Baxter, see “heart-work” as the essence of Christianity. [Author] is a profound teacher on all aspects of spiritual life, and it is a joy to welcome this reappearance of one of his finest achievements.”

13. “Careful, thorough, wise, and to my mind, convincing.”

14. “Here is the quintessence of the gospel, the new wine of God’s kingdom at its purest for us today! Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest [title].”

15. “Thought is packed tight in this masterful survey of the covenantal frame of God’s self-disclosure in Scripture, and for serious students it is a winner.”

16. “This 25-year-old classic still makes one think, pray, get real with God, repent, and find joy in wise obedience more effectively than any other book I know. I cannot recommend it too highly.”

17. “[A] sober, encouraging book…The two sides of the author, the biblical scholar who reads, thinks, and misses no detail and the pastoral teacher who understands people, feels with them, and cares for them, combine here to give us a treatment of suffering under God’s sovereignty which is outstandingly accurate, wise, and helpful. All who follow the author’s fast-flowing argument will find their heads cleared and their hearts strengthened.”

18. “Honest historian [Author] informs us straightaway that he views the Christian story through the lenses of Protestant, Reformed, evangelical, baptistic, free-church spectacles. His telling of the tale, journalistic in style while scholarly in substance, then proves his point. You will find this book clarifying and invigorating.”

19. “[Author]’s exciting study…is a major step forward in the reappraisal of Puritanism…no student in the Puritan field can excuse themselves from reckoning with this important contribution.”

20. “I commend this eager and warm-hearted tour guide to the Book of Common Prayer with much enthusiasm …”

21. “This racy little book open up a far-reaching theme. With entertaining insight [Author] looks into the attitudes, alliances, and strategies that today’s state of affairs requires of believers. Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox alike need to ponder [Author]’s vision of things—preferably, in discussion together. What if he is right?”