Editing J. I. Packer (section)

== Life and career ==

Packer was born on 22 July 1926 in [[Twyning]], [[Gloucestershire]], England, to James and Dorothy Packer.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Dean|first=Jamie|title=Theologian and churchman J.I. Packer dies at age 93 |url=https://world.wng.org/2020/07/theologian_and_churchman_ji_packer_dies_at_age_93|access-date=18 July 2020|website=WORLD |language=en |date=July 17, 2020 |archive-date=20 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200720224745/https://world.wng.org/2020/07/theologian_and_churchman_ji_packer_dies_at_age_93|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web|last=Taylor|first=Justin|title=J. I. Packer (1926–2020)|url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/j-i-packer-1926-2020/ |date=July 17, 2020 |access-date=18 July 2020|website=The Gospel Coalition|language=en-US}}</ref> His sister, Margaret, was born in 1929.<ref name=":4" /> His father was a clerk for the [[Great Western Railway]], and his lower-middle-class family was only nominally [[Anglican]], attending the local St. Catherine's Church.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" /> 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.<ref name=":4" /> At 11 years of age, Packer was gifted an old [[Oliver Typewriter Company|Oliver typewriter]].<ref name=":4" /> He went on to cherish typewriters for the rest of his life.<ref name=":0" /> In 1937, Packer went to [[The Crypt School]], where he specialized in [[Classics|the classics]].<ref name=":4" /> At age 14 he was [[Confirmation|confirmed]] at St. Catherine's Church.<ref name=":4" />

He won a scholarship to the [[University of Oxford]], where he was educated at [[Corpus Christi College, Oxford|Corpus Christi College]], obtaining his [[bachelor of arts]] degree in 1948. In a 1944 meeting of the [[Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union]] (OICCU), Packer committed his life to Christian service.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /> 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.<ref name=":4" /> He also first heard lectures from [[C.&nbsp;S. Lewis]] at Oxford, whose teachings would (though he never knew Lewis personally) become a major influence in his life.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Leland Ryken|title=J. I. Packer, 'Knowing God' Author, Dies at 93 |date=July 17, 2020 |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/july/j-i-packer-died-evangelical-theologian-knowing-god.html|access-date=18 July 2020|website=ChristianityToday|language=en}}</ref>

After college, he spent a brief time teaching [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Latin]] at [[Oak Hill College]] in London.<ref name=":4" /> During this 1949–1950 school year, he sat under the teaching of [[Martyn Lloyd-Jones]] at [[Westminster Chapel]], who also would have a great influence on his thinking, and who he would know and interact with later.<ref name=":4" /> In 1949, Packer went back to [[Wycliffe Hall, Oxford]], in 1949 to study theology.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Remembering J.I. Packer|url=https://www.regent-college.edu/about-us/news/2020/remembering-ji-packer|access-date=18 July 2020|website=Regent College |date=July 17, 2020 |language=en}}</ref> He obtained his [[Master of philosophy]] degree in 1954, and [[Doctor of Philosophy]] in 1954.<ref name=":3" /> He wrote his dissertation under [[Geoffrey Nuttall]] on the [[soteriology]] of the Puritan theologian [[Richard Baxter]].<ref name=":3" /> He was [[ordained]] a [[deacon]] in 1952 and [[priest]] in 1953 in the [[Church of England]], within which he was associated with the [[Evangelical Anglicanism|evangelical movement]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> He served as assistant [[curate]] of [[Harborne|Harborne Heath]] in Birmingham from 1952 to 1954.<ref name=":4" /> In 1954, Packer married Kit Mullet, and they had three children, Ruth, Naomi, and Martin.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" />

In 1955, his family moved to [[Bristol]] and Packer taught at [[Tyndale Hall, Bristol]], from 1955 to 1961. He wrote an article denouncing [[Higher Life movement|Keswick theology]] as [[Pelagian]] in the ''[[Evangelical Quarterly]]''.<ref name=":4" /> According to biographer [[Alister McGrath]], it is widely agreed that his critique "marked the end of the dominance of the Keswick approach among younger evangelicals".<ref name=":4" /> 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.<ref name=":0" /> Packer moved back to Oxford in 1961, where he served as librarian of [[Latimer Trust#History|Latimer House]] in Oxford from 1961 to 1962 and warden from 1962 to 1969, an evangelical research centre he founded with [[John Stott]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> In 1970, he became principal of Tyndale Hall, Bristol, and from 1971 until 1979 he was associate principal of the newly formed [[Trinity College, Bristol]], which had been formed from the amalgamation of Tyndale Hall with Clifton College and Dalton House-St Michael's.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=A Tribute to John Alexander Motyer|url=http://www.trinitycollegebristol.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Motyer.pdf |website=Trinity College Bristol }}</ref> He became editor of the ''Evangelical Quarterly'' in the 1960s, and eventually published a series of articles he wrote in the journal into a book, ''[[Knowing God]]''.<ref name=":4" /> The book, published by [[Hodder & Stoughton]] in Britain and [[InterVarsity Press]] in the United States in 1973, became a bestseller of international fame and sold over 1.5&nbsp;million copies.<ref name=":4" /> In 1977, he signed the [[Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy]].<ref name=":0" />

In 1979, one of Packer's Oxford friends persuaded him to teach at [[Regent 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.<ref name=":3" /> At Regent he taught many classes, including [[systematic theology]] and the [[Puritans]].<ref name=":3" />

He was a prolific writer and frequent lecturer,<ref name=":2" /> and a frequent contributor to and an executive editor of ''[[Christianity Today]]''.<ref name=":0" /> Packer served as general editor of the [[English Standard Version]] (ESV), an evangelical translation based upon the [[Revised Standard Version]] of the Bible, and theological editor of the ''[[ESV Study Bible]]''.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=J. I. Packer|url=https://www.crossway.org/authors/j-i-packer/|access-date=18 July 2020|website=Crossway|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Stec|first=D|date=July 2004|title=Review: The Holy Bible: English Standard Version|journal=Vetus Testamentum|volume=54|pages=421}}</ref>

Packer was associated with [[St. John's Shaughnessy|St. John's Shaughnessy Anglican Church]], which in February 2008 voted to [[schism]] from the [[Anglican Church of Canada]] over the issue of [[blessing of same-sex unions in Christian churches|same-sex blessings]]. The departing church, [[St. John's Vancouver]], joined the [[Anglican Diocese of Canada|Anglican Network in Canada]] (ANiC).<ref>{{Cite journal |title= Anglican congregation votes to split over same-sex blessings | first =Chantal | last = Eustace| journal = The Vancouver Sun |url= http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=55cf38f7-b342-4f85-bb3e-c89057694be7&k=257450 |date= 14 February 2008 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080215083625/http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=55cf38f7-b342-4f85-bb3e-c89057694be7&k=25745 |archive-date= 15 February 2008 |df= dmy-all}}</ref> Packer, on 23 April, handed in his licence from the [[Anglican Bishop of New Westminster|Bishop of New Westminster]].<ref>{{Citation | publisher = Anglican | url = http://www.vancouver.anglican.ca/News/tabid/27/Mode/ViewArticle/ArticleId/666/ | title = Nine priests, two deacons, hand in their licences from the Bishop }}{{dead link|date=March 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> (ANiC eventually co-founded and joined the [[Anglican Church in North America]] in 2009.)<ref>{{Cite web|title=History|url=https://www.anglicannetwork.ca/history|access-date=18 July 2020|website=Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC)|language=en-US}}</ref> In December 2008, Packer was appointed an honorary clerical canon of [[St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney|St Andrew's Cathedral]] in [[Sydney]] in recognition of his long and distinguished ministry as a faithful teacher of [[biblical theology]].<ref>{{Citation | url = http://sydneyanglicans.net/news/stories/packer_and_short_honoured_by_archbishop/ | title = Packer and Short honoured by Archbishop | publisher = Sydney Anglicans}}.</ref>

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 basis ''Texts for Common Prayer'', released in 2013, and general editor of the task force who wrote for trial use ''To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism'', approved on 8 January 2014 by the College of Bishops of the church.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://anglicanchurch.net/?/main/texts_for_common_prayer|title= Texts for common prayer |website= Anglican Church in North America}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://anglicanchurch.net/?/main/catechism |title= Catechism |website= Anglican Church in North America}}</ref> He was awarded the St. Cuthbert's Cross at the Provincial Assembly of ACNA on 27 June 2014 by retiring Archbishop [[Robert Duncan (bishop)|Robert Duncan]] for his "unparalleled contribution to Anglican and global Christianity".<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.anglicanchurch.net/?/main/page/860 |title= Anglican Church in North America}}</ref>

In 2016, Packer's eyesight deteriorated due to [[macular degeneration]] to a point where he could no longer read or write, consequently concluding his public ministry.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{cite news | url=https://www.regent-college.edu/about-us/news/2020/remembering-ji-packer | title=Remembering J.I. Packer|date=17 July 2020 | access-date=17 July 2020}}</ref>

Packer died on 17 July 2020, five days before his 94th birthday.<ref name=":2" />