Book Review: Proclaiming Christ in a Pluralistic Age

Proclaiming Christ in a Pluralistic Age: The 1979 Lectures, J.I. Packer, Crossway 2024.

The latest book from the Rev. Dr. J.I. Packer was published posthumously, but derives from lectures originally delivered in 1978. The lectures were first delivered at Reformed Bible College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and were refined at a later lecture series at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia. The content of several lectures was republished via YouTube and later collected and edited for this book.

The book is short and extremely readable at a total of 132 pages, not counting the 25-page Publisher’s Preface. The lectures are broken up into five chapters, as follows:

1. We’ve a Story to Tell: We Preach Christ Crucified

2. The Man Christ Jesus: The Humanity of Jesus Christ

3. He Emptied Himself: The Divinity of Jesus Christ

4. A Wonderful Exchange: The Work of Jesus Christ

5. No Other Name: The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ

6. 
   

Despite the lectures being nearly fifty years old, the content remains as relevant as ever, if not moreso. Packer, in his classic wit and voice (which permeate the pages) anchors his lecture series on Christ crucified – the Gospel. Within this lens, Packer addresses the major objections and controversies from without the church, within the church, and the cultural zeitgeist. Packer’s ability to succinctly explain opponents of the Gospel and then dismantle their arguments is well worth the admission price of $24.99 (currently $19.97 on Amazon).

Packer addresses topics ranging from the nature of the Gospel, Christ as the only way to salvation, and the reliability of Scripture’s testimony as evidence that Jesus is a historical person. Each lecture builds upon itself to demonstrate the unique divinity of Jesus as God the Son and overturning the tickling teaching of kenosis theory as opposed to orthodox trinitarianism and the necessity of Christ as sacrifice to satisfy our sins. Packer does wonderful justice to the multifaceted theories of atonement, noting they all are necessary to understand Christ crucified, but he does not hold his punches that penal satisfaction is key to understanding the Gospel. This will raise the objections of modernists and post-modernists alike, but Packer disarms the contemporary strawman of painting penal satisfaction as “divine child abuse.”

Packer concludes his lectures battling universalism with the reality of eternal judgment and bookends his work as a call for the reader to proclaim the Gospel: Christ crucified. This book should be used in youth groups and adult Sunday School alike, becoming a standard gift for graduates and college Christians who encounter the same old objections, but are unaware of the well-thought-out answers that Packer provides. This work not only serves an educational and apologetic purpose, but the Publisher’s Preface is enlightening for the new Packer reader as to his background, his life, and his devotion to the Gospel. May we all pick up what this saint left us, the rock upon which we must be built: Christ crucified.

This book was provided to me for free by Crossway for purposes of review. It was provided without any contingency for my personal review and without any guarantee as to the substance of my review. My opinions are solely of my own and not based on being provided a review copy.