Recommended Resource: Knowing God J.I. Packer’s
Written by Jonathan Bland, Content Specialist
Forty-six years old this year, J.I. Packer’s influential writing Knowing God has sold well over a million copies during its lifetime. A compilation of a series of magazine articles, Knowing God was written with the express purpose of deepening our understanding of God, so that we truly know Him and are known by Him. Packer writes in the Preface, “The conviction behind this book is that ignorance of God – ignorance both of his ways and of the practice of communion with him – lies at the root of much of the church’s weakness today.”1 He also argues that theological knowledge of God, that does not result in greater relationship and intimacy with the Father, has not served its purpose. Packer is a man who lived what he taught.
Knowing God’s chapters are short and approachable for the lay reader. It could be easily integrated into a classroom setting, a small group, a mentoring-discipleship relationship, or as devotional reading.
Full disclosure, J.I. Packer is a Reformed theologian. Though he is balanced in Knowing God, Wesleyan readers will want to read some sections of the book with their Bibles close by for further study, i.e. sections on sanctification.
Notes
- Packer, J.I. Knowing God. Intervarsity Press. Downers Grove, IL, 1993. P. 12.
