John Stott at 100
I’ve got a confession to make: before I joined IVP I’d only read one John Stott book, his classic The Cross of Christ, which I picked up on a Christian Union bookstall as a student. I didn’t know how much I was missing!
The Cross of Christ, now reissued by IVP with a foreword by Alistair McGrath in an accessible paperback format, lays out in wonderful biblical detail why Jesus had to die on the cross and what that means for us now. But for whatever reason, as a younger evangelical from an independent church background rather than Stott’s own Anglican context, it didn’t occur to me to explore his wider writings. He was there in the background as someone I knew was considered ‘sound’, but I had yet to appreciate the breadth and depth of his teaching.
Working at IVP gave me the push I needed to dig into his writings more deeply. But I suspect I’m not the only one of my generation and younger in a similar position. The Stott 100 celebrations aim to change that.
Who was John Stott?
John Stott was born 27 April 1921, in London, and passed away ninety years later in 2011. He served for many years at All Souls Church, Langham Place. He emphasised the importance of ‘double listening’ with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other (though today he would probably use a smartphone instead!), as seen in his classic The Contemporary Christian.
He helped found many organisations that continue today, including the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity (LICC) and Langham Partnership. Many of the organisations and publishers that are linked to him have come together this year to celebrate his life, including IVP UK, IVP USA, Eerdmans and Faithlife. He had a global vision, speaking all over the world, and recognised the need both to support and to listen to fellow believers in the Majority World.
Today, John Stott is often described as an elder statesman of the evangelical church, ‘Uncle John’, making him sound safe and cosy. But one of the hallmarks of Stott’s teaching was his radical commitment to the Bible and to following through on the consequences of what God tells us. He was bold and far-sighted, with continuing relevance today.
The Radical Stott
As well as being crystal-clear on evangelical distinctives such as the authority and truthfulness of the Bible, Stott saw the difference this made for all of life. His argument for ‘double listening’ was against the background of some evangelicals who would see engaging with the world as an unnecessary distraction from the pure preaching of the Gospel – but Stott saw no such disconnect.
In The Radical Disciple, he recognised climate change as a looming crisis, and identified creation care and simple living as two key marks of Christian discipleship. His holistic vision carried over into his support for Tearfund and A Rocha, and his establishment of LICC to engage Christians with contemporary life, especially in the workplace.
Stott the Controversialist
Stott wasn’t afraid to challenge evangelical orthodoxies where he thought the Bible allowed for other views. Controversially, he made an evangelical case for annihilationism, arguing that those who reject God are annihilated rather than condemned to eternal conscious torment in hell.
Other controversial topics were approached with clarity and nuance. In The Cross of Christ he defended the necessity of the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement – that Jesus died to take the punishment for our sins – distinguishing it from caricatures and oversimplifications such as ‘God punishing Jesus’, understood apart from Christ’s self-sacrifice and our union with Christ as our representative.
Stott 100
To mark the centenary, IVP is publishing a set of new John Stott editions to keep his books attractive, including his classics Basic Christianity, The Living Church, and The Radical Disciple.
We have also released new editions of The Cross of Christ, Evangelical Truth, Calling Christian Leaders, Why I Am A Christian and ‘But I Say to You …’.
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