In the same year proposals for uniting the Church of England and the Methodist Church were also given a hostile reception on the grounds that the scheme, if implemented, would stifle the evangelical witness.īetween these battles Latimer House, now the movement’s leading think-tank, produced solid books and monographs on various aspects of evangelical conviction, and Packer also played a key role in the organisation of a National Conference of Evangelicals held at Keele University in 1967. This proved to be another turning point in his Christian life, and his increasing interest in the Puritan theologians enabled him later to revive interest in their work. Having taken a First in Mods, Packer narrowly missed the same in Greats, but during his final years as an undergraduate became immersed in the writings of John Owen, a 17th century Puritan divine. Thereafter he was much involved in the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, attended the Sunday meetings of the Plymouth Brethren, and also played the clarinet in a jazz band – until persuaded to give it up by the Brethren. Soon after going up he had an evangelical conversion experience while attending a Sunday evening service in St Aldate’s Church. The after-effects of the accident also caused him to speak rather slowly and deliberately, and may have been the reason for his shyness and somewhat introverted character.Īt the local grammar school a master introduced him to the religious writings of C S Lewis, which aroused his interest in the Christian faith, and, since he was unfit for military service, he went to Oxford in 1944 as a scholar of Corpus Christi College to read Classics. This led to what was to become a lifelong interest in books and writing. At the age of only seven he was involved in a road accident that caused serious head injuries and required six months’ absence from school. James Innell (Jim) Packer, the son of a railway clerk, was born in Gloucester on July 22 1926. So he went to Canada, where from 1979 to 1996 he was Professor of Theology at Regent College, Vancouver.
After serving as first Warden of Latimer House, Oxford (a theological research centre), from 1961 to 1970 and as a theological college principal in Bristol from 1970 to 1979, it became apparent that his uncompromising stance on these and some other issues stood in the way of his appointment to a university chair or senior Church post in Britain.
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