I became melancholic when I read the opening words of the postscript to John Stott’s newest (and last) book: “As I lay down my pen for the last time… at the age of eighty-eight…” (136). This from his “Farewell!” to The Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of Our Calling
. This book is his last.
I have to admit I can’t remember one I didn’t like and each has influenced me in different ways. His expositions as well as his book on preaching, and his singular ability to balance evangelicalism and social action.
What is your favorite John Stott book? I read one, not much more than a booklet, called Balanced Christianity
, when I was in college, that was life-shaping.
, when I was in college, that was life-shaping.
It’s appropriate to this saint’s life to end where it does: with a call to you and to me to be radical disciples.
In the book he probes a variety of neglected themes, and the themes surprise and remind of what was great about Stott’s books: biblical and balanced and absent of party lines. He called them as he saw them.
Themes: nonconformity (to pluralism, materialism, ethical relativism, narcissism), Christlikeness, maturity, creation care, simplicity, balance, dependence and death.
I’m going to keep it near my reading chair and just bob in and out over the next few months.
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