The Doctrine of Humankind
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 63, No. 2 – Spring 2021
Editor: David S. Dockery
By John Stott. Lexham Press, 2020, 280pp., $24.99
John Stott was one of those rare individuals who is valued within all segments of the evangelical world. He was known for his keen intellect, his strong text rendering in his sermons, and for his wealth of insights into common everyday issues the world was facing. His “double-listening” idea was sometimes mistaken for equating worldly ideas with the Scripture, but that is a complete misnomer. His ministry as rector of All Souls Langham Place, was one of effectiveness and accompanying integrity.
This book, Preacher’s Notebook, is an anthology of years of disciplined research and accompanying note taking that is voluminous in its depth. This is a compilation of those notes most impacting in his own ministry and which he saw as rich insights from that “double listening” concept he held. Those notes closely tied to his ministry at All Souls were removed from this compilation so that the book would be applicable to anyone, regardless of their situation in ministry.
The book is summarized into four categories: God and Gospel, Church and Christian, World and Worldviews, and a last section on Prayers. Inside each of these categories are numerous sub-categories that make looking up an idea or illustration for a message extremely helpful. This is a work more for reference than light reading. It would not be a preaching textbook per se, but as an appendix, it is very helpful.
There are unique aspects to it. It covers men such as Calvin, the great leader in the Reformation, to Jim Baker, the tawdry hypocrite who spent prison time for cheating Christians, to Harry Ironside, who pastored Moody Church in Chicago from 1929–1948. Any man who touched the church in any way, good or bad, could be an illustration for the cause of Christ. It evidences Stott’s dry wit. He quotes a lay member of the London Diocesan Synod in 1972 regarding their dismay over the theological arguments hindering Anglican and Methodist unity: “if all the theologians in the world were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion” (p. 18).
There are a number of historical synopses that are quite good. He lists five things that made the world ready for Christ’s coming: Pax Romana, Roman unity, Roman roads, Greek culture conquering the Roman nation that conquered Greece, and then he lists a number of men and their clamoring for spiritual realities (p. 68).
He approached Scripture with integrity, while at the same time treating science as something not to be demeaned. He illustrates this with Michael Faraday. He lauds a lecture where Faraday received thunderous applause, and yet when all looked in Faraday’s direction he was gone. He had left so as to be on time for a prayer meeting at a small church he attended. It was “under the cover of cheering, he slipped out” (p.58).
Some of his notes are most poignant. He quotes the great Charles Simeon as he is dying. “If I am admitted, as I hope to be, to heaven, then if there be one that will sing louder than the rest, I think I shall be that one. But while I am here I am a sinner—a redeemed sinner; that is my style; and as such I would lie here to the last, at the foot of the cross, looking unto Jesus, and go as such into the presence of my God.”13
One last illustration, that for me was interesting, was C.S Lewis’s advice on writing to a young girl’s question. Not all will be quoted here, but it was fascinating to hear him tell her to stay away from magazines and only read books. Turn off the radio and if you quit on some work, not to throw it away but to file it away. He asserted that some of his best work was a result of the filing and not the discarding.14
It must be remembered that these illustrations, quotes, poems, etc., are all things with which Stott saw value. He was an avid bird watcher and there are a large number of odd facts about birds that I doubt anyone but he, or another bird watcher, would find to be beneficial. For example, he mentions the raptor migration in Israel, but with no apparent purpose or allusion to anything spiritual (p. 19). This is why the categories and sub-categories are so beneficial, as they allow readers to skip over those things with which they have no interest.
This is a great reference book for those seeking unique anecdotes from various areas of life, as catalogued by a man whom so many respect in so many ways.
