Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Stott for Pope

Written by Matthew Lee Anderson | Nov 30, 2004 6:49:43 PM

David Brooks' latest editorial heralds John Stott as an "authentic representative" of evangelicals. It's a good piece that makes Stott sound like his English predecessor Chesterton:

"He is always exploring paradoxes. Jesus teaches humility, so why does he talk about himself so much? What does it mean to gain power through weakness, or freedom through obedience? In many cases the truth is not found in the middle of apparent opposites, but on both extremes simultaneously."

I worshipped next to Stott when he visited Oxford's St. Aldate's Anglican Church. I watched and listened and was thoroughly impressed when he remembered a fan from a few years prior. He struck me as everything Brooks commends him to be: "humble and self-critical, but also confident, joyful and optimistic."