I went out for lunch with JIP today! After our morning class we had a Communion Service as usual on Fridays at noon. Then, a whole bunch of us went out for lunch, and lo and behold, Packer was one of them. Even better, I got to sit beside him. Here are three interesting things that happened during our time with him:
1- On our way to the restaurant, I was walking with a friend, while Dr. Packer was walking ahead of us on his own. He slowed down, turned around, and saw us walking together, and then said: "May I walk with you two? I'm dressed as a clergyman, and everyone is looking at me funny."
2- At the lunch table, he turned over to me and said: "Now this is really embarrasing for me, but I admit that I don't know your name. Would you mind giving it to me?" He was genuinely embarrassed that he didn't know my name. I told him what it was, and that I was in one of his classes. He knew that already, but admitted he has a terrible memory. We had a nice conversation afterwards.
3- Finally, another professor who was also present, asked him a philosophical/theological question, upon which Dr. Packer embarked on an in-depth, 20 minute answer. The question was essentially: "Do you think the church was right in dropping realism in favour of nominalism during the time of the enlightenment?" I won't get into details about his response, but I will just say that I was astonished at the amount of wisdom this man has. He summarized 2,000 years of philosophical thought in the matter of 15 minutes, applied it theologically, brought in Scripture, and underlined its significance for us today. Amazing...
No comments:
Post a Comment