J.I. Packer’s classic, Knowing God (InterVarsity Press), turned 40 this year. More than 1.5 million copies have been sold to date.

“Forty years after its publication in 1973, Knowing God continues to bless readers around the world,” wrote John G. Stackhouse Jr. “It continues to inspire authors, too, as it does what very few books have been able to do: present page after page of carefully nuanced Christian doctrine in a style that people actually enjoy reading.”

Knowing God brings together two important facets of the Christian faith—knowing about God and knowing God through the context of a close relationship with the person of Jesus Christ.

“Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord,” wrote Packer in Knowing God.

“Knowing God has stood the test of time—and will for generations to come,” said Jeff Crosby, InterVarsity Press associate publisher and director of sales and marketing.

In 2006, Christianity Today named Knowing God one of the top 50 books that have shaped evangelicals. In July 2000, Packer's classic won the Platinum Book Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishing Association (ECPA) in recognition of more than 1 million copies sold in North America alone. Knowing God has also been translated into more than a dozen languages.

“When I sent the manuscript of Knowing God to the publisher just over 20 years ago, I thought of it as a study book that could hardly be of general interest,” Packer wrote in the 20th anniversary edition of Knowing God. “I was wrong…it has become a nurture book for the Christian world. Other nurture books, including some of my own, have fallen by the wayside, but this one keeps going, and a steady flow of letters shows me it keeps on helping people. I am amazed, awed, humbled and constantly moved to thank God.”

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