Stott has had considerable influence in evangelicalism. In a November 2004 editorial on Stott, the
New York Times columnist
David Brooks cited
Michael Cromartie of the
Ethics and Public Policy Center as saying that "if evangelicals could elect a pope, Stott is the person they would likely choose".
Writing He wrote over 50 books, some of which appear only in Chinese, Korean, or Spanish, as well as many articles and papers. One of these is
Basic Christianity, a book which seeks to explain the message of Christianity, and convince its readers of its truth and importance. ''The Preacher's Portrait: Some New Testament Word Studies'', published in 1961, it was an important reference for clergy. He was also the author of
The Cross of Christ (), of which
J. I. Packer stated, "No other treatment of this supreme subject says so much so truly and so well." Other books he wrote include
Essentials: A Liberal–Evangelical Dialogue, a dialogue with the liberal cleric and theologian
David L. Edwards, over whether what evangelicals hold as essential should be seen as such. In 2005, he produced
Evangelical Truth, which summarises what he perceives as being the central claims of Christianity, essential for evangelicalism. Upon his formal retirement from public engagements, he continued to engage in regular writing until his death. In 2008, he produced
The Anglican Evangelical Doctrine of Infant Baptism with
J. Alec Motyer. An introduction to his thought can be found in his two final substantial publications, which act as a summation of his thinking. Both were published by the publishing house with which he had a lifelong association,
IVP. • In 2007, his reflections on the life of the church:
The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor. • In January 2010, at the age of 88, he saw the launch of what would be his final book:
The Radical Disciple. It concludes with a poignant farewell and appeal for his legacy to be continued through the work of the Langham Partnership International.
Anglican evangelicalism Stott's
churchmanship fell within the
conservative evangelical wing of the Church of England. He played a key role as a leader of evangelicalism within the Church of England, and was regarded as instrumental in persuading evangelicals to play an active role in the Church of England rather than leaving for exclusively evangelical denominations. There were two major events where he played a key role in this regard. He was chairing the National Assembly of Evangelicals in 1966, a convention organised by the
Evangelical Alliance, when
Martyn Lloyd-Jones made an unexpected call for evangelicals to unite as evangelicals and no longer stay within their "mixed" denominations. This view was motivated by a belief that true Christian fellowship requires evangelical views on central topics such as the atonement and the inspiration of Scripture. Lloyd-Jones was a key figure to many in the
free churches, and evangelical Anglicans regarded Stott similarly. The two leaders publicly disagreed, as Stott, though not scheduled as a speaker that evening, used his role as chairman to refute Lloyd-Jones, saying that his opinion went against history and the Bible. The following year saw the first
National Evangelical Anglican Congress, which was held at
Keele University. At this conference, largely due to Stott's influence, evangelical Anglicans committed themselves to full participation in the Church of England, rejecting the separationist approach proposed by Lloyd-Jones. These two conferences effectively fixed the direction of a large part of the British evangelical community. Although there is an ongoing debate as to the exact nature of Lloyd-Jones's views, they undoubtedly caused the two groupings to adopt diametrically opposed positions. These positions, and the resulting split, continue largely unchanged to this day.
Honours Stott was appointed a
Chaplain to
Queen Elizabeth II in 1959 and, on his retirement in 1991, an Extra Chaplain. He was appointed a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the
New Year Honours 2006. He received a
Lambeth Doctorate of Divinity in 1983, Stott said that: "the ultimate annihilation of the wicked should at least be accepted as a legitimate, biblically founded alternative to their eternal conscious torment." This led to a heated debate within mainstream evangelical Christianity: some writers criticised Stott in very strong terms while others supported his views.
Anti-Zionism Stott stated his firm opposition to
Zionism: "
Political Zionism and
Christian Zionism are anathema to Christian faith ... The true Israel today is neither Jews nor Israelis, but believers in the Messiah, even if they are Gentiles ..." ==Personal life==