David Wells is like a living juxtaposition, at ease in the African bush or at John Stott’s table or in any American seminary. He can remain perfectly still before a lion or herd of wild buffalo, challenge Os Guinness in a theological debate, and see right through American culture.

His story is fascinating, from his reluctance as a radical student activist to convert to Christianity because “it seemed . . . to be a bit radical” to accepting Stott’s spur-of-the-moment invitation to live in his rectory.

“Growing up in apartheid in Africa, and then coming to Christ and being discipled by Stott in London—it’s like God gave him a whole set of experiences and backgrounds that would cause him to be particularly thoughtful about, and rightfully suspicious of, culture,” his former student Michael Lawrence told me.

Wells’s book No Place for Truth set the stage for the resurgence of Reformed theology in American evangelicalism. It has been a gift, even to those who haven’t read it, by helping churches to refocus on the weightiness and glory of God.

It was an honor—and a lot of fun—to tell his story.