Dallas Willard (1935–2013)

Having been a Christian for almost 30 years, I can tell you that the one thing all Christians want most, and yet struggle with the most, is hearing God. As our world grows increasingly loud and we are bombarded with messages, lies mostly, it is nearly impossible to find the inner stillness and clarity of mind and heart required to know God’s will.
Willard’s work tells us how. And it is both easier and harder than one thinks. Easier, because it is open to all who want it. Harder, but it show more requires dedication, patience, and above all, an absolute sacrifice of all we are and want and have. In short, it requires a radical shift, a stepping out of the world and into the Kingdom of God.
Being that Willard is a professor of philosophy, his writing is more complex and verbose that your average Christian prose. But it is well worth any effort put forth for the truth and understanding, the life-changing knowledge that one can learn. His book is not for the faint of heart. It requires careful and thoughtful study.
Willard’s general premise is this: Hearing God comes from Knowing God. We know God the way we know anyone – through daily interactions, mostly, through study of the Bible. The more we know God, the more we will recognize His voice, however it reaches us – through the Bible, through preachers, teachers, authors, and friends, and through the still, small, voice of the Holy Spirit. This of course is something all Christians know intellectual, but most never put into daily practice.
I highly recommend Willard’s book for any Christian who wishes to have their life and relationship with God challenge. If you read this with an open heart and mind, you cannot fail to grow.
“Spiritual People are not those who engage in Spiritual Practices; they are those who draw their life from a conversational relationship with God.” (pg. 288) show less

Summary: How Christ is formed in us as our hearts are transformed and six aspects of human life are integrated under God.

When I was growing up, so much of the emphasis of my church’s preaching was on becoming a Christian. As a young believer, I wanted to know what it meant to be a Christian. I wanted my life to look more like Jesus but had no clue of how that transformation takes place. By trial and error, I developed habits of scripture reading and prayer, sharing in community and show more worship, witness and service. Only much later did I encounter Dallas Willard, both in his works and personally. Here was someone who thought and lived deeply into the practices through which Christ forms our lives.

Fast forward thirty years. Once again, the deep need of our churches is to see people formed in Christ. The questions raised are one’s Dallas Willard addresses in his books. That has led me to revisiting some of the books I read many years ago. I need a brush up!

One of those is Renovation of the Heart. In it, Willard focuses on our hearts, the center from which we live our lives. If our whole beings are to be changed, then change begins here. For Willard, this means opening our lives to the grace of God in an ordered way as apprentices of Jesus. In the case of humans, this has to do with six aspects that make us human–thought, feeling, choice, body, social context, and soul. When each of these “are effectively organized around God” we become increasingly like Christ. Willard addresses these one by one in chapters six to eleven.

But first he lays some essential groundwork. He begins by showing how the heart (or choice or spirit) is central in our lives and how it relates to the other five aspects. Willard then describes how deeply sin corrupts “the ruined soul” and how the kingdom of God radically restores “sin-sick souls.” He then sets forth the process of spiritual change in each of the six aspects using the acronym VIM. This stands for Vision, Intention, and Means.

After applying this process to the six aspects of human beings, Willard discusses how we live this out in the world in two chapters. The final chapter, on “Spiritual Formation in the Local Congregation” should be essential reading for church leaders. The focus is Matthew 28:18-20. Firstly, make disciples or apprentices to Jesus. Being a Christian is nothing other than being a disciple. Secondly, immerse apprentices at all levels of growth in the presence of the triune God. Finally, transform disciples inwardly, so that the words and deeds of Jesus are the natural outcome.

This is a book in which to soak deeply. The questions at the end of each chapter help with that. This book is chock-full of insights into human nature and spiritual transformation that are substantive and enduring. Just as wise investment counselors teach people to get rich slowly, in a disciplined fashion, so Willard instructs us. Transformation doesn’t happen in a healthy and abiding way unless one engages all six aspects. The vision is for transformation of every aspect of who we are. Furthermore, this is so crucial for churches that center only on buildings, butts, and budgets. Then we wonder why people are so easily to co-opt. True apprentices to Jesus are not. They recognize how conflicting loyalties are dis-integrating. This book will challenge the spiritual diet of your church, if not your own life. show less

Hitting a lag in my reading this year, I finished this one quite a bit later than I started and unfortunately have little to say for the earlier chapters. Willard does so expertly lay out a case for the disciplines as the embodiment of our faith, without which it's hard to imagine faith being faith at all. His closing chapter is brilliant, directly marrying the disciplines to the consummate Kingdom of Christ's reign, which I believe he does very convincingly. I have never heard anyone refer show more to the government of the judges as a model for the government of Christ's kingdom, but Willard truly laid out a wonderful case for the concept. I felt the book as a whole was solid, insightful, and motivating, though it is certainly thick. Even though the author is rarely too intellectual to be understood, his words are heady and weighty, and no reader should think to move through this book quickly. It deserves some time for processing and thoughtful consideration. show less

Summary: Why the knowledge of Christ is real knowledge of true things on which one may base one’s life and confidently speak.

I’ve encountered it. Statements like “God exists,” Christ died to save us,” Christ is risen” and many others are treated quite differently from E=MC2. We treat the former as opinions or sentiments whereas we treat the latter as a statement of fact. We relegate the former to the category of “faith” whereas the latter is “knowledge.”

In this book show more Dallas Willard argues to the contrary, that Christian belief is equally a form of knowledge, accurately representing reality, based upon evidence. We may act upon this knowledge. Faith is not “blind” but acting upon the known. Not only that, Willard goes on to argue that this is indispensable knowledge, without which we perish into some form of idolatry, as Willard points out in contrasting other worldviews to Christian belief. Furthermore, Willard goes on to argue that the rejection of Christian knowledge has been accompanied by the disappearance of moral knowledge

But how does Willard make the case for Christian belief as true knowledge? In chapter four, he puts forth a form of the cosmological argument for the existence of a creator. He then puts forth a case for God’s activity in the world, including his active intervention in miracles culminating in the resurrection of Jesus.

But how does one live out the knowledge of Christ? Chapter 6 pulls together strands from other works on entering the kingdom with humble obedience and the practice of spiritual disciplines in community. The concluding chapter 8 discusses the role of preachers, calling them to base their preaching upon this knowledge.

However, Christians have often come off as arrogant know-it-alls? How is the assertion of Christian faith as true knowledge to avoid this in a religiously pluralistic world? First of all, he asks whether believing oneself right about something and others wrong is inherently arrogant? Or is it possible to be humble and loving about our disagreements? Then he recognizes the value of a “weak” pluralism that affirms the good wherever we find it. Yet no true believer would say it makes no difference what one believes. However, there is the troubling question of the fate of those who never hear the gospel. While affirming that salvation is always by grace and through Christ, he joins Billy Graham in affirming that these are decisions only God will make.

This work is important for Christians who feel faith is relegated to the personal and private. It helps them understand both how this has come about and why its wrong. Without extensive excursions into epistemology or apologetics, it outlines why Christian belief is real knowledge. However this reveals a shortcoming of the work. It makes arguments without dealing with why many have challenged them. But that would require a much longer book. That said, this work helps restore a humble confidence in believing and proclaiming Christ. show less