{"id":4846,"date":"2009-05-15T00:24:39","date_gmt":"2009-05-15T00:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/05\/dallas-willards-newest.html"},"modified":"2009-05-15T00:24:39","modified_gmt":"2009-05-15T00:24:39","slug":"dallas-willards-newest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/05\/dallas-willards-newest.html","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Willard’s Newest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Willard.jpg\"<\/span>It is hard to estimate the significance and impact of Dallas Willard in the church today. It is also hard to describe his newest book: Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

This is a good book, and one that puts together many of Willard’s ideas and proposals. The unifying theme of the book is that “knowledge” of Christ can be claimed as a genuine, intellectual, and responsible form of knowing in our world. That theme, however, takes on different forms in this book and different styles of presentation.<\/p>\n

To begin with, Willard openly complains about how “knowledge” and the pursuit of truth and acquiring wisdom have dropped from the agenda in universities and therefore in society. He’s right and I like this point very much. He makes the point that too many argue that, and Christians succumb to, the idea that Christianity is “faith” but not “knowledge.”<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

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\nChps 4-5 are, in my estimation, the best parts of the book and are brilliantly written: it is an apologetic for belief in a personal God, a God with will and intellect, as the One who is behind the physical world. Something non-physical, vast, personal, etc, was behind the physical world and sustains that physical world. This alone can explain the reality of miracles and the resurrection of Christ.<\/p>\n

The third part of the book, which shifts slightly in style to less philosophical argument and more to Christian exposition, concerns knowledge of Christ in the spiritual life — and here he enters into what for many of us is the classical style of Willard’s form of a more mystically-shaped Christian life. The seventh chp enters into a spirited but reasonable form of Christian inclusivism, which he calls Christian pluralism where final redemption is ultimately shaped by whether or not a person — Christian religion or not — has a heart that is properly oriented toward God.<\/p>\n

Finally, he has a chp in which he expands the meaning of “pastor” and argues that it is pastors who have the responsibility of making this “knowledge of Christ” known today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is hard to estimate the significance and impact of Dallas Willard in the church today. It is also hard to describe his newest book: Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge . This is a good book, and one that puts together many of Willard’s ideas and proposals. The unifying theme of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nDallas Willard's Newest - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/05\/dallas-willards-newest.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dallas Willard's Newest - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is hard to estimate the significance and impact of Dallas Willard in the church today. 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