Category Archives: Dallas Willard

In the first 3 chapters of The Divine Conspiracy Willard frames the need for someone to help us to learn “the inverted life,” to embrace the life that God has for his creation. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) provides access to Jesus’ thoughts on the kingdom and how one might seek first theContinue reading “Willard and the Sermon on the Mount”

In The Divine Conspiracy Willard finds that it is important to know what Jesus thought of the world if we intend to discover what his words about the world, God, salvation, and the divine life mean. In short, Jesus found God to be a joyous and good being, the world is a place where weContinue reading “Willard and Heaven and Earth”

I’m tracing an important theme of Willard’s in The Divine Conspiracy, The Gospel of Sin Management. My previous post laid down some initial thoughts. Willard suggests that there is a “gospel gap” among those generally on the “right” and the “left.” These battle lines have been drawn since the first 2 decades of the 20thContinue reading “Gospel of Sin Management 2”

In The Divine Conspiracy, Willard takes to task popular ideas of salvation and gospel with the theme of “The Gospel of Sin Management.” I will take the next few posts to outline the contours of this classic Willard idea. He notes the popular bumper sticker, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.” This bumper sticker philosophy (andContinue reading “Gospel of Sin Management”

In The Divine Conspiracy, Willard takes some time to share about the idea of Kingdom. The Kingdom of God (Heaven) is a central thought in Jesus’ teachings, mentioned over 100 times in the synoptic gospels. Willard rightly gives space to insist on what he finds Jesus to mean when he uses the category of Kingdom.Continue reading “Willard and Kingdom”

I’ve been re-reading Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy. You can keep up on other posts as I do by clicking the “Dallas Willard” Category link on the blog. The opening chapter of TDC outlines the plight that Willard claims that we have as humans in this current historical moment. Willard takes great lengths to outline whatContinue reading “Jesus, according to Dallas Willard”

In the Divine Conspiracy, Willard gives a broad overview of his book in his introduction. “This third book, then, presents discipleship to Jesus as the very heart of the gospel. The really good news for humanity is that Jesus is now taking students in the master class of life. The eternal life that begins withContinue reading “Willard and Good News”

One of my heroes passed away earlier this year. I found Dallas Willard to be one of the most insightful Christian thinkers in recent days. Willard will be remembered as one who contributed much to the discussion of the Christian life. I was fortunate to meet Dallas and to share a 10 minute conversation with him.Continue reading “Re-reading Dallas Willard”