More on Dallas Willard

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TSO commented about Dallas Willard and I hadn't thought about it, but I suppose because he doesn't do televangelism, he may be one of the lesser known names in protestant Philosophy and Theology. I can say that with Cornelius Plantinga (whose relative runs the CCEL site), Richard Foster, Charles Colson, and a few others, Dallas Willard has given me tremendous and powerful insights into the spiritual life. What he writes is profound, insightful, and beautiful. If acted upon it can be life-changing in a substantive Christian way.

For those who wish to see more of his work, this link will take you to an array of his articles.
Truncate it to visit his main site.

It appears that he has an article in a book coming out about Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ:

Jesus fully understood the limitations of what could be accomplished by power as understood among human beings. In fact, he had gone through all that with Satan in his famous "temptations"—to food, fame and governmental power—at the opening of his public life. (Matthew 4:3-11) When he now approached his "passion" there were no new issues for him to face. The "ruler of this world was coming upon him," as Jesus then told his closest friends (John 14:30), "but there is nothing in me for him to get a hold of." And that was the reality of the struggle in the Garden. Gibson's film does much to recapture the understanding of the early Church on this point. The Garden was Satan's last chance to keep him from the cross and to foil the execution of The Divine Plan for shutting down the kingdom of evil.

Unless you're just allergic to all protestant writing (I know that Erik, for one, is sneezing up a storm) Dallas Willard is one of several modern writers worthy of your time. I think of him and of Richard Foster in the "C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity Mode." Much of their writing is not about what is different between us, but what unites us all on our Christian Mission.

If you all are aware of others that I should add to my repetoire (this is for you Neil) please don't hesitate to suggest them in the comments box.

P.S. Here's an interesting interview of Dallas Willard by the remarkable contemporary Christian Poet Luci Shaw. Worth your attention.

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1 Comments

Dear Steven,

Unfortunately, my mind right now is occupied with the new semester, but I can note that the Christian Century last year reported on an interesting telephone survey conducted by the Duke University Pulpit & Pew Project that asked a random sample of Catholic and Protestant clergy, "Other than the Bible what three authors do you read most often in your work as a pastor?" After supplementing the Pulpit & Pew results with a mail survey, the Christian Century listed the top twelve authors named by Catholic, mainline Protestant, and conservative Protestant clergy:

Catholics

Henri J. M. Nouwen
John Paul II
Raymond Brown
William J. Bausch
Walter J. Burghardt
Scott Hahn
Anthony de Mello
William Barclay
Richard P. McBrien
Karl Rahner
C. S. Lewis
Mark Link

Mainline Protestants

Henri J. M. Nouwen
William Willimon
Frederick Buechner
Max Lucado
Eugene Peterson
C. S. Lewis
Marcus Borg
John C. Maxwell
Lyle E. Schaller
Philip Yancey
Walter Brueggemann
Barbara Brown Taylor

Conservative Protestants

Max Lucado
John C. Maxwell
Charles Swindoll
John MacArthur
Warren Wiersbe
Philip Yancey
Rick Warren
C. S. Lewis
Matthew Henry
Charles Spurgeon
T.D. Jakes
Eugene Peterson

Obviously, I do not mean to recommend every name on this list. But these might be places to start.

Thanks.

Neil

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This page contains a single entry by Steven Riddle published on August 24, 2004 7:08 AM.

Prayer and Praise--24 August 2004--Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle to India was the previous entry in this blog.

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