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Dallas Willard Suggested by Many Pastors (blog)
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For more Related Articles, click here
The
Chrysostom Society
Who Belongs to it?
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Philip
Yancey, Madeleine L'Engle, Walt Wangerin, Eugene Peterson, Richard
Foster
*The
Chrysostom Society is a limited group of writers who have formed
an association. The group was started by Richard Foster.
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Dallas
Willard
—Promoting Contemplative Prayer
and Mysticism Through Spiritual Formation |
An interesting interview with John Ortberg and Dallas Willard:
“Tough Questions” with Dallas Willard . . . and His Contemplative Propensities
Dallas Willard: Bible Study and prayer not as important to the Christian life as silence and solitude:
"Indeed, solitude and silence are powerful means to grace. Bible study, prayer and church attendance, among the most commonly prescribed activities in Christian circles, generally have little effect for soul transformation, as is obvious to any observer. If all the people doing them were transformed to health and righteousness by it, the world would be vastly changed. Their failure to bring about the change is precisely because the body and soul are so exhausted, fragmented and conflicted that the prescribed activities cannot be appropriately engaged, and by and large degenerate into legalistic and ineffectual rituals. Lengthy solitude and silence, including rest, can make them very powerful." (Dallas Willard, "Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation and the Restoration of the Soul," Journal of Psychology and Theology, Spring 1998, Vol. 26, #1, pp. 101-109. Also available in The Great Omission, San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2006
Dallas Willard Participating
in the
Ancient Wisdom
Conference
"WAY"
of Jesus or Jesus as "THE WAY"
David Sheldon Discusses the
Ancient Wisdom Conference
"The conference page purports that
"Two thousand years ago, Christian spirituality was new to the
world. This was a time before churches as we know them." In other
words, this conference is returning us to our ancient "spiritual"
roots. (These roots, as articulated, are really mysticism and not
truly Christian.)" Read
more...
Dallas
Willard is a proponent of contemplative spirituality. Here are a few
facts to show this:
2.
Willard has written the foreword to Ruth
Haley Barton's book, Invitation
to Solitude and Silence.
3.
Willard recommends several contemplative authors including Richard
Foster, Henri Nouwen, Jan Johnson, and Evelyn Underhill.
4.
See connections, endorsements chart below.
Dallas
Willard Gives Advice to Someone Who Rejects the Gospel |
The following is an excerpt of an article written by Dallas Willard, in which he hypothetically responds to a college girl who was raised a Christian but has now rejected the Christian faith and believes all paths lead to God ...
"What
Paul is clearly saying is that if anyone is worthy of being
saved, they will be saved. At that point many Christians get
very anxious, saying that absolutely no one is worthy of being
saved. The implication of that is that a person can be almost
totally good, but miss the message about Jesus, and be sent
to hell. What kind of a God would do that? I am not going
to stand in the way of anyone whom God wants to save. I am
not going to say "he can't save them." I am happy for God
to save anyone he wants in any way he can. It is possible
for someone who does not know Jesus to be saved."—Dallas
Willard, Apologetics in Action
LTRP Note: Some have expressed concern that Lighthouse Trails has not posted the statement Dallas Willard made after the above statement, in which he says that anyone who is going to be saved is going to be saved by Jesus. While we do provide a link so people can read his entire article, we believe Willard has been very misleading in saying that it is possible for someone who does not know Jesus to be saved. We must keep in mind the context of Willard's statement, in which he is talking about the works of man in relation to salvation. And given his adherence to spiritual formation, this completely aligns with the view that man ( born again or not) can become Christ-like (and worthy of salvation according to Foster and Willard) by doing certain disciplines. It is in that context Willard makes that statement; he wasn’t referring to those who had never heard the gospel.
In addition, it is the role of Christians to preach the gospel, calling out for people to repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. His instructions are very clear. And the apostle Paul always pointed to Jesus Christ and man’s absolute need to turn to Him in order to be saved and written in the Book of Life. If such a statement was right to say, then Jesus or the disciples would have said it. On Dallas Willard's website, he recommends mystics who have panentheistic and universalistic affinities. His seemingly ambiguous statements and his recommendations resonate, and they should not be ignored.
How ironic that in Willard's article, he was addressing it to a college girl who had been a Christian and had turned away from and rejected the gospel, saying that all paths lead to God. This was Willard's answer to her.
"As
far as the content of what I try to present is concerned it
focuses on the gospel of the kingdom of God and becoming a
disciple of Jesus in the kingdom of God. SO it doesn't merely
have an emphasis on the forgiveness of sins and assurance
of heaven as you are apt to find in most evangelical circles.
I think that is vital but it is not the whole story."—from
Kingdom Living, Dallas Willard
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Other
Connections, Endorsements, etc.
The
Divine Conspiracy |
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Back
Matter |
Invitation
to Silence and Solitude |
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Willard
wrote Foreword |
Spirit
of the Disciplines |
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Back
Cover |
Spirit
of the Disciplines |
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Back
Cover |
Spirit
of the Disciplines |
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Willard
quotes favorably |
Spirit
of the Disciplines |
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numerous
quotes favorably |
Hearing
God Through the Year |
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co-author |
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Willard
wrote foreword |
Evangelical
Alliance of Northern Ireland |
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Speaks
at their 2004 conference |
Allelon |
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Sits
on the Allelon Board |
"Dallas
Willard understands Quaker thinking about as well as anybody," Foster
acknowledged. "I had him do a study once on George Fox and his insights
just blew me away." An
Interview with Richard Foster
Where
did Dallas Willard's class lead this man?
Take a look:
built myself a prayer room—a tiny sanctuary in a basement closet
filled with books on spiritual disciplines, contemplative prayer,
and Christian mysticism. In that space I lit candles, burned incense,
hung rosaries, and listened to tapes of Benedictine monks. I meditated
for hours on words, images, and sounds. I reached the point of being
able to achieve alpha brain patterns, the state in which dreams
occur, while still awake and meditating."
Disciplines,
Mystics, and the Contemplative Life
by Mike Perschon
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What
is Dallas Willard Connected With?
Interview
with Renovare
Pro-contemplative
Speaker
at Renovare
Pro-contemplative
Relevant
Magazine
Pro-contemplative
Board
Member of Allelon
(what is Allelon |
A
young man takes a class by Dallas Willard, and he is introduced
to contemplative prayer. |
"I
bumped into the classic spiritual disciplines while taking a course
called "Dynamics of Christian Life" in my second year of Bible school.
One of our textbooks was The Spirit of the Disciplines by
Dallas Willard. The course and textbook only touched on the actual
disciplines, but the concept captivated me. The following spring,
I found a copy of Richard Foster's spiritual classic Celebration
of Discipline in a used bookstore. Opening it and discovering each
discipline detailed chapter by chapter, I felt a profound sense
of joy and excitement. I'd found a real treasure."
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What
Does The Message Do With Homosexuality?
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Eugene
Peterson has deleted
the word homosexuality
or homosexuals.
Unlike the KJV, which also does not use those words, The Message
changes the meaning of scriptures by inferring that it is not homosexuality
that is wrong but rather relationships that are not committed and
intimate. more ... |
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Featured Resources
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Contemplative Spirituality: A belief system that
uses ancient mystical practices to induce altered states of consciousness
(the silence) and is rooted in mysticism and the occult but often wrapped
in Christian terminology. The premise of contemplative spirituality
is pantheistic (God is all) and panentheistic (God is in all). Common
terms used for this movement are "spiritual formation," "the
silence," "the stillness," "ancient-wisdom,"
"spiritual disciplines," and many others.
Spiritual Formation: A movement that has provided a platform and a channel through which contemplative prayer is entering the church. Find spiritual formation being used, and in nearly every case you will find contemplative spirituality. In fact, contemplative spirituality is the heartbeat of the spiritual formation movement. |
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