The second issue comes with the biggest and arguably most important section in the book: that on discipleship. The plea for discipleship that Willard offers does not offend me on an intellectual level, because if you are already a Christian and accept the premise of his writing about discipleship, there's nothing wrong with it.
But the more it went on, and the more I heard him explaining how no one practices discipleship in this way, with this level of dedication, I kept thinking "But I did. I was steeped in this kind of theology. This WAS taught, contrary to what he's saying. And people did it, hard core. Why does he keep claiming that his call is to something utterly unpracticed within the Christian community? Willard, an older white man, probably did NOT receive the sort of training in discipleship, nor dedication to spiritual practice, that I did.
When I think back on those years of thrice-a-week churchgoing, I have vivid images of women killing themselves to be the best Christian they could. Poring over scripture. Praying, meditating, reading. Going to studies, prayer meetings, revivals. It was their life. This is precisely the kind of dedication to discipleship that Willard is describing, and says doesn't exist.
Maybe men in the church are NOT taught this, taught to be aloof and intellectual rather than spiritual. I know. I was one. My mom and most of my female relatives still are. And perhaps this is at the heart of why my dad was so challenged by this book. His gender context obscured the kind of experiences that are really being had by the majority of church-goers. So I find Willard, in the end, a bit out of touch and probably without the counsel of too many female colleagues.
View all 6 comments. Aug 09, Chauncey Lattimer added it. It was as early as the introduction that I realized I was in for a good read when Willard stated, "Whatever the ultimate explanation of it, the most telling thing about the comtemporary Christian is that he or she simply has no compelling sense that understanding of and conformity with the clear teachings of Christ is of any vital importance to his or her life, and certainly not that it is in any way essential.
In his own words, this book 'complete s a trilogy on the spiritual life of those who have become convinced that Jesus is the One. Jul 19, Meghan Armstrong rated it it was amazing. This is mostly a treatise on the Sermon on the Mount, and instead of towing a denominational interpretive line, many of which in my limited experience skirt this very difficult text, he dives in and finds a Jesus who is both the most brilliant philosopher of all time, while also being the most effective human practitioner of life.
He gives the sermon the credit of actually having an intentional structure, which forms the basis for a progression of the human person into full life in the Kingdom.
This is technically a 4. View 2 comments. Nov 03, Kris rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: followers of Jesus. Shelves: spirituality , favorites. Perhaps the most formative book of my adult life. I remember the first time I read this how unimpressed I was. But some kind of switch was flipped and the second, third, fourth No one in our day has more important things to say than Dallas Willard concerning discipleship and spiritual formation.
I see him as my grandfather, at least spiritually. His book inspired me to memorize the Sermon on the Mount. I led near twenty college students through this book over a 5 year Perhaps the most formative book of my adult life. I led near twenty college students through this book over a 5 year period. Willard has such a unique, yet historically proven view of Jesus' intention of calling others to walk with him. What if Jesus wanted to actually call others to be like himself?
What if there's more to being "saved" than simple forgiveness of sins and management thereof? Could God possibly be interested in who I am and eventually become? This book and its contents were truly the source of the greatest paradigm shift in my life. I recommend this book unequivocably.
Aug 08, Anne Hamilton rated it liked it Shelves: christian. I don't know what it was about this book - the length of the paragraphs, the density of text on the page - but I couldn't really get with the flow until the last chapter or so.
Instead of reading and meditating, often normal for me in a book like this, I found myself skimming in the hope of finding a way in. I don't doubt I will read it again.
I made quite a few notes on the way through. But there isn't a forest of bookmarks jutting out of the book as there normally is for something like this. Not sure why this is - but I have made notes this time: The familiar stories, traditions and rituals of Israel enabled them to know the practical significance of this.
They were stories and traditions of individual human beings whose lives were interlaced with God's action. Abraham, David, Elijah were well known to all. And the routinely practised rituals of Israel were often occasions when God acted. Everyone knew that whoever trustingly put themselves in his hands as this poor scandalous woman did, were in the hands of God. And God's deeds bore out his words. When he announced that the 'governance' or rule of God had become available to human beings he was primarily referring to what he could do for people God acting with him.
But he was also offering to communicate this same 'rule of God' to others who would receive and learn it from him. He was himself the evidence for the truth of his announcement about the availability of God s kingdom, or governance, to ordinary human existence. Scribes, expert scholars, teach by citing others. See for yourself that the rule of God has come among ordinary human beings. We are responsible before God for life on the earth vv. We are meant to exercise our 'rule' only in union with God, as he acts with us.
He intended to be our constant companion or co-worker in the creative enterprise of life on earth. That is what his love for us means in practical terms. We find our world to be one where we hardly count at all, where what we do makes little difference, and where what we really love is unattainable, or certainly is not secure. We become frantic or despairing. In his book, The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley remarks, 'Most men and women lead lives at the worst so painful, at the best so monotonous, poor and limited that the urge to escape, the longing always been one of the principal appetites of the soul.
Wells's phrase, 'Doors in the Wall' that entombs them in life. Huxley was sure that 'the urge to escape from selfhood and the environment is in almost everyone almost all the time. The human need could only be met, in his view, by discovery of a new drug that would relieve our species without doing more harm than good in the long run. P 95 Some of the more significant passages stressing the transformation of status under God are the 'Song of Moses and Miriam' in Exodus 15, the prayer of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2, the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, Jehoshaphat's prayer and battle in 2 Chronicles 20 and the 'magnificat' of the virgin Mary in Luke 1.
Psalms 34, 37, and others celebrate this theme of God's hand lifting up those who are cast down and casting down those lifted up in the human scheme. The reigning of God over life is the good news of the whole Bible: 'How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of well-being, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!
Commentators have remarked on the lack of feeling in these young killers. But when you observe them accurately, you will see that they are indeed actuated by a feeling. Watch their faces. It is contempt. The first one asks that the name of God should be held in high regard. In the biblical world names are never just names. They partake of the reality that they refer to. The Jewish reverence for the name of God was so great that especially devout Jews might even avoid pronouncing it.
Thus we do not really know how Yahweh, as we say it, really is to be pronounced. The pronunciation is lost in history. It is basically same word used , for example, in John , where Jesus asks the Father to sanctify his students, especially the apostles, through his truth. And it appears again in 1 Thess. In such passages too the term means to locate the persons referred to in a separate and very special kind of reality.
P In the distant outworkings of the Protestant Reformation with its truly great and good message of salvation by faith alone—that long-accepted division has worked its way into the very heart of the gospel message. A long and healthy existence requires that we be grateful to God for who we are, and we cannot be thankful for who we are without being thankful for our parents, through whom our life came.
They are a part of our identity, and to reject and be angry with them is to reject and be angry with ourselves. To reject ourselves leads to sickness, dissolution and death, spiritual and physical. We cannot reject ourselves and love God. When the breach in the human soul that is self-rejection remains unhealed, the individual and thereby society, is open to all kinds of terrible evils. This is where the Hitlers come from. And for every Hitler who rises to power, there are millions who consume themselves and die in quiet corners of the earth.
The final words of the Old Testament address this profound problem. The consumer Christian is one who uses the grace of God for forgiveness and the services of the church for special occasions but does not give his or her life and innermost thoughts feelings and intentions over to the kingdom of the heavens. Such Christians are not inwardly transformed and not committed to it. P Now in fact, the patterns of wrongdoing that govern human life outside the kingdom are usually quite weak, even ridiculous.
They are simply our habits, our largely automatic responses of thought, feeling and action. Typically, we have acted wrongly before reflecting.
And it is this that gives bad habits their power. For the most part they are, as Paul knew, actual characteristics of our bodies and our social context, essential parts of any human self. They do not, by and large, bother to run through our conscious mind or deliberative will, and often run exactly contrary to them. It is rare that want ro do wrong as the result of careful deliberation. Instead our routine behavior manages to keep the deliberative will and the conscious mind off balance and on the defensive.
P Jan 14, Silvia Cachia added it Shelves: non-fiction , ultimate-favorites , christian-journey-religion. I'm not prepared to review this long and well written book. As with all books on theology, you probably guess I'm going to say that I had reservations to some of the teachings. Aside from that, the book was for the most part, a compelling call to exactly what it claims in the title, Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God.
I took my time to read it, thus by the final chapters, I forgot about the beginning ones, what tells me this will be re-read. But the last chapters are fresh in my head. And they I'm not prepared to review this long and well written book. And they were the culmination of the point Willard tried to make in the book. It was a huge surprise to me to find the last chapter devoted to heaven, and how it will be like. It was enlightening and different.
The last two books on christianity, both had some part devoted to this, which I found rewarding. Willard mentions many other authors, he talked about The City of God, by Agustin, and it made me interested.
I'm looking forward to other of Willard's books, and, as I said, to re-reading this rich book. May 09, Nathan rated it really liked it. Willard continues to challenge me: from ministry, to the importance of Christ's bodily not just spiritual resurrection. A difficult read though, and his "program for discipleship" was not among my favorite features.
Overall, a thought-provoking, enlightening book. First review: I just began reading Willard's book, but already it has me thinking. Within the first paragraph, he lays out his philosophy: "Presumed familiarity has led to unfamiliarity, unfamiliarity has led to contempt, and contempt Willard continues to challenge me: from ministry, to the importance of Christ's bodily not just spiritual resurrection.
Within the first paragraph, he lays out his philosophy: "Presumed familiarity has led to unfamiliarity, unfamiliarity has led to contempt, and contempt has led to profound ignorance.
View all 3 comments. May 09, Naum rated it it was amazing. But this is an epic work that should occupy the reading list of every Christian in America and non-Christians interested in philosophy or spirituality.
In a gracious, humble manner, Willard pokes and prods at the western religion of Christianity and expounds upon what the Jesus Gospel says about how to follow the words and deeds of Jesus.
That imposing a legalistic or rule based or external checklist modality is an exercise in absurdity, as is the point of The Beatitudes spelled out by Jesus. That the Gospel more about the inward heart shaping that transforms a blessed child of a heavenly creator to manifest love for fellow brother and sister in Christ. However I am not doing this book any justice with this condensed TL;DR -- read and parse out for yourself!
A lot of the material here resonated with me as it seemed in alignment with other Christian voices I have digested in recent years -- N. May 19, Mitchell Springfield rated it it was amazing. Asking for a friend. May 10, Haiko Eitzen rated it it was amazing. The Divine Conspiracy is the most thorough, structured and comprehensive book I have read on Christian faith and practice. This book encases a in my limited experience, unrivaled wealth, breadth, and depth of theological knowledge for every follower "My hope is to gain a fresh hearing for Jesus, especially among those who believe they already understand him.
This book encases a in my limited experience, unrivaled wealth, breadth, and depth of theological knowledge for every follower of Jesus. However that shouldn't scare or come across as being too academic and therefore lacking in life. The author makes an important point of the passion and joy that must accompany our journey of faith, and I found the pages to be full of it.
This book describes our eternal life now taking the Sermon on the Mount, mainly, among many other texts and provides rich ideas on developing a culture of discipleship in Church. Interestingly enough, in Willard's own words, "there is very little that is new, though much that is forgotten.
Willard's use of paraphrased and freely translated scripture also really helped to better understand certain biblical passages. I would give the Divine Conspiracy six stars if I could, because of how much more it is than other books I have given five stars.
Apr 17, Andy Love rated it it was amazing. Too much to say about this one, so a few key quotes I stuck on will have to do: "Draw any cultural or social line you wish, and God will find his way beyond it. If the thoughtful answer is; "not really," then we need to look elsewhere or deeper. This is the crucial idea. That means, we recall, how to live within the range of God's effective will, his life flowing through mine. Another way of putting this is to say that I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live my life if he were I.
Given the anger, hatred, and contempt that pervades human society, it is not uncommon that individual human beings actually enjoy the suffering of others.
One of our worst thoughts about God is that he, too, enjoys human suffering. This gives rise to the image of the Marquis de God, a divine counterpart to the Marquis de Sade, after whom sadism his named. Oct 12, David rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: anyone. Shelves: christian-spirituality-advanced. This summer my fellow staff and I read this book together.
Most of us have read it before. It is brilliant and definitely a modern classic. But overall, this is a fantastic book. Further, though its been around a while now, the problems he diagnoses remain. We need to realize we can actually g This summer my fellow staff and I read this book together. We need to realize we can actually grow and mature, become more Christlike, and to do so we need to be intentional about spiritual discipline and practice. Advanced Search Links. Product Close-up.
Add To Cart. Divine Conspiracy, Book and Study Guide. Divine Conspiracy, Participant's Guide. In The Divine Conspiracy , Willard gracefully weaves biblical teaching, popular culture, science, scholarship, and spiritual practice into a tour de force that shows the necessity of profound changes in how we view our lives and faith.
Related Products. Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy has revolutionized how we think about the true meaning of discipleship. Have a question about this product? Ask us here. Gary feels the same way we do…except that he actually knew the man, which makes us jealous. May the Kingdom come!
A fantastic book. These pages are filled with the great themes that call us to pursue and embrace the with-God life that is life indeed. For those of us who desire to influence the culture in a distinctively Christian way,this is must reading. Reprint permission information. Search and Hit Enter. The Divine Conspiracy Continued. Reviews I know of no more important voice on spiritual truth in our day than that of Dallas Willard.
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