Chow 63B
SF623
Research Paper (This is one of my last papers for the M.Div. program at
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminar, submitted to Dr. Garth M. Rosell in partial
fulfillment of the course on Movements of Spiritual Awakening. Sola Dei
Gloria.)
Introduction
of Lovelace’s Model of Continuous
Renewal
In Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal, Dr.
Richard Lovelace identifies two biblical models of renewals that follow the
pattern of the Old and New Testaments. Under the Old Covenant, the cyclical
renewal is an act of sovereign mercy and a divine response to the inarticulate
heart cry of defeated Israel as the seven cycles in Judges shown, “Whenever the
LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them
from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was
moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed
them.” (Judges 2:18). Under the New Covenant, the continuous renewal is conceivable
because Christians are now under the leadership of a king who is immortal and
invincible as Paul wrote, “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us
in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge
of him everywhere.” (2 Corinthians 2:14) Lovelace points out that the two
models of revival are in reality only one, “the expanding of God’s kingdom in a
liberating warfare against the forces of darkness in which the most important
battleground is the hearts of men.”[1]
Lovelace believes that a careful examination
of the bases for the cyclical and continuous patterns will uncover the elements
of renewal which “sustain the church during its periods of constant growth and
which help restore it when it has fallen indo decline”.[2] In other words, he has found
the “common denominators,” the distinguishing marks that seem to be present
every time the Holy Spirit brings dramatic spiritual revival within the church.
In his outline of the essential elements of renewal[3], he first discusses the Preconditions
of Renewal: Preparation for the Gospel (an awareness of the holiness of God and
an awareness of the depths of sin). He then develops the Primary Elements of Renewal:
Depth Presentation of the Gospel (Justification, Sanctification, The Indwelling
Spirit, and Authority in Spiritual Conflict in Christ). Lastly, he suggests the
Secondary Elements of Renewal: Outworking of the Gospel in the Church’s Life (Mission,
Prayer, Community, Disenculturation, and Theological Integration). With these
essential elements of renewal in mind, the rest of this paper will examine Lovelace’s model of continuous renewal in Dallas
Willard’s corpus on spiritual transformation.
Background of Dallas Willard’s Corpus
When Dallas Willard finished
writing The Divine Conspiracy, he considers
that as a completion of a trilogy on the spiritual life of Christians. He said
in his first book, “In Search of
Guidance, I attempted to make real and clear the intimate quality of life
with him as ‘a conversational relationship with God’.”[4] He continued the quest
because “that relationship is not something that automatically happens, and we
do not receive it by passive infusion. So the second book, The Spirit of the Disciplines, explains how disciples or students
of Jesus can effectively interact with the grace and spirit of God to access
fully the provisions and character intended for us in the gift of eternal
life.”[5] But later on he added two
more books to his corpus to make his twenty-five year research project of
spiritual transformation into five books, roughly 1,500 pages.
Willard’s
View on the Preconditions of Continuous Renewal: Awareness of God’s Holiness
and Human’s Depth of Sin
According to Lovelace, “The
various elements of renewal are dimensions of our union with Christ. But our
first coming to Christ and the strength of our expression of new life in him
are dependent on our accurate apprehension of our own need and of the character
of the true God.”[6]
To him, acceptance of Christ and appropriation of every element in redemption
is conditional on awareness of the holiness of God and the conviction of the
depth of our sin. Steve Porter acknowledges that Willard has demonstrated
strong awareness of God’s holiness in
his writings, and he saw him as a revival figure in the evangelical cycle that J.
I. Packer was looking for,
“In the twentieth century, most of the best evangelical brains have been
put to work in other fields. The result is that much of our best modern
theology (there are exceptions) is superficial about holiness, while modern treatments
of holiness often lack the biblical insight, theological depth, and human
understanding that are needed in order to do the subject justice. The most
distinguished evangelical theologians have not always been the most ardent
exponents of holiness, and the most ardent evangelical exponents of holiness
have not always been the most reliable or judicious theologians.”[7]
Willard understands God’s justice in
light of his love found in Christ that justice without love will always fall
short of what needs to be done as it will never be as good as it should be
because “Justice without love will never do justice to justice, nor will ‘love’
without justice ever do justice to love. Indeed, it will not be love at all;
for love wills the good of what is loved, and that must include justice where
justice is lacking.”[8]
Willard
has written extensively on love in his later books, the best description is
found in the Renovation of the Heart
where he says,
“God’s love is what enables ours, through four movements of redemptive love. This is the
first ‘move’ of love … ‘He first loved us’ (1 John 4: 19) …When we receive
what is thus clearly given, the revelation of God’s love in Christ, that in
turn makes it possible for us to love. Love is awakened in us by him. We feel
its call— and first to love Jesus himself, and then God. … This is the second movement in the return to love:
‘We love, because He first loved us.’ But the second movement is inseparable
from the third movement: our love of
others who love God … love of neighbor as oneself… The fellowship of Christ’s
apprentices in kingdom living is a community of love (John 13: 34-35). This is the fourth movement in the
process of redeeming love. Here, then, is the full account of the movements of
love in our lives: We are loved by God
who is love, and in turn we love him, and others through him, who in turn love
us through him.”[9]
The second precondition of
renewal is an awareness of the depth of
sin in one’s own life and community. Willard discusses the nature and effects of sin in Hearing
God and it is more fully developed in Renovation of the Heart and The Spirits of the Disciplines. Willard
presents sin as the disconnection of human life from the life of God that
results in a “pervasive distortion and disruption of human existence from the
top down… The evil that we do in our present condition is a reflection of a
weakness caused by spiritual starvation”.[10] Willard
picks up later and says that the body, or flesh, is not inherently evil but
becomes bent away from dependence on God and “serves as primary host for sin… In
this condition the flesh opposes the spirit, does that which is evil, and
must be crucified to restrain it (Gal. 5:16, 19f)”.[11] Thus
he aware the depth of sin as embodied selves, humans become habituated in
“automatic tendencies” to live life on their own, apart from the empowering,
interactive relationship with God. In terms of dealing with sin in the
community Willard teaches, “Confession is a discipline that functions within
fellowship. In it we let trusted others know our deepest weaknesses and
failures… we let some friends in Christ know who we really are, not holding back
anything important but, ideally, allowing complete transparency. We lay down
the burden of hiding and pretending, which normally takes up such a dreadful
amount of human energy.”[12] It
is true that without confession of sin no deep relationship is possible, and
the lack of it in our churches today explains that our fellowship is superficial
and shallow because there is an essential reciprocity between the two
disciplines.
Willard’s
View on the Primary Elements of Continuous Renewal: Justification,
Sanctification, the Indwelling Spirit, and Authority in Spiritual Conflict
Lovelace argues that the substitutionary atonement is the heart
of the gospel[13]
because it addresses the heart of the problem of guilt, bondage, and alienation
from God.
He said people may come to Christ from
loneliness, suffering, purposelessness, but the eventual motivation is to turn
from sin and turn to God. He commends that in the New Testament portrayal, justification (the acceptance of
believers as righteous in the sight of God through the righteousness of Jesus
accounted to them) and sanctification
(progress in actual holiness expressed in their lives) are often closely
intertwined as if two concepts were identical[14], but in reality they are
quite distinct: Justification as perfect righteousness of Christ reckoned to us
covering our imperfections like a robe of stainless holiness; Sanctification as
the process of removing those imperfections as we are enabled more and more to
put off the bondages of sin and put on new life in Christ. He explains that the
biblical writers conjoined the two elements not because they were identical but
because they are inseparable in our experience and rooted in our union with
Christ.[15]
Similarly Willard stresses on
the gospel of the kingdom that does not disconnect Christian conversion and justification from
sanctification and discipleship. He would say one’s entrance into the rule of
God through confidence in Jesus is what happens at conversion (justification) and is precisely what
persons grow up into through the sanctifying process of the Spirit (sanctification). Willard believes,
“(Jesus’) basic message, ‘Rethink your life in the light of the fact that the
kingdom of heavens is now open to all’ (Matt. 4:17 par.), presents the
resources needed to live human life as we all automatically sense it should be
and naturally leads one to become his student, or apprentice in kingdom living”.[16] Like
Bonhoeffer, Willard develops an integration of justification and sanctification
under the single rubric of kingdom living, in other word discipleship. It reminds
that Jesus’ last command to “make disciples” (Matt. 28:19) is the core mission
of the church, while the commitment to teach them to obey all things that
Christ commanded is the primary method. Willard illustrates it with a simple example,
“The steamship whose machinery is broken may be brought into port and made fast
to the dock. She is safe, but not sound. Repairs may last a long time. Christ
designs to make us both safe and sound. Justification gives the first—safety;
sanctification gives the second—soundness.”[17]
Lovelace is cognizant with the fact that the
polarization of either justification or sanctification will lead to its
drawbacks, the former into cheap grace and the latter into works merit,
legalism, moralism, and Augustinian manner- drawing assurance of acceptable
with God based upon one’s sincerity, one’s past experience of conversion,
recent religious performance or relative infrequency of breach of conscience
through disobedience.[18]
Willard’s specificity on
the nature of the person in Renovation of the Heart is a unique
integration of sanctification and the
theology of anthropology.
“Sanctification in this life will always be a matter of degree, to be
sure, but there is a point in genuine spiritual growth before which the term
“sanctification” simply does not apply— just as “hot” when applied to a cup of
coffee is a matter of degree, but there is a point before which it is not hot,
even if in the process of being heated. … So what shall we say about
sanctification in summary? It is a consciously chosen and sustained
relationship of interaction between the Lord and his apprentice, in which the
apprentice is able to do, and routinely does, what he or she knows to be right
before God because all aspects of his or her person have been substantially
transformed. Sanctification applies primarily to the moral and religious life,
but extends in some measure to the prudential and practical life (acting
wisely) as well.”[19]
Porter notes, “In many accounts, anthropological terms such as “soul,”
“mind,” “flesh,” “image of God,” “spirit,” “will,” “heart,” “character,” etc.
are used without settled definitions or distinctions, let alone an account of
how the different aspects are interrelated in the transformation process.”[20] With
his theological and psychological perspective, Willard sees the delineation of
human nature as central to understanding spiritual formation in Christ. To him,
Jesus’ revolution of the human person “proceeds by changing people from the
inside through ongoing personal relationship to God in Christ and to one
another. It is one that changes their ideas, beliefs, feelings, and habits of
choice, as well as their bodily tendencies and social relations. It penetrates
to the deepest layers of their soul”[21]
Willard affirms sanctification applies primarily to the moral and religious life,
but then it must extend to the prudential and practical life, which is acting
wisely. He argues that sanctifying is not an experience, though it may be
involved; it is not a status, though a status is maintained; it is not an
outward form and has no essential connection with outward forms. Instead sanctifying
becomes a “track record” and a system of habits, “It comes about through the
process of spiritual formation, through which the heart (spirit, will) of the
individual and the whole inner life take on the character of Jesus’ inner
life.”[22] Therefore
in Willard’s view of sanctification, the transforming dimension of the person
has three aspects: the heart, spirit, and will. The “will” refers to the core
dimension’s “power to initiate, to create, to bring about what did not exist
before”[23].
This is the unforced “yes” or “no” that decides the eventual character of the
human person. The “spirit” refers to the core dimension’s “fundamental nature
as distinct and independent from physical reality”[24]. The
human spirit, like all spirit, is “unbodily, personal power”[25]. And
“heart” refers to the core dimension’s “center or core to which every other
component of the self owes its proper functioning”[26].
This is due to the fact that the will (heart or spirit) possesses “the power to
select what we think on and how intently we will focus on it”[27]. Thus
in Willard’s view, the heart/ will/ spirit governs every other aspect of the human
self and activity, and as the primary dimension of the person that must be
properly aligned with God’s rule. However, it is very important to keep Lovelace’s
counsel in mind that the condition of sanctification is not faith plus
repentance, but repentant faith. This will guard Christians against the
“formidable holiness”[28] that
comes through exertion of the will alone as Willard remarks, “Grace is not
opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is
an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins
alone.”[29]
The third primary element of continuous renewal is the indwelling Spirit as shown at the
Pentecost and the Great Awakenings. Lovelace affirms supernatural gifts of the
Spirit are available in this present era so “the graces and fruits of the
Spirit are to be sought more earnestly than spectacular gifts.”[30]
However he said, “The typical relationship of believers and the Holy Spirit in
today’s church is too often like husband and wife in bad marriage. They live
under the same roof, and the husband makes constant use of his wife’s services,
but he fails to communicate with her, recognize her presence and celebrate
their relationship with her.”[31]
In contrast, Willard’s analysis of the divine-human relationship is the
core element of his understanding of Christian transformation. For Willard, the indwelling Spirit and disciples’
relationship is “grounded in the ontology of the person in the sense that the
human person was designed or structured by God to exist within a certain kind
of relatedness to the Trinity as well as other persons”[32]. In Hearing
God, this indwelling relationship is often seen as a conversational
relationship, which Willard describes as: “intimate friendship”, “close
personal relationship”, “constant divine companionship”, “richly interactive
relationship”, “hand- in-hand, conversational walk with God”, “God’s indwelling
his people through personal presence and fellowship”, “personal communion”,
“loving fellowship with the King”, “a direct and fully self-conscious personal
relationship”, and so on[33].
Willard observes the divine-human relationship as encompassing more than conversation,
“in the progress of God’s redemptive work communication advances into communion
and communion into union. When the progression is complete we can
truly say, ‘It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me’ (Gal
2:20)”.[34] For
Willard, the indwelling Spirit with disciples is experiential in at least two
senses. First, the relationship is experiential in the sense that one
can be consciously aware of the communication, communion, and union. And
second, the relationship is experiential in that it has a personal impact on
the person’s emotional, cognitive, volitional, and embodied existence. Willard says, “God is
able to penetrate and intertwine himself within the fibers of the human self in
such a way that those who are enveloped in his loving companionship will never
be alone”[35]. This picks up Lovelace’s point of the indwelling Spirit and “you are not
alone”. The Holy Spirit is a gift from God to all who believe so disciples of
Jesus can look to him daily as sanctifier, teacher, guide, giver of assurance,
helper in prayer, and as one who directs and empowers. Therefore, growth in
holiness is not just an exercise of faith, but a dependent relationship,
communion, and union with the indwelling Spirit.
The last primary
element of continuous renewal is Authority
in spiritual conflict. In this, Lovelace informs the Christians especially
in America that we are engaging in spiritual warfare, and we should know the
strategies of Satan just as C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape
Letters. He points out the tactics of the devil: 1. Temptation– particularly
temptation directed toward larger ends that involve whole ways of behaving,
which are subchristian (i.e. Ananias and Sapphira), 2. Deception – a liar who
“deceived the world” (Rev 12:9), 3. Accusation– the word devil (diabolos) means
slanderer who accuses believers continually in the presence of God (Rev 12:10),
4. Possession– a condition in which human victims come almost helplessly under
control of alien personalities (Lk 8:26-33), 5. Physical attack– Jesus says of
Satan, “a murderer from the beginning” (Jn 8:44), and the devil is called the
destroyer (Rev 9:11). Christians who are fighting against these with authority
in spiritual conflict promised by Christ in the New Testament will have less
anxiety in ourselves and more of a hearing from the world if we believe in and
preach the awesome, dangerous, but solid realities taught in Scripture.
Willard discusses the Authority in spiritual conflict in
light of Christians’ growth in knowledge and relationship with God, and that is
where we can find the source of authority in Christ’s ministry models,
resurrection, and gift of the Spirit,
“How do such Bible stories [about transformation] help? Upon a
realistic, critical, adult reading, by those prepared to be honest with their
experience, the Bible incisively lays bare the depths and obscurities of the
human heart … [I] t is fitted to be the perpetual instrument of the Spirit of
God for human transformation… But the
Bible also informs us that there are certain practices— solitude, prayer,
fasting, celebration, and so forth— we can undertake, in cooperation with
grace, to raise the level of our lives toward godliness.”[36]
He also teaches that Christians will be spiritually safe in our use of
the Bible if we follow a simple rule: “Read with a submissive attitude…
Subordinate your desire to find the truth to your desire to do it, to act it
out!”[37]
However Porter notices, “the problem remains that many Christians do not know
these realities and only profess belief in them that leaves them with only
willpower or feelings as the means to sustain their spiritual lives.”[38]
In his later work Knowing Christ Today, Willard sees
knowledge as “essential to faith and to our relationship with God in the
spiritual life”[39]. He then describes faith as a “commitment to action, often beyond our
natural abilities, based upon knowledge of God and God’s ways”[40]. “So here,” Porter continues, “as before,
understanding is the basis of care. Willard attempts to show forth the
requisite understanding of human knowledge in order to help persons come to
have spiritual knowledge.”[41]
In this Willard holds that three sources of knowledge: authority, reason, and
experience, supplementing each other in providing the appropriate basis on
which to know Jesus’ example of life and to come to experience Jesus himself as
the ultimate authority in spiritual conflict.
Willard’s
View on the Secondary Elements of Continuous Renewal: Mission, Prayer,
Community, Disenculturation, and Theological Integration
The last part here will
look at the secondary elements of continuous renewal, which is an outworking of
the gospel in the Church’s life and in the world. First of all, continuous
renewal brings forth Mission that
Christians are following Christ into the world presenting the gospel in
proclamation and in social demonstration. Comparing to spiritual transformation
and spiritual disciplines, Willard has less to say about the mission of
Christians except in Divine Conspiracy,
The Great Omission and Renovation of
the Hear he sees that making disciples in the kingdom of God is the great
commission itself. Willard suggests, “If Jesus were to come today as he did
then, he could carry out his mission through most any decent and useful
occupation… In other words, if he were come today he could very well do what
you do.”[42] In
Bill Hull’s article, he entitles a section to recognize Willard as: He Believes
that a True Spirituality Begins on the Inside and Cannot Stay Private. He
writes,
“What will Christians become? This again strengthens the argument that
the secret to fulfillment of the Great Commission is not strategy as much as
depth. But God does have a strategy, and it is quite simple. When we become
disciples, apprentices--when we take on Christlikeness as a habit—it makes the
strategy work. The reason it is not working now is the lack of spiritual
animation of the army. It is as if the soldiers are in place, but are
distracted by other, mundane matters, so the mission has been for- gotten. The
soldiers now think that the important work is to return to head- quarters for
very stimulating training and speeches about the mission. It seems all the
praise, honor, and money go to the large rallies and speeches, but their
leaders do not go to the field. If you want to see them, you will have to go to
headquarters. The leaders have not led the troops into the field to activate
the mission.”[43]
Secondly, the
continuous renewal needs to be empowered by Prayer that is expressing dependence on the power of his Spirit
both individually and corporately. Willard defines prayer as “God's arrangement
for a safe power sharing with us in his intention to bless the world through
us. In response to prayer we see good accomplished far beyond what we are
capable of and in a form suited to the wisdom of God— not just to what we think
we know about the situation we are praying for.”[44]
Porter notes that the discipline of keeping watch in prayer taught by Willard would
have brought about “habitual reliance upon God” which makes “sin dispensable,
even uninteresting and revolting . . . Our desires and delights are changed
because our actions and attitude are based upon the reality of God’s Kingdom”[45]
One of the biblical lessons of prayer Willard expounded is Jesus’ invitation to
Peter, James, and John to “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation”
(Matt. 24:41). Willard reflects:
The plain meaning of this advice to his sleepy and worried friends was
that by engaging in a certain type of action—keeping of vigil combined with prayer—they would be able to attain
a level of spiritual responsiveness and power in their lives that would be
impossible without it. In this simple but profound episode we find the whole
nature and principle of the kind of activity that is a spiritual discipline.
Such an activity implants in us, in the embodied personality that is the
carrier of our abilities (and disabilities!) a readiness and an ability to
interact with God and our surroundings in a way not directly under our control.”[46]
Willard knows
that the disciplines themselves do not
change believers. Rather, the disciplines make the disciples of
Jesus more available to the gracious operation of God by his Spirit and his
kingdom that is transformational. Willard explains, “the disciplines have no
value in themselves. The aim and substance of spiritual life is not
fasting, prayer, hymn singing, frugal living, and so forth. Rather, it is the
effective and full enjoyment of active love of God and humankind in all the
daily rounds of normal existence where we are placed”[47].
The third secondary element of continuous renewal is
when the community of believers is
being in union with his body in Christ. Lovelace says unlike most modern
congregations the early Christian church was an integrated community centered
around the worship of God and the advancement of his kingdom. It was a
commonwealth, devoting everything they were and owned, they worshipped, ate,
and were together in constant communication. Their fellowship was continually
reinforced by apostolic teaching, corporate prayer, and sacramental worship. Willard
sees Christian community very locally because he believes that transformed
disciples in the harvest field where we live, work, and play can create
communities of justice and peace. The church thinks of community as internal to
the church, but he espouses transformed disciples to live in community with the
people in real community. Willard also sees
Christian community in an eternal perspective which he describes, “The purpose
of God with human history is nothing less than to bring out of it . . . an
eternal community of those who were once thought to be just “ordinary human
beings.” Because of God’s purposes for it, this community will, in its way,
pervade the entire created realm and share in government of it. God’s precreation
intention to have that community as a special dwelling place or home will be
realized. He will be its prime sustainer and glorious inhabitant.”[48]
The
fourth secondary element of continuous renewal is Disenculturation that helps the church to be freed from cultural
blinds. In order word, the church is called to come out to worship a holy God
as a holy nation. Destructive enculturation leads the people of God to saturate
with godless culture of the surrounding world as we have seen in Judges 2:11-13
while only fullness of Christ’s life and the transformation of our minds by the
Spirit can effectively prevent us from conformity to the world (Rom 12:2). Willard
affirms that God calls the church to be holy because holiness is a quality of
likeness to God just as holy things are consecrated or set apart as resembling
God, being inherently sacred or intended for sacred use, or both. In the
introduction of Holiness, Elane O'Rourke quotes from the apostle Peter’s
saying, “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when
you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in
all you do… purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere
love for each other…" (1 Pet 1: 14-15, 22) She commends, “Obedience
requires use of the body, mind, and will. These must be set apart to be used in
a sacred manner in order for holiness to manifest fully in the condition of the
person. By being obedient to the truth, disciples do not conform to their
habitual (or worldly) evil desires but, through their intentional activities,
purify themselves. Their bodies become ready to do good, with their minds set
on truth and their wills able to respond appropriately. This in turn develops
sincere love, which itself resembles God and enables holy activity.”[49]
The
last secondary element of continuous renewal is Theological Integration of having the mind of Christ toward
revealed truth and toward your culture. As Lovelace emphasizes it demands “the
whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) which is the whole of God’s written
revelation constantly search out for its current implications concerning the
church and the world in order that “the man of God may be complete, equipped
for every good work” (2 Tim 3:17). He further explains that the content of
truth needed for the full development and maintenance of spiritual renewal in
the church cannot be reduced to only the four element of the atonement involved
in depth proclamation of the gospel.
David Bebbington famously
proposed that evangelicals have four defining characteristics: Bible-centered,
Cross-centered, conversion-minded, and activist in their desire to do
evangelism and good works. In Gary Black’s The Theology of Dallas Willard:
Discovering Protoevangelical Faith, he examines Willard's beliefs through
the lens of these four core commitments. He argues how Willard's theology is
framed around the conviction that the overarching goal of God's plan is to
conform his people to the image of Christ.[50] Scot McKnight writes,
“This conviction shapes Willard's view
of Scripture, which moves beyond so many of the issues, like biblical
infallibility, that evangelicals tend to fight about. Black sketches Willard's
view of the divine Logos, which is "present in the Scriptures, in history,
in nature, and also discovered in the lives of individuals." The
Scriptures are an objective presence of the Logos in the world, but they do not
represent the Logos in its fullness. The living Logos transcends language. In
addition, Willard believes in the possibility of "conversational
revelation," whereby God still communicates to his people.”[51]
Conclusion
Lovelace concludes the secondary
elements of continuous renewal by saying that these constitute the cutting edge
of spiritual renewal, and where they are not present the church is weakened
spiritually, but they are not sufficient in themselves to complete the Holy
Spirit’s work in shaping the mind of the church. In this paper, I have examined
how Willard followed Lovelace’s model of continuous renewal. Willard’s corpus
does not just match all the elements that Lovelace proposed, but goes beyond
them and leaves a legacy to many people including contemporary scholars and
spiritual writers: Richard J. Foster, J. P. Moreland, John Ortberg, Bryan Smith,
and so on. He spent his life making eternal living concrete for people around
him. The wide breadth of his spiritual renewal impact inspired friends, family,
colleagues, students and leaders of the church to gather their reflections on
this celebrated yet humble theologian and philosopher[52].
Appendix:
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Elane. A Dallas Willard Dictionary, n.d.
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Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2012.
———. The
Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God. 1 edition. San
Francisco: Harper, 1998.
———. The
Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship.
Reprint edition. HarperOne, 2014.
———. The
Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives. Reprint
edition. San Francisco: HarperOne, 1999.
[1] Richard F. Lovelace, Dynamics
of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal (Downers Grove, Ill:
IVP Academic, 1979), 69.
[2] Ibid.,
62.
[3] See Figure 1. from Dynamics of Spiritual Life
[4] Dallas Willard, The Divine
Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God, 1 edition (San Francisco:
Harper, 1998), XVII.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Lovelace, Dynamics of
Spiritual Life, 81.
[7] Steve L. Porter, “THE WILLARDIAN
CORPUS.” Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 3, no. 2 (2010):
240.
[8] Dallas Willard, Knowing
Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge, Reprint edition (New
York: HarperOne, 2014), 83.
[9] Dallas Willard, Renovation of
the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ, 10 edition (Colorado
Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2012), 132.
[10] Dallas Willard, The Spirit of
the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, Reprint edition (San
Francisco: HarperOne, 1999), 63.
[11] Ibid.,
90.
[12] Ibid., 187–189.
[13] Lovelace, Dynamics of
Spiritual Life, 97.
[14] Rom 5:1-11, Col. 2:10-15
[15] Lovelace, Dynamics of
Spiritual Life, 98.
[16] Willard, The Divine
Conspiracy, 274.
[17] Willard, Renovation of the
Heart, 225.
[18] Lovelace, Dynamics of
Spiritual Life, 101.
[19] Willard, Renovation of the
Heart, 226.
[20] Porter, 262.
[21] Willard, Renovation of the
Heart, 15.
[22] Ibid.,
226.
[23] Ibid., 29.
[24] Willard, Renovation of the
Heart, 29.
[25] Ibid.,
34.
[26] Ibid.,
29.
[27] Ibid.,
144.
[28] Lovelace, Dynamics of
Spiritual Life, 104.
[29] Dallas Willard, The Great
Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship, Reprint
edition (HarperOne, 2014), 61.
[30] Lovelace, Dynamics of
Spiritual Life, 127.
[31] Ibid.,
131.
[32] Porter, “THE WILLARDIAN
CORPUS.,” 246.
[33] Dallas Willard, Hearing God:
Developing a Conversational Relationship with God, Updated and Expanded
edition (Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books, 2012), 10, 11, 18, 22, 33, 46.
[34] Ibid.,
155.
[35] Ibid.,
43.
[36] Willard, The Spirit of the
Disciplines, 69.
[37] Willard, Hearing God,
161.
[38] Porter, “THE WILLARDIAN
CORPUS.,” 265.
[39] Willard, Knowing Christ Today,
10.
[40] Ibid.,
20.
[41] Porter, “THE WILLARDIAN
CORPUS.,” 265.
[42] Willard, The Divine
Conspiracy, 14.
[43] Bill Hull, “A Reluctant Prophet:
How Does Professor Williard Propose to Take Over the World,” Journal Of
Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 3, no. 2 (2010): 288.
[44] Willard, Knowing Christ Today,
160.
[45] Willard, The Spirit of the
Disciplines, 118.
[46] Ibid.,
151.
[47] Ibid.,
138.
[48] Willard, The Divine
Conspiracy, 385–386.
[49] Elane O’Rourke, A Dallas
Willard Dictionary, n.d., 129.
[50] Gary Black Jr, The Theology
of Dallas Willard: Discovering Protoevangelical Faith (Pickwick
Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2013).
[51] “The Difference Dallas Willard
Makes,” ChristianityToday.com, accessed May 4, 2015,
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/may-web-only/difference-dallas-willard-makes.html.
[52] Dallas Willard, Eternal
Living: Reflections on Dallas Willard’s Teaching on Faith and Formation
(IVP Books, 2014).
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