July 28, 2009 • 9:49 am 0
Anybody read this yet? Dallas Willard, Scot McKnight and a spate of other great articles makes this something I’m going to be reading regularly. Check it out here: Neue Quarterly
It appears to use its own reader. Let me know if you have trouble reading it online.
July 14, 2009 • 12:35 pm 2
“Jesus, by contrast, brings us into a world without fear. In his world, astonishingly, there is nothing evil we must do in order to thrive. He lived, and invites us to live, in an undying world where it is safe to do and be good.” – Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, page 84.
Filed under: Willard
June 23, 2009 • 8:39 pm 0
“Faith extends you where you don’t know on the basis of what you do know.” – Dallas Willard sharing some ideas from his new book, Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge
Filed under: Willard, from the profane to the sublime
June 17, 2009 • 10:29 am 4
This is one of my problems though I think I am good at hiding it. Anyone else struggle with this?
I remember Anne Lamott’s quote, “You can be pretty sure that you’ve created God in your image when he hates all the same people you do.” There is a lot of bad stuff in the world that rightly generates our anger. The Christian person is to be cautious how much room they give to that anger.
“Righteous indignation” may be real, and in some cases legitimate, but the line between its legitimate form and “self-righteous-indignation” is blurry. Dallas Willard gives a good vision for dealing with this dangerous balance.
Although he (Jesus) certainly let his condemnation fall upon self-righteous and deeply corrupted leaders, we never see it in other contexts. And we can trust him to express it appropriately toward such people, though we ourselves could rarely if ever do so. Anger and condemnation, like vengeance, are safely left to God. We must beware of believing that it is okay for us to codnemn as long as we are condemning the right things. It is not so simple as all that. I can trust Jesus to go into the temple and drive out those who were profiting from religion, beating them with a rope. I cannot trust myself to do so. – The Divine Conspiracy, 221
Filed under: Willard
May 18, 2009 • 10:54 pm 4
Recently I have been reading Dallas Willard’s book The Divine Conspiracy with some friends. It has been refreshing, challenging and a joy. Willard, in his discussion about how anger often sabotages the kingdom heart, reminded me of a great passage by the Franciscan Priest Richard Rohr. Enjoy… tell me what you think… wrestle with this.
“You can take it as a general rule that when you don’t transform your pain you will always transmit it. Zealots and contemporary liberals often have the right conclusion, but their tactics and motives are often filled with self, power, control and the same righteousness that they hate in conservatives. Basically, they want to do something to avoid holding the pain until it transforms them. Because of this too common pattern, I have come to mistrust almost all righteous indignation and moral outrage. In my experience, it is hardly ever from God.
‘Resurrected’ people prayerfully bear witness against injustice and evil—but also agree compassionately to hold thier own complicity in that same evil. It is not over there, it is here. It is our problem, not theirs.The Risen Christ, not accidentally, still carries the wounds in his hands and side.” – from Hope Against Darkness: The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety, pg. 23
What You’re Saying