A Call to Spiritual Transformation

Spiritual transformation was a central concern for the late Dr. Dallas Willard, occupying a prominent place in his writing and teaching. He expressed his concern that there hangs a cloud of failure over churches, a sense that they have failed adequately to produce disciples. Willard believed that the answer to this problem was a renewed faithfulness in conveying the transforming word of God to the people of God. Transformation, he argued, is shifting from an old mentality to a renewed mind, which is conformed with the reality of the kingdom of God. This renewal will be a spiritual transformation that touches the heart, mind, body, soul, and social aspect of humans. This lecture explicates the particulars of Dallas Willard’s vision for spiritual transformation calling for practical response in the practices of the church.

Biography

Dallas Willard (1935-2013) was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. In 1964 he received his Ph.D. of Philosophy in the University of Wisconsin. Within his interests were metaphysics, contemporary European philosophy, ethics and the history of ethics. His most recent book, Knowing Christ Today, was published in May 2009. The Great Omission, which was published in 2006, received a Christianity Today annual Book Award in the Christian Living category in 2007. Renovation of the Heart was published in May 2002, and received Christianity Today’s 2003 Book Award in the category of Spirituality. The Divine Conspiracy was released in 1998 and selected Christianity Today’s Book of the Year for 1999. The Spirit of the Disciplines appeared in 1988, and Hearing God (1999) first appeared as In Search of Guidance in 1984 (2nd edition in 1993).