1

Some years ago "Spirit of the Disciplines" had an impact on my Christian philosophy, especially how God grants us freedom and intends us to take personal responsibility for our lives.
I need to re-read that book and look into more of his works.

2

Actually, Dallas Willard isn't widely known within his academic field. As with William Lane Craig, J.P. Moreland, and Peter Kreeft, it's mostly evangelicals interested in philosophy but not exploring it at the graduate level or beyond who read his stuff. The only time I've ever heard his name come up in my department is when William Alston, someone who really is a well-known Christian within philosophy, mentioned that the book on spiritual disciplines, while not philosophy, is very good. He said this to a group of Christians.

Some Christian philosophers who are well known within the field are Alston, Peter van Inwagen, Alvin Plantinga, Dean Zimmerman, Paul Moser, Jonathan Kvanvig, Mike Rea, and Trenton Merricks (this is not intended to be exhaustive, just who I'm thinking of at the moment, and it somewhat reflects my own interests). Not all of them consider themselves evangelicals, but I think they all really are even if they won't admit it. These philosophers are well-known within philosophy primarily because they do good work unrelated to philosophy of religion. Only one or two of them might be known to non-philosophers. There's almost no overlap with the list of popular philosophers among evangelicals.

3

Jeremy,

Your comment has reminded me of a question I had always been curious about. Given the choice between being:

(a) an academic that is well-known and respected by his colleagues but unknown outside his field or
(b) an academic that is obscure within their own field of study but has a broad appeal and influence within the Christian community

Which would you choose?

4

Joe, the right answer would be whichever one to which God called you.

5

I was a grad student at USC in the early 90's, and since I wasn't in the philosophy program, I didn't get to know Willard well. But, I did trek over to his office one time, this really musty, cool space on the top of the philosophy library (you really got see that library. It is so cool!http://www.usc.edu/isd/locations/hss/philosophy/). Anyway, I introduced myself to Dr. Willard, and we spoke for a few minutes, but not for long. I seriously doubt he would remember me.

The point is, though, at USC Willard was known and respected among all the faculty. He hadn't published that much, but he was very highly thought of, and his mere presence and reputation on the campus gave me confidence to challenge the non-christian worldviews within my own discipline, especially to senior faculty. It was something akin to challenging the neighborhood bully knowing that your older, bigger brother is behind you, giving a certain weight to your own squeaky threats. That is the role Willard played in my life as a Christian intellectual. Huge? no. But abiding? yes.

6

Definitely a. I'd love to have an impact among evangelicals, and if that's what God has for me I'd be excited about it, but where I really feel drawn is into academia to speak to academics.

7

Puzzled, your use of 'call' is unbiblical. The only time the expression is used is of things we are all called to. If you mean a purpose God has ordained for someone and not for others, the meaning is ok, but I don't think we always have knowledge of that until it happens and therefore have to make decisions based only on what God has revealed and on what we know about ourselves.

8

I had the honor of meeting Dallas Willard once. In fact, I drove him to his hotel room after giving a lecture at Bethel University. He was a very nice gentlemen, and seemed very grateful for everything that people did for him.

I studied his book "The Divine Conspiracy" with a group of guys for almost a year. It is a deep and thought provoking book. No skimming of this book. Be prepared to re-read paragraphs a few times before it sinks in.

9

Actually, I think the title of that first book is "In Search of Guidance" (not "Hearing God").

Obviously, I'm a big DW fan. I've read all three books in his "trilogy" (In Search of Guidance, Spirit of the Disciplines, and the Divine Conspiracy) and they've had a profound effect on my faith and my life.

10

P.S. Benjamin, I agree with you re the density of the material, and the necessity of re-reading paragraphs, pages, sections, chapters, etc.

My wife has teased me ad nauseum about how long it takes me to get thru these books (on average, about two years per book).

11

Being from outside of the U.S. I only know this guy as a popular Cristian writer (rather than a philosopher or Christian academic) from his books. I read Divine Conspiracy before it got very popular down here. Took several attempts to get through it - some really bad exegesis. And some of his points were so obvious and could have been said in half the space. It was enough to put me off from Willard for years.

12

Saint said, "I read Divine Conspiracy before it got very popular down here. Took several attempts to get through it - some really bad exegesis. And some of his points were so obvious and could have been said in half the space. It was enough to put me off from Willard for years."

Saint, what are your credentials? And can you prove them? These are relatively strong words. "Bad Exegesis?" Examples?

It sounds like you just don't care for Willard's perspective.

Regards,

DC

13

It is true that Willard is generally unknown among non-christian philosophers, but this is in regard to the contemporary philosophers within the "analytic tradition" only. He is, however, known among philosophers within the so-called "contintental tradition" due to his work concerning Edmund Husserl and phenomenology in general. He has published many articles in this regard as well as three influential books, including much needed translation from the original language. I have found that his book Logic and the Objectivity of Knowledge: A study in Husserl's Philosophy has been referenced in a few important books that introduce phenomenology, such as Robert Sokolowski's Introduction (which was very helpful to me)

Also, for Joe and Jeremy, I once interviewed Willard through email for a class on Contemporary Christian Philosophy(which was basically a class on Plantinga!!) One question I asked Willard was, what are the areas in which you would like to make the greatest of your contributions? His answer was great, and suprising. He said, and this is NOT a quote, the theory of mind and knowledge. but I dont think much about this. theres no point to it.

2 other things...the discussion of "call" above is actually carried out quite thourougly in Willard's Hearing God(previously titled, "In Search of Guidance")
and...I would also be interested in that dude's credentials and more importantly his REASONS and EXAMPLES for saying "bad exegesis". What a claim!