Product Description

A renowned teacher and writer of the acclaimed The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard, one of today's most brilliant Christian thinkers now offers a timely and challenging call back to the true meaning of Christian discipleship. 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. In an era when many Christians consider Jesus a beloved but remote savior, Willard argues compellingly for the relevance of God to every aspect of our existence. Masterfully capturing the central insights of Christ's teachings in a fresh way for today's seekers, he helps us to explore a revolutionary way to experience God--by knowing Him as an essential part of the here and now, rather than only as a part of the hereafter.

"The most telling thing about the contemporary Christian," Willard writes, "is that he or she has no compelling sense that understanding of and conformity with the clear teachings of Christ is of any vital importance to [their] life, and certainly not that it is in any way essential . . . Such obedience is regarded as just out of the question or impossible." Christians, he says, for the most part consider the primary function of Christianity to be admittance to heaven. But, as Willard clearly shows, a faith that guarantees a satisfactory afterlife, yet has absolutely no impact on life in the here and now, is nothing more than "consumer Christianity" and "bumper-sticker faith."

Willard refutes this "fire escape" mentality by exploring the true nature of the teachings of Jesus, who intended that His followers become His disciples, and taught that we have access now to the life we are only too eager to relegate to the hereafter. The author calls us into a more authentic faith and offers a practical plan by which we can become Christ-like. He challenges us to step aside from the politics and pieties of contemporary Christian practice and inspires us to reject the all too common lukewarm faith of our times by embracing the true meaning of Christian discipleship.

A Powerful, Thought-Provoking
Guide to Living the Life
Jesus Intends for Us

"My hope is to gain a fresh hearing for Jesus, especially among those who believe they already understand him. Very few people today find Jesus interesting as a person or of vital relevance to the course of their actual lives. He is not generally regarded as a real life personality who deals with real-life issues, but is thought to be concerned with some feathery realm other than the one we must deal with, and must deal with now."

"[A]ctual discipleship or apprenticeship to Jesus is, in our day, no longer thought of as in any way essential to faith in him. It is regarded as a costly option, a spiritual luxury, or possibly even as an evasion. Why bother with discipleship, it is widely thought, or, for that matter, with a conversational relationship with God? Let us get on with what we have to do."

"This book, then, presents discipleship to Jesus as the very heart of the gospel. The eternal life that begins with confidence in Jesus is a life in His present kingdom, now on earth and available to all. So the message of and about him is specifically a gospel for our life now, not just for dying. It is about living now as his apprentice in kingdom living, not just as a consumer of his merits. Our future, however far we look, is a natural extension of the faith by which we live now and the life in which we now participate."

-- from The Divine Conspiracy

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5631 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-15
• Released on: 1998-03-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060693336
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Dallas Willard, an acclaimed theologian and professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, fulfills the longing of many Christians who want to live as true disciples of Christ rather than distant dabblers. Likewise, he scoffs at consumer Christians who are simply banking on admittance to heaven as their payoff for attending church. Or worse still, those who use Christianity to advance their political agendas rather than their spiritual ones. But this is not a scolding book. Rather, Willard devotes his efforts to discussing specific and inspiring ways to develop a discipleship to Jesus--not as an act of sacrifice or even one of spiritual luxury--instead, as everyday people committed to the teachings of Christ. "The really good news for Christians is that Jesus is now taking students in the master class of life," writes Willard. "So the message of and about him is specifically a gospel for our life now, not just for dying. It is about living now as his apprentices in kingdom living, not just as consumers of his merits." --Gail Hudson

From Library Journal
Willard (philosophy, Univ. of Southern California) considers popular Christian belief to be missing out on the essence and origin of its true meaning. Since "consumer Christianity" mistakes the logo for the logos, today's brand-name Christians have jumped on a bandwagon that has run off without its true leader. The imitation of Christ has lost its central importance in Christianity, according to Willard. He examines reasons why this is so and sets out a detailed plan for reawakening such commitment, which requires a genuine willingness to die to self in contrast with mere consumption of Jesus' merits as an insurance against death. Willard's passionate insights are thoroughly argued, though not all may agree with his curriculum for changing people's beliefs. Most suitable for pastoral collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"..IN SEARCH OF GUIDANCE and SPIRIT OF THE DISCIPLINES...These books along with the work of Richard Foster and other kindred souls, have already sparked a modest renewal movement ...But as good as they are, they do not prepare the reader for the power of Willard's new book. With THE DIVINE CONSPIRACY, , Willard joins the line of Thmas a Kempis, Luther, Fenelon, Brother Lawrence of teh Resrrection, Zinzendorf, Wesley, Frank Laubach, Dorothy Day, and other master apprentices of Jesus. ... What distinguishes THE DIVINE CONSPIRACY from many works in this gnre is an extraordinary combination of simplicity and depth. ... If you read only one book in 1999, make it this one." -- Christianity Today

"This book belongs in the tradition of the great devotional classics. . . . The comprehensiveness of his study, its accessibility, its fervor, its freshness of phrasing, and its command of Scripture should prompt Christians to give this book serious attention. And it's a book that will help seekers better understand why Jesus continues to elicit the loyalty and commitment of people the world over." -- Christian Century

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Customer Reviews

THE SILVER BULLET BOOK
During my apologetics class, professor J.P. Moreland said that we (his students) MUST check out this book. Richard Foster (author of Celebration of Discipline) calls it "the book I have been searching for all my life" (makes it sound like the "silver bullet book"). I found Divine Conspiracy to definitely live up to this hype.

The title refers to God's conspiracy to undermine evil with good. Among other things, Willard discusses the fundamental problem of nondiscipleship in the church, what it looks like to be Christlike (with an excellent exposition of the beatitudes and sermon on the mount), what it looks like to be a disciple of Christ, how to become disciples of Jesus and how to make disciples of Jesus.

Prior to reading the book, I thought I was well on my way towards becoming a mature disciple of Christ. After reading it, I've discovered that I'm nowhere close to where I thought I was. I realized that I have a real long way to go to becoming the kind of person who is so secure that I don't seek to find faults and weaknesses with people.

I also have gained tremendous new insight into how I can more effectively make disciples and how local churches could do the same.

The Divine Conspiracy is a comprehensive, practical, meaty, challenging, and extremely helpful book which I pray will be widely read.

Finally, a book besides the Bible that can change your life.
I had heard the name of this book dropped here and there, always seemingly with some special excitement that stuck in my mind. So when I saw it in the store I decided for some reason I needed it. Just one of those things where the Spirit leads and you don't know what's happened until later.

Dallas Willard's grasp of the Christian life as exposited by Christ himself, particularly in the Sermon on the Mount, is absolutely compelling. Willard mildly castigates both the theological Right and Left for, respectively, emphasizing saving faith alone in the Christian life as though how we live our lives on earth doesn't really make a difference, and preaching a 'social gospel' bereft of the spiritual or eternal significance that gives it its meaning or moral impetus. He then goes on to put forward a very vivid picture, using a wonderfully consistent and contextual view of Jesus' teachings, of what God intends for our lives here on earth. The author's treatment of the subject seems entirely original and unfettered by the various passing trends of thought that seem to color so many Christian books, and as such also sounds almost radical. But read it for what it is, and you'll find it to be as clear and natural an interpretation of Kingdom living as you'll ever hear.

I can hardly imagine a more welcome book for my own spiritual life, and expect it may be so for others too. I would put this book on a par with C.S. Lewis; perhaps even higher since Dallas Willard has crafted a work of not only intellect, but great applicability. This book seems like a life's work, and if so, then I'd have to say it certainly seems to have been worth it. It can be difficult, out of the deluge of Christian books out there, to pick one out as absolutely essential, but as far as I'm concerned this would definitely be such a one, and I ardently hope others find it too.

A Powerful Book on Spiritual Formation
This is, without doubt, one of the most powerful books on Spiritual Formation that has ever been written. Dallas Willard tackles issues of discipleship and discipline in a fresh and invigorating way. Willard is rightly convinced that "the practical irrelevance of actual obedience to Christ" has weakened the effectiveness of Christianity in today's culture. "Discipleship or apprenticeship to Jesus is, in our day, no longer thought of as in any way essential to faith in him," Willard says. "It is regarded as a costly option, a spiritual luxury, or possibly even an evasion." This concern led Willard to write the third book in his trilogy on the spiritual life (along with In Search of Guidance and The Spirit of the Disciplines) which "presents discipleship to Jesus as the very heart of the gospel."

Willard's path is a well-traveled one, though he views some of the familiar sights a bit differently than most of us are accustomed to. The Kingdom of the Heavens is seen primarily as the realm of God's rule (kingdom) which is as near to us as the atmosphere around us (the heavens). A new thought for me, and one I'm still mulling over. Eternal Life is mainly a quality of life - an eternal kind of life. Willard's reading of the Sermon on the Mount is certainly unique. Frankly, his understanding of the Beattitudes is one of the more novel and unbelievable parts of the book. But his analysis of Matthew chapters 6 and 7 is very helpful.

The heart of the book, found in chapters eight and nine, tackles what it means to be a student, or disciple, of Jesus, along with developing a curriculum for Christlikeness. Those two chapters alone are worth their weight in gold. I found them immensely helpful. Willard stresses the necessity of intention in our pursuit of the disciple's life and the importance of changing beliefs in order to shape behavior. Regarding a curriculum for Christlikeness, Willard helpfully shows that the objective is NOT "external conformity to the wording of Jesus' teachings about actions in specific contexts" or "profession of perfectly correct doctrine." Not that these things are unimportant - but they are not the goal. The goal is not faithfulness to activities in church or special religious experiences, either. The goal, very simply, is coming to "dearly love and constantly delight in" the Father and removing the "automatic responses againt the kingdom of God" so that we are free from the dominion and enslavement of "old habitual patterns of thought, feeling, and action." The goal is to develop automatic, reflex responses to life that mirror those of Christ. Willard's exposition of this is very good and will be eye-opening for many young disciples.

The strategies which help us develop this Christlike character are the spiritual disciplines. The disciplines, which Willard groups into two catagories (disciplines of abstinence and disciplines of engagement) are designed to help us enthrall the mind with God and aquire new habits of goodness, as we interact with both the work of the Holy Spirit and the testings and trials of life in our pursuit of Christlikeness. Willard fleshes this out briefly with a discussion about the disciplines of solitude, silence, study, and worship. The final chapter is a glorious discussion on the Restoration of All Things, as Willard describes where this whole Christian thing is headed.

Now, my brief caveats. I do have a couple of qualms about this book, but I tack them on the end and really do not want to overplay them, because they are really peripheral to Willard's message. My concerns are these: 1) In the helpful chapter "Gospels of Sin Management," I think Willard overreacts to Evangelicals (the Right, as he calls us) in his discussion of the atonement and "Lordship Salvation." In particular, the criticisms of John MacArthur seem completely unwarranted to me. I wondered if Willard had really read or heard anything by MacArthur apart from this one issue. 2) In chapter four on the Beattitudes, Willard is just out to lunch. I think he totally missed it on this point. 3) Willard's discussion (very brief) on the relationship of God's sovereignty and human responsibility reflects a very Arminian perspective. "God has paid an awful price to arrange for human determination," says Willard. Other statements hint at a sympathetic view of Open Theism. Disappointing. In Willard's zeal to preserve the truth that prayer does change things, he has gone to the unhelpful and unbiblical extreme of elevating human autonomy too high. 4) In the midst of a very good discussion on the "elephant in the church" which everyone tries to ignore (namely, the lack of discipleship) Willard strongly states that he does not believe that only true disciples make it to heaven after death. In light of the overall message of Willard's book, it is hard to see how he can say this. It certainly doesn't comply with Jesus own words in John 8. So, those four things give me a little pause concerning this book. But not much. Just enough to make it a four star instead of a five star recommendation. The material I balk at could be contained in less than thirty pages of the book (out of 400!). So, I still say "read it." Just be careful on the finer points of Willard's theology.