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(More customer reviews)This book, "The Spirit of the Disciplines," is part of a trilogy which includes "In Search of Guidance" (later revised and retitled "Hearing God") and culminates in "The Divine Conspiracy." Do not make the mistake of thinking that the latter book, as good as it is, surpasses and makes obsolete the other two. All three are great books in their own right and supplement each other and should be read together as the author intended. Also, Willard's books are good complimentary companions to those by Richard Foster, especially his "Celebration of Discipline" and "Prayer: Finding The Heart's True Home." In fact, in "The Spirit of the Disciplines," Willard refers readers to "Celebration of Discipline" for more practical application of the disciplines since his book's main thrust is to provide a practical theology of the spiritual disciplines which he felt was lacking in contemporary Christian literature. Another good book on the spiritual disciplines is "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" by Donald S. Whitney which takes into consideration Willard's and Foster's insights and adds a few of its own, including the important one that "meditation is the missing link between Bible intake and prayer." I also consider spiritual mentoring to be important and I've found the book by Randy Reese and Keith Anderson entitled "Spiritual Mentoring: A Guide for Seeking and Giving Direction" to be very useful in this regard. Reese and Anderson also value the wisdom of the Christian spiritual masters of old, as do Foster and Willard, and saturate their book with their insights.
Willard's thrust in this book is to emphasize and expound the vital importance of the spiritual disciplines to the Christian life and to clear away popular misconceptions of them. In the preface, he says: "My central claim is that we CAN become like Christ by doing one thing - by following him in the overall style of life he chose for himself. If we have faith in Christ, we must believe that he knew how to live. We can, through faith and grace, become like Christ by practicing the types of activities he engaged in, by arranging our whole lives around the activities he himself practiced in order to remain constantly at home in the fellowship of his Father." He continues: "What activities did Jesus practice? Such things as solitude and silence, prayer, simple and sacrificial living, intense study and meditation upon God's Word and God's ways, and service to others. Some of these will certainly be even more necessary to us than they were to him, because of our greater or different need. But in a balanced life of such activities, we will be constantly enlivened by `The Kingdom Not of This World' - the Kingdom of Truth as seen in John 18:36 - 37." We must go beyond asking "What would Jesus do?" to practicing what Jesus practiced. "Following `in his steps' cannot be equated with behaving as he did when he was `on the spot.' To live as Christ lived is to live as he did all his life."
Some of the misconceptions he exposes, as they relate to practicing the spiritual disciplines, include the denigration of the physical body and confusing it with the fallen human nature, and the elevation of poverty as a virtue and denigration of wealth as a vice. He takes exception to some of the ascetic practices of some of the early Christian monks who went so far as to abuse their bodies. He also states: "to withhold our bodies from religion is to exclude religion from our lives" (pg. 30). Spiritual life is the body's fulfillment. He also respectfully disagrees with such notables as John Wesley and Alastair MacIntyre who more or less see the rich as destined for Hell. Additionally, he argues that salvation is not JUST forgiveness, as popularly taught today, but a new order of life (which includes forgiveness). He expounds more on this disagreement in his book "The Divine Conspiracy" and there takes exception to theologians such as Charles Ryrie. This disagreement is one of the contemporary controversial issues (not only among Arminians and Calvinists but even among those who believe in "eternal security" or "once-saved, always-saved") and involves the relationship of faith and obedience in a true (not just professing) Christian's life. Willard's position seems to be that discipleship and/or obedience to Christ is NOT optional but integral to what it means to be a Christian. But this implies that a lack of discipleship to Christ (which includes a lack of some sort of spiritual discipline in one's life) means a lack of salvation. This is what provokes debate since some see this as promoting the idea that we maintain our salvation by works, an idea that surely Willard would reject because it misunderstands his point about the relational aspect of salvation inherent in discipleship. He sees two great omissions from Christ's great commission in the contemporary Church (that is, among those who profess to be Christians): 1) the omission of making disciples, and 2) the omission of the step of taking our converts through training that will bring them ever increasingly to do what Jesus directed (see Appendix II). This book is intended as a biblical corrective to those omissions and I think it contributes admirably to that purpose. This is essential reading.
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The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes LivesHow to Live as Jesus LivedDallas Willard, one of today's most brilliant Christian thinkers and author of The Divine Conspiracy (Christianity Today's 1999 Book of the Year), presents a way of living that enables ordinary men and women to enjoy the fruit of the Christian life. He reveals how the key to self-transformation resides in the practice of the spiritual disciplines, and how their practice affirms human life to the fullest. The Spirit of the Disciplines is for everyone who strives to be a disciple of Jesus in thought and action as well as intention.
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