Any interested in bringing the spiritual and the secular together must first be able to say what exactly the spiritual is. This is the task that Dallas Willard wants to help us with in The Divine Conspiracy's chapter three. But that's where James Catford and Michael Stewart Robb pick up the conversation and start looking around modern society for the spiritual. We talk about her majesty the queen, architecture, going to hell and even punk rock. As James once told Mike (and Mike won't let James forget), "We have to blur the divide between the sacred and the secular."
§47 The Case of the Missing Teacher (Conspiracy Commentaries)
For all of its talk of spirituality and spiritual formation, western churches aren't known for their interest in Jesus as someone whose thoughts matter. The boom in spiritual formation has us discovering new spiritual disciplines, seeking new experiences rather than puzzling over the Sermon on the Mount. By and large our churches are not known as places where Jesus's teaching is studied and brought into connection with our moment-to-moment existence. Have we substituted spiritual liturgies or a rule of life for an everliving teacher? It makes you wonder if Dallas Willard's "Case of the Missing Teacher" is still unsolved, 25 years after Dallas Willard wrote The Divine Conspiracy.
Conversations ft. Roy Searle // on “Space Inhabited by God” by Dallas Willard
"There is very little that is new" says Dallas Willard at the beginning of The Divine Conspiracy. Roy Searle, a founder and former leader of the Celtic-influenced Northumbria Community and a mentor for pioneering British churches, and Michael Stewart Robb explore whether that's true. We set the Celtic Christian view of the world up against Dallas's own view of "Our God-Bathed World" and look for wisdom for modern Europe, where we must "sing the Lord's song in a strange land." Imagine Dallas Willard and St. Cuthbert sitting in a room together and chatting. This isn't that but it might be the closest you'll come this side of eternity. Or so we hope.
§46 The Gospel Gap (Conspiracy Commentaries)
Spiritual formation is hardly a cure-all. There is in many churches a gap between what people believe and the abundance and obedience that ought to come with trusting Christ. What's the disconnect about? How can we find the personal integrity and whole life discipleship which seems appropriate to Jesus's spirituality? Some say the missing link is spiritual formation. But it could be much deeper than that, suggests Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy.
§45 The Political and Social Meaning of Love (Conspiracy Commentaries)
Does it make any sense to follow Jesus but without the classical understandings of a transcendent God and prayer? Some think it does or at least have resigned themselves to the idea. What they believe we should hold on to is Jesus's notion of love. But what is love, if you've given up the metaphysics of Jesus's spirituality? Dallas Willard thinks this "love" can't rise above support for the reigning ideology.
§44 God and Jesus Immanent in Human Love (Conspiracy Commentaries)
Is love all you need? For some people, explains Dallas Willard, there is nothing more important about Jesus than that he "identifies with and loves oppressed people and those who are different." What these people say with all seriousness is "Get with the program! God is found in our attempts to accept all people, especially those who are having a hard time. Get rid of the oppressive and exclusive social structures and life on earth will be great." While there's much to applaud, it is hard to see why this is not an incredibly naive view of humanity and a reductionistic view of God.
Conversations ft. Ville Kavilo // on "The Heavens as the Human Environment" by Dallas Willard
Possibly one of the most confusing translations in the Bible is what's translated as "heaven." And one of the most helpful aspects of Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy is his explanation that heaven is simply where we live. That means that all the wonderful things that reside in heaven, God himself included, are incredibly near. This comes very close to being the gospel, very close indeed. It leads Dallas to make one of his most comforting and puzzling statements: "our universe is a perfectly safe place to be." Michael Stewart Robb travels to Finland to talk with Ville Kavilo, Lutheran priest and longtime reader of Dallas, about these matters. And as a bonus, Ville gives some great advice about starting spiritual formation group in your church or community.
§43 Religion Becomes Social Ethics (Conspiracy Commentaries)
Dallas Willard taught at a university where the gospel on the left had a foothold. He has a lot to say about how the Christian left (in America) became what it is. And "become" is the word that stands out the most in this little history.
Conversations ft. Trevor Hudson // on “Re-Visioning God and His World” by Dallas Willard
Most of us have as adults picked up a view of God. Even if we don't believe in God, we have a view of the God we don't believe in. Dallas Willard sets out to unsettle our view of God by insisting that he's about as joyous as anyone can be. In this episode Michael Stewart Robb sits down with Dallas's friend Trevor Hudson, a teacher and author who didn't react benignly to this section of The Divine Conspiracy when he first read it. That reaction was actually common, says Dallas. We also talk about whether there might be more to say about God's heart regarding human suffering, more than just, "He's full of joy."
§42 The Gospel as Entirely Social (Conspiracy Commentaries)
Do you think that following Jesus should make a difference in the real world? That's what churches on the theological left think as well and in this episode Michael Stewart Robb adds to Dallas Willard's very short history of the gospel on the left. Basically there are two major groups and if you live in Europe you'll be able to find both.
§41 Recalling Abraham's Faith and Righteousness (Conspiracy Commentaries)
Dallas Willard's own view of salvation can sometimes get lost in his criticism of the gospel on the right. But a lot of it can be discerned in his phenomenological exegesis of Abraham who is not only the paradigm for faith but also for salvation.
§40 But Is That the Issue? (Conspiracy Commentaries)
Despite what it seems there is a great deal of unity among the theological right, often called evangelicals, and Dallas Willard, in this section, wants to call the right's view of salvation into question. Merit, forgiveness, heaven are important issues but are they THE ISSUE? Michael Stewart breaks it down from Ohio, the land of lawn mowers.
Conversations ft. Jos Douma // on "Toward Integration of Life and Faith" by Dallas Willard
After his critiques of the reigning gospels of left and right, Dallas Willard attempts to put things back together, to put faith back together with life. Jos Douma, a seasoned pastor from the Netherlands, has been ministering along very similar lines as Dallas. Michael Stewart Robb and Jos discuss the role of preaching in finding Christlikeness, as well as the role of silence and meditation.
§39 Salvation Cut Off from Life (Conspiracy Commentaries)
Does anyone still hear a gospel of heaven still being preached in churches on the right? Dallas Willard still did in his day but by the time The Divine Conspiracy came out, many "evangelical" churches were shifting to another way of presenting faith in Jesus. This makes this particular section of Dallas's book a little dated. What do churches now preach? Is it another gospel of sin management?
§38 "Lordship Salvation" (Conspiracy Commentaries)
There was a day when pastors and the people listening to them dove deep into the details of salvation. Possibly we've lost that today but we've also lost the ability to understand why "those who profess Christian commitment consistently show little or no behavioral and psychological difference from those who do not." Dalles uses the early 90's "lordship salvation debate" featuring John MacArthur and Charles Ryrie as an illustration of what's wrong.
§37 Atonement as the Whole Story (Conspiracy Commentaries)
Michael Stewart Robb has been learning more about the iconic American preacher of the 20th century, Billy Graham, and how he gathered together, around the globe, people with common theological interests. But then there is Dallas with his criticism of a sin management gospel centered around believing a theory of the atonement and going to heaven when you die. Isn't that what Billy Graham preached?
Conversations ft. Mary Poplin // on “The Gospel on the Left” by Dallas Willard
Left. Liberal. What do these words mean? What do they mean in the church? Why does Dallas Willard call the gospel of the left a gospel of sin management? This time Michael Stewart Robb is joined by Mary Poplin, Professor of Education at Claremont in California and author of Finding Calcutta and Is Reality Secular? They won't answer all these questions but they will have a good conversation about education, the poor, the sexual revolution, the left and Dallas Willard.
§36 Gospels of Sin Management (Conspiracy Commentaries)
In American history the Fundamentalist/Modernist controversy of the earth 20th century explains a lot. In this episode on Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy Michael Stewart Robb talks about how the right and the left of today's church share many common characteristics. They both, as Willard says, teach a gospel of sin management. But they also share in a typically American way of seeking good in the world. And in the end everybody is messed up and failure is normal.
§35 Shifting the Focus (Conspiracy Commentaries)
Regarding implementing spiritual formation and discipleship in a church, Michael Stewart Robb often tells people that if it does not come out of the mind and soul of the main person who does the teaching and leading, then it is not likely to go far. Dallas Willard believes the failures we see in church are often due to what we are actually doing, that is, teaching. Even spiritual formation won't help. It has to be approached in a different way.
§34 God Really Doesn't Change Our Behavior? (Conspiracy Commentaries)
Failure. It is going to happen. To you or to someone you know. But how do we interpret failure when it happens? In this section of The Divine Conspiracy Dallas Willard explores the interpretations of two people who, in the 1990's at least, were well-regarded as leaders - Mike Yaconelli and Philip Yancey. Needless to say, he doesn't think they should be followed.