Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge

by Dallas Willard

Overview

A Compelling Defense of the Faith for Our Time

Addressing the central question facing the church today—Is the Gospel true?—Dallas Willard offers an impassioned argument that Christian spiritual ideals are a reliable source of wisdom that should be granted the same authority as other intellectual disciplines such as science or philosophy. He shows how faith and reason are complementary and confronts the difficult issues of Christian pluralism (the challenge of other faiths) and how we can know God exists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062311795
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/13/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dallas Willard was a professor at the University of Southern California's School of Philosophy until his death in 2013. His groundbreaking books The Divine Conspiracy, The Great Omission, Knowing Christ Today, Hearing God, The Spirit of the Disciplines, Renovation of the Heart, and The Divine Conspiracy Continued forever changed the way thousands of Christians experience their faith.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Can Faith Ever Be Knowledge? 13

2 Exactly How We Perish for Lack of Knowledge 37

3 How Moral Knowledge Disappeared 65

4 Can We Know That God Exists? On the Way Back to Christ 95

5 The Miraculous, and Christ's Presence in Our World 117

6 Knowledge of Christ in the Spiritual Life 139

7 Knowledge of Christ and Christian Pluralism 169

8 Pastors as Teachers of the Nations 193

Notes 215

Acknowledgments 231

Subject Index 233

Scripture Index 243

What People are Saying About This

Peter L. Berger

“A spiritual defense of the proposition that faith and reason are not contradictory.”

Richard Foster

“Dallas Willard focuses like a laser beam on the issue of moral knowledge as a legitimate source for understanding reality and applying it to daily life. It is a must read.”

John Ortberg

“This is clear, lucid thinking about what matters most, as is desperately needed today. Only Dallas Willard could have written this, but I don’t know anyone who doesn’t need to read it.”

Editorial Reviews

Dallas Willard focuses like a laser beam on the issue of moral knowledge as a legitimate source for understanding reality and applying it to daily life. It is a must read.

Richard Foster

A spiritual defense of the proposition that faith and reason are not contradictory.

Peter L. Berger

This is clear, lucid thinking about what matters most, as is desperately needed today. Only Dallas Willard could have written this, but I don’t know anyone who doesn’t need to read it.

John Ortberg

Willard is always fascinating reading. [In Knowing Christ Today] he cares not only about God’s people being rooted in solid theology and thought, but also in Christ’s apprentices actually living out the life of the Spirit.

Baptist Standard

In prose that is both decisive and austere, Willard (The Spirit of the Disciplines) throws down the gauntlet to those in both the secular and religious realms who claim it is impossible to know Christian truths. A professor at the University of Southern California's School of Philosophy, Willard attempts to demonstrate how knowledge and faith can support each other. Arguing that the "standard of knowledge is truth and proper evidence," the writer leads readers through his proofs for the existence of God, the resurrection of Jesus, God's ongoing intervention in the world and the then logical possibility of a vital spiritual practice centered on "interactive life with Christ." Christian discipleship, as the author sees it, includes such crucial elements as humility, intent to be inwardly transformed, the practice of the presence of Christ and obedience. As Willard admits in his introduction, the book is a mental workout-even the questions at the end of the chapters are challenging. Woven through with the ideas of classical and contemporary philosophers, theologians and sociologists, this volume will engage readers who are willing to follow Willard on his self-assured way, and trust him as a guide. (July)

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Publishers Weekly

The Reverend Rodriguez (pres., Natl. Hispanic Christian Leadership Conf.) shot to prominence recently, having participated in President Obama's inaugural worship service. In his latest book, as he shrewdly remarks, he attempts to steer a middle course between Rick Warren and Joel Osteen. The "path" he has in mind is strewn with obstacles that make believers stronger, preparing them for God's wonders; his is perhaps the least dubious of the gospels of prosperity, and his book should find a wide readership.

Willard (Sch. of Philosophy, Univ. of Southern California; Divine Conspiracy) urges us to embrace Christian belief as a form of reliable knowledge and to use it to engage the world and other forms of knowledge, including science. His assertions, and his flaccid style here, however, do not make his case, although those who've enjoyed his previous books will want to read this one as well.

In an era that increasingly eschews devils and hells, Xenos Christian Fellowship founder and pastor McCallum provides a startling glimpse of Christianities past. He views this life as a field of spiritual warfare, with satanic temptations particular to the Christian and the pastor, and he seasons his book heavily with scriptural references. His best advice, however, is to resist and think on God. For larger collections.

—Graham Christian

Library Journal