• Part 2: Reviewing “Knowing Christ Today” by Dallas Willard

    June 18, 2010

    A few weeks ago I kickstarted a review of Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge, by Dallas Willard (part 1 here).

    After a comment by my friend Josh on that post, I thought I’d hop back in with some further reflections.  Josh asked about Willard’s reflections on knowledge and their connection to virtue, to truth/Truth, and the works of Polyani and MacIntyre.  To my recollection, Willard is not interacting with other contemporary philosophers (at least not directly), but he does speak to the matters of virtue and truth/Truth.  Regarding virtue, Willard says,

    We today live in a curious period when almost no one is willing to discuss the question of how one becomes a truly good person.  There is now a widespread tendency in American culture to think that everyone is already good.  This probably arises out of confusion concerning the dignity of the individual or the equality of all people.  It seems to many that all you have to do to be worthy is just to be.  They mistake worth for worthiness; the most unworthy of persons still has worth, value, a certain dignity to be respected.  On the other hand, as we shall discuss later it is now widely thought that there is no objective difference between a good and bad person, or at least that we do not know what that difference is.  So, if that is true, a method for becoming a really good person would be presumptuous and pointless.  (49)

    Willard is saying that there is such a thing as objective virtue, but more provocatively, he is saying that we can know it.  Let me trace his argument briefly by noting his comments on Jesus’ answers to the 4 core worldview questions.

    1) What is real? Jesus’ answer, God and his Kingdom.

    2) Who is well-off, blessed? Jesus’ answer, Anyone who is alive in the Kingdom of God.

    3) Who is a really good person? Jesus’ answer, Anyone who is prevaded with love.

    4) How do you become a really good person? You place your confidence in Jesus Christ and become his student or apprentice in Kingdom living.

    The key to Willard’s line of argumentation here, I believe is found in this passing comment he makes – one that I think he would ave done well to devote an entire chapter (if not a book!) to.

    … ‘knowledge’ as the biblical tradition speaks of it is always interactive relationship.

    If indeed the sort of knowledge that the Bible is concerned with is characterized by interactive relationship, then it, by nature, has a dimension of subjectivity to it.

    The apologetic value of this sort of knowledge therefore is found not in intellectual argumentation, but in inviting people into a relationship with the risen Jesus, manifested (uniquely though not exclusively) in and through the Church as the Body of Christ.

    Let me stop there for now and see if anyone wants to engage with what Dallas is doing/saying here.

    Related Posts

    1. Reviewing “Knowing Christ Today” by Dallas Willard
    2. Discussing Church, Christ, and Community
    3. Missional Preaching Part 1: Preaching as a Communal Activity

    Posted in: books, church, Jesus, review, spiritual formation, theology, truth

Recent Comments

  • jlundewhitler said...

    1

    Awesome. Completely agree. Just as a follow-up, I would add (again, still without having read the book, as it is beginning to collect dust on my nightstand) that this “interactive relationship” has one particular quality to it: It is a “discipling” relationship. The term “discipleship,” unfortunately, has become cliche in Christian circles. It is term that has been used to mean just about anything, which results in it meaning nothing. But the essence of it, I believe, is a central theme of the epistles, that we are followers of Jesus in a very concrete sense. We are Christ-imitators, who follow Him by studying His life, submitting and listening to His Holy Spirit, and developing concrete patterns of living (i.e. spiritual disciplines) that gradually conform our lives to match the Holy at work within us. This, of course, would be where a discussion of “virtue” would come in– and given that point 4 of Willard in your post introduces this very idea, I would guess that this is a prevailing point in the book as well.

    Thus, “knowledge” here would be understood as something beyond intellectual knowledge, or even moral knowledge… it is inherently a spiritual knowledge, that permeates every other facet of living, which is given its essential definition in the Christian narrative through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and is a knowledge that is not merely remembrance of things past but of a constant, dynamic interplay between the resurrected Christ and His followers…. yes?

    06/20/10 5:27 PM | Comment Link

  • jrrozko said...

    2

    Yes. Willard is clear on the discipleship-oriented kind of relationship through which we come to "know" Christ and have spiritual knowledge. What he is not as clear on, I'm afraid, is how and why this sort of knowledge is of significance for the relationship b/t those who seek to be Jesus' apprentices and those who don't. It seems like is after a vision of Christianity that can stand its own epistemological ground in the wider world, but if that same wider world isn't pursuing knowledge on the same terms, then I'm not sure I see the point. In all likelihood it is I, not Willard, who is missing something here, I just can't seem to put my finger on it yet.

    06/21/10 7:03 PM | Comment Link

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