This was a paradigm-shifting read for me. Willard was a deep well of Kingdom-minded wisdom but still wrote in an accessible, practical manner.

Following Jesus is not simply a “barcode” we stick on our souls to get ourselves into heaven, Willard argues. Instead, it is studying and understanding how Jesus would live the lives we’re living now.

I will be referring back to this one often. Take up and read!

The Kingdom of God is Among Us.
That is the message Willard displays in detail in this excellent work.
As a professor of Philosophy Willard doesn’t just stay philosophically far away from life - the spiritual Christian life. In fact, it becomes very practical and challenging, but first and foremost inspiring.
If you like to rethink and reorder your spiritual life, this book is the definitive go-to!

Perhaps the most formative book of my adult life. I remember the first time I read this how unimpressed I was. But some kind of switch was flipped and the second, third, fourth.....it became my handbook. No one in our day has more important things to say than Dallas Willard concerning discipleship and spiritual formation. I see him as my grandfather, at least spiritually. His book inspired me to memorize the Sermon on the Mount. I led near twenty college students through this book over a 5 year period. Willard has such a unique, yet historically proven view of Jesus' intention of calling others to walk with him. What if Jesus wanted to actually call others to be like himself? What if there's more to being "saved" than simple forgiveness of sins and management thereof? Could God possibly be interested in who I am and eventually become? This book and its contents were truly the source of the greatest paradigm shift in my life. I recommend this book unequivocably.

Warning: don't read without a pen or highlighter nearby. Mine is marked up. Some of Willard's insights were entirely new to me. They made a ton of sense and the heart of the message in the sermon on the mount will stick with me, Jesus' words here aren't about salvation per se; they are about how to live as one sold out to Christ.

I'm glad I own this one as an ongoing reference.

He defines so many key words in beautiful ways. Words like discipline, spiritual disciplines and discipleship.
• Discipline: any activity within our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.
• Spiritual disciplines: disciplines designed to help us be active and effective in the spiritual realm of our own heart. They are designed to help us withdraw from total dependence on the merely human/natural and to depend on God.
• Discipleship: coherent framework of knowledge & practical direction adequate to personal transformation towards the abundance & obedience emphasized in the New Testament, with a corresponding redemption of ordinary life.

Chapter 2 may be one of the best written chapters to sum up Christians and how they typically think in regard to where they land on the political spectrum. As well as laying out how the gospel today has become a gospel of sin management and not a gospel of the Kingdom of God being present.

His use of mercy instead of pity, really hit home with me. This forced me to feel the weight of my position in relation to God and therefore my need.

Judge not lest you be judged; better wording for how we use these words: condemn not lest you be condemned

"My hope is to gain a fresh hearing for Jesus, especially among those who believe they already understand him." This is how Dallas Willard begins his introduction, and he certainly inspired me to take a new good look at the Jesus I claim to follow. The Divine Conspiracy is the most thorough, structured and comprehensive book I have read on Christian faith and practice. This book encases a (in my limited experience, unrivaled) wealth, breadth, and depth of theological knowledge for every follower of Jesus. However that shouldn't scare or come across as being too academic and therefore lacking in life. The author makes an important point of the passion and joy that must accompany our journey of faith, and I found the pages to be full of it. This book describes our eternal life now taking the Sermon on the Mount, mainly, among many other texts and provides rich ideas on developing a culture of discipleship in Church. Interestingly enough, in Willard's own words, "there is very little that is new, though much that is forgotten." Nearly every area of my spiritual life was somehow approached by this book and much of what it said wasn't necessarily new, just restructured and rewritten in a way that enlightened and made new sense, and left me occasionally awestruck. Willard's use of paraphrased and freely translated scripture also really helped to better understand certain biblical passages. I would give the Divine Conspiracy six stars if I could, because of how much more it is than other books I have given five stars. Richard Foster writes in the foreword "I would place the Divine Conspiracy in rare company indeed: alongside the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and John Wesley, John Calvin and Martin Luther, Teresa of Avila and Hildegard of Bingen, and perhaps even Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo" and although I have yet to read the works of these, I doubt I will disagree.

WOW!! This was a magnificent book! I probably won’t stop talking about it! The book walks very methodically through the Sermon on the Mount, which Willard calls the Discourse on the Hill, not as laws Christians should live by, but rhythms and responses Christian’s will naturally live by when they are living truly in love with Jesus! Willard also discusses how as Christians we are not living life on earth now to be followed by eternity, but we are living in a personal segment of eternity now!! And this should change the way we live as we KNOW the Kingdom is among us now, not something to live for in the future!!

It took me so! long! to read through and digest this book! So rich and so wonderful! One of the best books I’ve read in a very long time! I’ll leave a couple quotes I found particularly lovely below :)))

“It does not really matter how sophisticated intellectually or doctrinally our approach is. If it fails to set a lovable God — a radiant, happy, friendly, accessible, and totally competent being — before ordinary people, we have gone wrong.”

“And this [in referring to desiring to be Jesus’ apprentice] progressively integrates our entire existence into the glorious world of eternal living.”

It was as early as the introduction that I realized I was in for a good read when Willard stated, "Whatever the ultimate explanation of it, the most telling thing about the comtemporary Christian is that he or she simply has no compelling sense that understanding of and conformity with the clear teachings of Christ is of any vital importance to his or her life, and certainly not that it is in any way essential." There is no doubt that the influence of the church has been weakened in the western world; discussion of this issue usually revolves around the question as to why. In his own words, this book 'complete(s) a trilogy on the spiritual life of those who have become convinced that Jesus is the One." The intent/purpose of the book is to "present discipleship to Jesus as the very heart of the gospel." This is accomplished more than once in the 419 pages. [Though I prefer footnotes, I even found myself highliting items in the "Notes," which are located at the end of the volume.] For those who have struggled with the practicallity of the "Sermon on the Mount," this book now occupies a place in my library alongside Glen Stassen's book - Living the Sermon on the Mount.

In the New Testament Gospels, people marveled at how Jesus taught as someone who had authority. When I read the writings of Paul, I am impressed by his spiritual understanding and knowledge. He wrote, taught and preached as someone who had authority and knowledge that is beyond the average Christian.

I see not as much, but the same understanding in the writings of C.S. Lewis, and now in the writing of Dallas Willard, a present-day philosopher and theologian who wrote The Divine Conspiracy.

"The Kingdom of God is at hand" is the pervasive theme of this book, with every argument, thought and example pouring into this theme. Willard explains logically that this kingdom is not something in the distance to be experienced after death only, but is a miracle to be experienced in the here and now. His explanation of “the kingdom of God is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done.” (P. 25) It is that simple. According to Willard, we can be part of that kingdom in our everyday lives.

Since reading this, I have to admit to changing some of my prayers, to asking the Father to help me to live within this kingdom. I have felt a difference.

Willard’s work is brilliant and his theology is right on the mark.(Keep in mind that this assessment comes from a layperson). This 400 page book took me two weeks to read because I couldn’t read it like I do most books. Most books, I just zip right through. But not this one. I had to read a section or two and then take time to reflect on the words.



If there was anything in this book at all that I did not like, it was that he took the liberty to paraphrase scriptures into his own words. I like for scripture to be quoted as is, in a particular book. For if everyone who wrote paraphrased scripture to suit their purpose, there would be many distortions. I followed the scriptures quoted in the first half of this book with my bible and found one citation to be incorrect on the bottom of page seventeen where he quotes a story as coming from Luke, Chapter 5; it should have read Chapter 7. Other than that, this book was perfect. In Willard’s defense about the paraphrasing, he did disclose this in the his Introduction. And, he is after all, Dallas Willard. He may be qualified enough to do his own paraphrasing.

The same thing that I am criticizing, I found that I liked at points. When discussing the Beatitudes on the Mount, he put some of the conditions in a description that hit home to me:

“Blessed are the physically repulsive,
Blessed are those who smell bad,
The twisted, misshapen, deformed,
The too big, too little, too loud,
The bald, the fat and the old-” P. 123

What contemporary can not identify with some element of this passage.

After Willard discusses the God’s Kingdom, he discusses how to become the disciple of Jesus with practical suggestions for entering into discipleship. He ends this book with a discussion of death.

This book covered too much to be discussed in one post. Let me say that as Christians, there are certain books that we should have on hand and read annually. The first is the Holy Bible. The second is C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. This is the third. I am sure that there are many others. But this book has the potential, when used in tandem with the Holy Bible, to change lives for the better.

I’m giving The Divine Conspiracy 5 stars, not because it’s particularly well written. In fact, Willard is long-winded, redundant, and unorganized in his writing at times. Nor am I giving it 5 stars because I agree with the way he goes about making his points; his wording and footnotes are not the way I would say things.

This book is a 5-star book because it appropriately challenged my own discipleship thinking and methods. Willard doesn’t pull his punches when interacting with voices in my “tribe,” but he treats the other side of the coin in the same manner, which shows that he challenges with concern rather than in spite.

The most useful challenge that Willard makes is against what he calls the “gospel of sin-management.”

This book will challenge you, and you will likely find some point that you wish he’d rephrased or omitted, but it’s certainly a book that’s worth a read.

I must confess that I actually listened to this book, mostly while driving, and was unable to absorb its contents the way I would have liked. It deserves much more than that and is not meant to be quickly chewed. I found Willard’s overall message to be very meaningful and his ideas on true discipleship vs consumer Christianity and the fact that the gospel is meaningful for our lives now, not just after death, to be refreshing. Who knew that the gospel is not just about dying and going to heaven? Although, who really can argue with being in eternity with the Lord after physical death? Oh, what about the idea that we will get to be endlessly creative in the New Creation? And it all starts now. This quote from the book sums it up: “It is good to know that when I die all will be well, but is there any good news for life? If I had to choose, I would rather have a car that runs than good insurance on one that doesn’t. Can I not have both?”

(Can a book review be mostly questions? Who knows?) I’ll have to actually sit down and read this one sometime. Peace.

Does Jesus only enable me to "make the cut" when I die? Or to know what to protest, or how to vote or agitate and organize? It is good to know that when I die all will be well, but is there any good news for life? If I had to choose, I would rather have a car that runs than good insurance on one that doesn't. Can I not have both?

What is taught as the essential message about Jesus has no natural connection to entering a life of discipleship to him.

Among those who live as Jesus' apprentices there are no relationships that omit the presence and action of Jesus. We never go "one on one"; all relationships are mediated through him. I never think simply of what I am going to do with you, to you, or for you. I think of what we, Jesus and I, are going to do with you, to you, and for you. Likewise, I never think of what you are going to do with me, to me, and for me, but of what will be done by you and Jesus with me, to me, and for me.

It's not often that I can say a book actually changed my life, but this one did. I'm finally getting a grasp of what it means that Jesus is our "teacher," and that I can entrust everything to him.

This is the most famous Willard book, but I have been reading them in order so I'm just now getting to it. I can see why it is so loved. He gives you a glimpse into what our life really could be like if we really did step into what we already say we believe about Jesus.

Willard's profession was philosophy, not theology, but he brings truths out of the Bible like a master - his take on the prostitute and the Pharisee in Luke 7, "the Kingdom of the Heavens subjected to violence," Jacob's misunderstanding of his relation to heaven, why Jesus told us not to swear on anything, the meaning of the parable of the pearls and the pigs, why Jesus said Satan had nothing "in him" in John 14.

His explanation of how it is that Christians neither "see" or "taste" death both blew my mind and made me sad I'd never had a real understanding of it before. Walking through Willard's teaching on the Beatitudes has forever changed how I view the people around me who aggravate or disappoint me, helping me get rid of the "ministry of condemnation" and take part in the "ministry of the Spirit."