Dallas Albert Willard is an American philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 professor and author born in Buffalo, Missouri

Buffalo, Missouri

Buffalo is a city in Dallas County, Missouri, United States. The population was 3,238 at the 2009 census. It is the county seat of Dallas County.Buffalo is part of the Springfield, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

. His work in philosophy has been primarily in phenomenology, particularly the work of Edmund Husserl

Edmund Husserl

Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology. He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, yet he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic...

. His more popular work has been in the area of Christian spiritual formation

Spiritual formation

Spiritual formation is the growth and development of the whole person by an intentional focus on one’s* spiritual and interior life* interactions with others in ordinary life...

, within the various expressions of historic Christian orthodoxy.

Education

Willard attended William Jewell College

William Jewell College

William Jewell College is a private, four-year liberal arts college of 1,100 undergraduate students located in Liberty, Missouri, U.S. It was founded in 1849 by members of the Missouri Baptist Convention and other civic leaders, including Robert S. James, a Baptist minister and father of the...

, and later graduated from Tennessee Temple College

Tennessee Temple University

Tennessee Temple University is a four-year private Christian university, with its focus on liberal arts education, located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Operating there, also, is Temple Baptist Seminary, the university's graduate school of Christian theology....

 in 1956 with a B.A. in Psychology, and from Baylor University

Baylor University

Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...

 in 1957 with a B.A. in Philosophy and Religion. He went to graduate school at Baylor University and the University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

, earning a Ph.D. in Philosophy with a minor in the History of Science in 1964.

Academic career

Willard taught at the University of Wisconsin in Madison from 1960–1965. Since then he has taught at the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 in Los Angeles, where he served as Director of the School of Philosophy from 1982–1985. He has also held visiting appointments at UCLA (1969) and the University of Colorado (1984).

His publications in philosophy are concerned primarily with epistemology, the philosophy of mind and of logic, and with the philosophy of Edmund Husserl

Edmund Husserl

Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology. He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, yet he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic...

. He has translated many of Husserl's early writings from German into English.

Other work

In addition to teaching and writing about philosophy, Willard gives lectures and writes books about Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 and Christian living. His book The Divine Conspiracy was Christianity Today

Christianity Today

Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...

’s Book of the Year for 1999. Another of his books, Renovation of the Heart

Renovation of the Heart

Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ is a 2002 Christian book written by Dallas Willard.- Summary :Renovation of the Heart proposes that the human self is made up of several interrelated components: one's spirit, i.e. one's "heart" or "will"; one's mind, or the collection of...

, won Christianity Today

Christianity Today

Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...

’s 2003 Book Award for books on Spirituality and The Association of Logos Bookstores' 2003 Book Award for books on Christian Living.

Willard believes passivity to be a widespread problem in the Church (loosely summed up in his phrase "Grace is not opposed to effort {which is action}, but to earning {which is attitude}"). He emphasizes the importance of deliberately choosing to be a disciple of Jesus Christ (someone being with Jesus, learning to be like Him). An important outgrowth of the choice to be identified as a disciple of Jesus is the desire to learn about activities that aid spiritual transformation into the likeness of Christ.

In this regard, being an apprentice of Jesus (someone being with Jesus, learning to be like Him), involves learning about activities that might help one grow in the fruit of the spirit, namely love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Such activities might include spiritual exercises practiced throughout the ages such as prayer, fellowship, service, study, simplicity, chastity, solitude, fasting. Willard explains the crucial role of engaging in spiritual exercises in his book The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives-- a book that was written after In Search of Guidance: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God.

Willard has a recommended reading page on his website listing specific titles by Thomas a Kempis, William Law, Frank Laubach, William Wilberforce, Richard Baxter, Charles Finney, Jan Johnson, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jeremy Taylor, Richard Foster, E. Stanley Jones, William Penn, Brother Lawrence, Francis de Sales, and others.

He has been influenced by many, including Jacques Maritain

Jacques Maritain

Jacques Maritain was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised as a Protestant, he converted to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive St. Thomas Aquinas for modern times and is a prominent drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...

, Aquinas, Augustine

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...

, P.T. Forsyth, John Calvin

John Calvin

John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...

 and John Wesley

John Wesley

John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...

, William Law

William Law

William Law was an English cleric, divine and theological writer.-Early life:Law was born at Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire in 1686. In 1705 he entered as a sizar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge; in 1711 he was elected fellow of his college and was ordained...

, Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray

Andrew or Andy Murray may refer to: * Andrew Murray, often spelt Andrew Moray, leader of the Scots during the Scottish Wars of Independence...

, Richard Baxter

Richard Baxter

Richard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long...

, Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Ávila

Saint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer...

, Francis de Sales

Francis de Sales

Francis de Sales was Bishop of Geneva and is a Roman Catholic saint. He worked to convert Protestants back to Catholicism, and was an accomplished preacher...

, Brother Lawrence

Brother Lawrence

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection served as a lay brother in a Carmelite monastery in Paris. Christians commonly remember him for the intimacy he expressed concerning his relationship to God as recorded in a book compiled after his death, the classic Christian text, The Practice of the Presence...

, and the Rule of St. Benedict.

He has served on the boards of the C.S. Lewis Foundation and of Biola University

Biola University

Biola University is a private, evangelical Christian, liberal arts university located near Los Angeles. Biola's main campus is in La Mirada in Los Angeles County, California. In addition, the university has several satellite campuses in Chino Hills, Inglewood, San Diego, and Laguna Hills.-...

.

Translations of Works by Husserl

• Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics (1993). Dordrecht/Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 0-7923-2262-2
• Philosophy of Arithmetic, (2003). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 1-4020-1546-1 (Hardbound), ISBN 1-4020-1603-4 (paperback)

Christian books

• The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives (1988). San Francisco: Harper and Row, ISBN 0-06-069442-4
• The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (1998). San Francisco: Harper, ISBN 0-06-069333-9
• Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship With God (1999). Intervarsity Press (USA), ISBN 0-8308-2226-7 (formerly titled In Search of Guidance: Understanding How God Changes Lives ISBN 006069520X)
• Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ (2002). Colorado Springs: NavPress, ISBN 1-57683-296-1
• The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship (2006). San Francisco: Harper, ISBN 0-06-088243-3
• Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge.(2009).San Francisco: Harper, ISBN 978-0-06-088244-0

External links

• Dallas Willard's website (including many articles online)