Knowing Christ Today, by Dallas Willard

One of my passions is epistemology. I have no intention of pursuing this beyond the rudimentary treatment of the subject, but I hope to serve as a translator for the average person. Needless to say, when I began reading this excellent work by Willard, I was immediately engaged. He not only applies this very difficult subject to the average person (or at least tries; Willard is always tough to read), but he applies the subject to Christ-followers.

The impact for me has been profound. In the introduction Willard immediately draws attention to the danger of the contemporary climate regarding religious knowledge. He says, "Belief cannot reliably govern life and action except in its proper connection with knowledge and with the truth and evidence knowledge involves (p. 3)." The mistake is often made that belief/faith is opposed to knowledge when in reality belief/faith is the action you take on that which you know. You certainly can act without knowledge, but it is a confusion of categories to assume that belief and faith are opposed to knowledge.

 In chapter one, Willard begins his explanation of the relationship between faith and knowledge. Too many Christians approach religious knowledge as mere blind guesswork. But a higher standard is held to every professional field and must be held to Christians as well. Belief is about your tendency to act a certain way. Knowledge does not require action, but necessitates it. Belief is nothing if it is not action. A commitment is still different in that it is to act a particular way. You do not need to believe or know anything to commit to a particular direction. He finally adds profession, which is the expression of a particular belief. So, "knowledge, but not mere belief or commitment, confers on its possessor an authority or right - even responsibility - to act, to direct action, to establish and supervise policy, and to teach." Knowledge, then, has a unique role in that it bestows authority and dictates a necessity to act (commands belief, commitment and profession).

Willard continues his line of thinking with chapter two and "How we perish for lack of knowledge" which is a subject I felt passionate enough to preach on in my only sermon that I was afforded the opportunity to speak in my new ministry position.  He offers worldview questions, answered by Jesus.  He says that they are as follows:  1. What is reality? What is really real? 2. Who is well off? 3. What is a really good person? 4. How does one become a really good person? He then poses a 5th question of "How do we know which answers are true?"

The subject of moral knowledge (and it's disappearance) is taken up in chapter 3.  Willard demonstrates the seriousness of this by using the analogy of electricity.  If knowledge and institutions of electricity were to disappear from society, we would be hindered as a people in some significant ways.  Yet, more serious is the loss of moral knowledge which happened at the hand of several causes outlined by Willard.

Willard asks if we can know that God exists in the next chapter.  Willard cleverly repackages some of the age-old arguments for the existence for God in a winsome and attractive way.  I was surprised to see one of the greatest skeptics of all times, David Hume, quoted as a source in this chapter.

Having established the existence of God through traditional arguments, Willard takes up in chapter 5 the issues of Jesus and the miraculous.  He talks about the development of religious study as more of a historical reality with no reference to God at all; merely an anthropological phenomenon.  Willard makes it clear that the best explanation for the historical facts of Jesus' resurrection is that He did indeed die and rise again.  Yet, he maintains that no one HAS to know this fact, but merely assumes that they should.

Chapter six was perhaps the most compelling to me.  Willard immediately brings the book close to home by stating that, to know Christ today, is to know him in your world now; to live interactively with Jesus in your sphere of experience.  Willard offers to steps to living interactively with God today: Humility and Inward Rightness.  He then adds living in God's presence and progressive obedience.  Toward the end of the chapter, he covers spiritual disciplines (covered much more deeply in another book of his) to give further means for growth.  This life in Christ is knowledge by acquaintance, after all.

In what was a somewhat perplexing chapter, Willard introduces the idea of Christian Pluralism.  It seems to me that, at bottom, what Willard is after is that the Christian should proclaim Christ, but remember that God can extend grace to whomever He would like.  I have seen rumblings on the internet that Willard enters heresy, but I believe that, if we remain here, we have not gone too far.  This seems to be an issue of humility for Willard, epistemic or otherwise.

I needed this next chapter.  Those who are identified as spokespeople for the cause of Christ (most prominently, Pastors) must proclaim knowledge of Christ and Christian knowledge to the nations.  This is both propositional and experiential.  These knowledge claims are open to examination and testable.  What struck me in this was Willard's statement that discipleship ultimately is not about developing the interior spiritual life of the believer, but training them for effective service in the world.

Summary Thoughts:
This book has had a profound impact on me.  I have spoken about it, preached on it, and am not finding new things welling up in me as a result of it.  What has been most captivating, perhaps, is the fact that Christian knowledge in general, and the effects of a relationship with God can be tested.  I could see myself facilitating a "knowledge project" where I seek to establish scientific evidence for Christ's effect on people.  I am not sure what this might look like, but I would be very intrigued to take this seriously and gather trained scholars in the task to making it happen.  With epistemology being a passion of mine, this book has opened new ideas and realities to me that I had not considered before.  Willard seems to have that effect on people.  Specifically, I see the incredible need for integration as well as reestablishing knowledge of Christ in the world.  I plan to make the ideas and concepts from Knowing Christ Today part of the steady and consistent message I pass on to the people God has entrusted to me.  I am still working through some of this, particularly the idea of discipleship being for service rather than for self.  This makes sense to me, but it is such a vast difference that I am trying to orient myself to what that would look like in reality.  I have ordered a few books to work through that very concept.