Author DALLAS WILLARD
Publisher HARPERONE
ISBN 0-06-088244-0
This could be described as a defense of the Christian faith written for the days in which we live. Willard is really both a philosopher and a Christian teacher and combines these things to approach the subject of knowledge. “My people perish for lack of knowledge” was a word God spoke through the prophet Hosea and this author endeavors to examine the knowledge that Christians should have and live by and unashamedly speak of in the context of the many opinions and ideas of knowledge presented in the pluralistic west. This book endeavors to answer the question “is the gospel true?” He leads us systematically along a pathway to show that it is, that it is of such substance that it demands to be held alongside other intellectual disciplines without apology instead of being sidelined into a religious backwater along with the church that espouses it. Some of these chapters do not make for easy reading, but the logical reasoning he applies to buttress his arguments demands attention and it is the kind of book that needs to be read as a whole and possibly several times. He exposes the weakness of contemporary definitions of knowledge and morality in the light of the wholeness of knowledge, as it should be known in the churches. In a way this is a treatise that shows that revelation and reason are not incompatible, that faith and reason do hold together and are not enemies at all. By the time you reach the end of the book you find this applied in no uncertain manner to the church upon earth and why it is here. Certainly not to pamper itself or to look inward or protect itself but to stand boldly in the whole truth (which is not religion) that gives a firm foundation in which to apply a holistic worldview as opposed to the worldviews commonly held in the Western world today. The church is on earth to show the nations a worldview that answers the needs of mankind. As Willard moves along his track he covers several proofs for God, touches on the matter of miracles and offers a Christian response to pluralism. To get benefit from this book you will need to persevere and steadily move through the chapters and gradually it will yield up its whole and wholesome picture. The title is an interesting one for at first you would not easily see the greatness of Christ and knowledge of Him being central, but as the book progresses He is seen as the heart of all.
