The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives | Dallas Willard

The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives | Dallas Willard | Spiritual Impact of Dallas Willard's book

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The Spirit of the ...

	The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives Dallas Willard HarperOne, 1991 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 40 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

How to Live as Jesus Lived

Dallas Willard, one of today's most brilliant Christian thinkers and author of The Divine Conspiracy (Christianity Today's 1999 Book of the Year), presents a way of living that enables ordinary men and women to enjoy the fruit of the Christian life. He reveals how the key to self-transformation resides in the practice of the spiritual disciplines, and how their practice affirms human life to the fullest. The Spirit of the Disciplines is for everyone who strives to be a disciple of Jesus in thought and action as well as intention.

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Excellent Challenge for Those Who Want a Deeper Spiritual Walk With God

"The Spirit of the Disciplines" focuses on the various disciplines that God uses to change people's lives. The book contains 11 chapters and 2 appendix for a total of around 265 pages.

Each of the 11 chapters addresses a particular theme. Chapter 9, addressing the specific disciplines, is my personal favorite. According to Willard in Chapter 9, the disciplines are separated into 2 groups:

1. Abstinence - This group consists of actions that helps us from becoming too involved in the world so we may better focus on God instead of the things of this world. The disciplines included here are: solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, and sacrifice. Willard's comments on solitude and silence were particularly insightful (solitude can help us in resisting conformity to this world).
2. Engagement - This group consists of actions we can do to serve others in this world so as to not become so isolated that we render ourselves useless to be used by God for His glory. Disciplines included here are: study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, and submission.

Other chapters (such as 11) address issues such as: can a Christian be financially and spiritually successful at the same time?

Willard will definitely challenge you to think and pay attention as you read, so be forewarned - this is not a light read!

Read, enjoy, and be challenged and encouraged! Highly recommended.

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Spiritual Impact of Dallas Willard's book

This is an excellent book for all followers of Jesus Christ or someone who wants to know what a true follower should be doing as a disciple of Jesus. If you want to grow and strengthen yourself in your walk with Christ, this book is an excellent guide. Just like a high caliber athlete practices and trains daily, we also need to follow certain practices to strengthen ourselves and develop good habits of prayer, worship, celebration, solitude with God, and many others. Without following these disciplines that Jesus Christ Himself practiced, the Christian can only expect to get so far before getting stalled in their faith. These spiritual disciplines are truly essential in furthuring our walk with Jesus. Dallas Willard's book is an excellent resource for that growth. Tom W.

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Phenomenal exploration of essential spiritual habits

This book provides a theological look at the nature of the spiritually disciplined life. Willard explores the "why" of the disciplines more than the "how." While this book certainly stands on its own, it makes an excellent follow-up to Foster's "Celebration of Discipline." Willard's intent takes him deeper than Foster and provides a more thorough exploration of spiritual disciplines. Highly recommended.

The Spirit of the Disciplines

I give this a 12 on a scale of 10! It helped bring my faith into perspecitive and is challenging me to strive for spiritaul growth.

This is a must read for the contemporary Christian church. (Certainly pinpoints why most Christians are considered hypocrites.)

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Great point but hard to read

First of all, I am not writing this to argue with all the people that loved it, rather I am reviewing for someone who has not yet read it and want an idea of what they are getting themselves into. I appreciated what this book has to say: Instead of focusing on what Jesus and the Paul did "in the spotlight", more attention should be paid to what they did to prepare for those moments, the Spiritual Disciplines.

However, I felt that was clearly stated in the first chapter, then comes 5 to 6 chapters of study on theology with heavy emphasis on epistemology. The writing style is difficult to read. Sentences are often long: 20-30 words in a single sentence. The headings are enigmatic (I was trying to take notes in a mind map as I went along and had a really hard time). The author also quotes others so often it is hard to follow HIS thoughts. When the time finally came (I wrote in my notes, FINALLY) to talk about the actual disciplines, it was only a chapter in length. I know that is not the main focus of the book, but nonetheless it seemed unbalanced after spending 200 pages promoting the Disciplines.

I was disappointed. My pastor in college really loved his other book: Divine Conspiracy. Therefore I was looking forward to read this author. I know part of the issue is that perhaps I am not used to his style of philosophical writing, but I don't think just because something is deep, it can't be made easy to understand.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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