Author: Dallas Willard
Rating: 6/7
Date Finished: 2026-01-09

I hadn't read a substantial Dallas Willard book in about six years. That's a long time to leave an author who fundamentally changed your life on the shelf.

When I was in undergrad, Willard's The Divine Conspiracy rearranged my brain. I grew up with a faith that was essentially about getting my ticket punched for heaven. Do the right things, believe the right things, don't get caught doing the wrong things, and you're good. But Willard painted a picture of Christianity that was less about fire insurance and more about transformation. Less about avoiding hell and more about becoming the kind of person who naturally lives the way Jesus taught—not through gritted teeth and white-knuckle willpower, but through genuine change. I needed that.

Renewing the Christian Mind is a compilation of talks, essays, and unpublished materials. It's not as groundbreaking as Divine Conspiracy, but it's a distillation of Willard's core convictions. And returning to him after six years of ministry, deconstruction, and theological evolution has been clarifying—both for what still resonates and for what now falls short.

What Willard gets right is the central problem with so much of American Christianity. He writes: "The practical aim of the one who takes obedience seriously is not to obey, but to become the kind of person who easily and routinely does obey as a result of devotion to Jesus." Most of us were taught to try harder—to suppress our sinful desires through sheer willpower. But Willard argues that's a recipe for legalism and burnout. You can't force yourself to love your enemies. You have to become the kind of person for whom loving enemies is natural.

He calls out the "vampire Christian"—someone who says, "I'll take a bit of your blood, Jesus. Enough to cover my debts. But I'll not be staying close to you until I have to." What a devastating critique of a faith that's all transaction and no relationship. All salvation and no discipleship.

And his critique of the American church still lands: "We're so used to reading the Bible without putting it into practice, and yet we claim to have such high views of scripture." Ouch.

Willard is at his best when he dismantles the prosperity gospel and the notion that faith is just believing certain things about Jesus rather than trusting that what Jesus said about life was actually true. "It turns out that what we really think about Jesus is revealed by what we do after we find out that we don't have to do anything."

But as a progressive Christian, I can now see some flaws in Willard's work—or at least the ways it can go sideways.

First, his emphasis on character formation, while valuable, can easily slide into self-hatred or self-righteousness. If the goal is always becoming a better person, it's a short hop to obsessing over your own moral progress, measuring yourself against some ideal, and feeling like a failure when you don't measure up. Or worse—becoming insufferably smug when you think you do. Willard isn't unaware of this danger, but he doesn't build in enough guardrails against it.

Second, Willard's obsession with virtue ethics is too individualistic. He writes beautifully about the inner transformation of the self, but he doesn't deal adequately with systemic evil. What about the racism baked into our institutions? The economic structures that keep people trapped in poverty? The political systems that dehumanize immigrants and the poor? Willard's framework is great for becoming a kinder person in your private life, but it doesn't give you tools for confronting unjust systems. And a gospel that's only about personal transformation while ignoring systemic injustice is not the full gospel. I don't think Willard would disagree, necessarily, but he doesn't explore this tension enough.

Third—and related—Willard doesn't grapple with the social and political implications of the kingdom. Jesus announced good news to the poor, release to the captives, and freedom for the oppressed. That's not just inner peace. That's political. The kingdom of God is about rearranging power structures, not just rearranging your soul. Willard nods at this occasionally, but it's not central to his project. And that's a problem.

Still. Willard is right about something the church desperately needs to hear: the gospel is not merely an atonement theory. It's not just about how to get to heaven when you die. It should be about transformation—here, now, in this life.

And churches, including mine, need to wrestle with his challenge: Do we have a curriculum for Christlikeness? Are we actually helping people become more like Jesus, or are we just putting on Sunday performances and hoping something sticks? If we don't have an intentional plan for spiritual formation, we're not really making disciples. We're making audiences.

Willard's memorable lines still hit:

  • On heaven: "People who don't like God enough to seek him and spend time with him here are very likely to find heaven utterly agonizing."
  • On God's character: "The miracle would be if he didn't love you, because he is a God of love, not a God of wrath who occasionally 'lets up.'"
  • On identity: "You are an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God's great universe."

I wouldn't hand this book to someone early in deconstruction. Willard's world is too white, too suburban, too focused on the individual to serve as a complete guide. But for pastors and church leaders who want to think more carefully about formation—and for those of us who remember being shaped by Willard and want to appreciate what he got right while seeing clearly what he missed—it's a worthwhile read.

Six out of seven. Good. Worth repeating. Worth critiquing. Worth growing beyond while not forgetting the gifts.