Search Results for: Dallas Willard

Talbot’s Philosophy Department Mourns the Death of Dallas Willard

Posted on May 11, 2013 by - biola university, dallas willard, scott rae, talbot school of theology

Dallas Willard’s academic influence permeated from within and beyond the University of Southern California. As a former trustee, his impact upon Biola University, and especially her philosophy faculty, is significant. Scott Rae, Chair of Talbot’s Philosophy Department, says of Dallas:

We at Talbot, and especially in the philosophy department, are deeply saddened with the homegoing of our mentor and friend, Dallas Willard.  We want to remember his immense contribution, not only to Talbot and Biola more generally, but specifically to our philosophy program.

Dallas was a source of great encouragement to us when we began the program some 20 years ago and has remained one of our best friends and supports for our ongoing work. He mentored a number of us in our doctoral programs at USC, marked us deeply and impacted not only our professional lives but our spiritual lives as well.  He was very inspirational to us to remember the right things and set our priorities accordingly.  He modeled the kind of humility that continues to, we hope, define our community, where we take God’s Kingdom very seriously, but do not take ourselves that seriously.

We will miss him greatly and will always appreciate his calm demeanor, well thought out views, the priority of the Kingdom and his love for Jesus.  We know he is better off, but I’m pretty sure we’re not–his loss is incalculable.  Thanks, Dallas, for your investment in our program, faculty and students.

Scott Rae, Chair of Talbot’s Philosophy Department, was at USC from 1988-1992, and his dissertation was on the “The Ethics of Commercial Surrogate Motherhood.”

Dallas Willard Mentored Me to Be Mentored by Christ Through the Spirit

Posted on May 10, 2013 by - christ-shaped philosophy, dallas willard, Holy Spirit, jp moreland, moral knowledge, naturalism, postmodernism, r. scott smith

Dallas Willard’s impact in philosophy is far and wide. Many had the privilege to do their doctoral work under his care.

R. Scott Smith, Associate Professor of Ethics and Christian Apologetics at Biola University, was at the University of Southern California from 1995-2000. His dissertation was on “Whose Virtues? Which Language? A Critique of MacIntyre’s and Hauerwas’s ‘Wittgensteinian’ Virtue Ethics,” which later developed into his first book with Ashgate in 2003, Virtue ethics and moral knowledge: philosophy of language after MacIntyre and Hauerwas.

Consider how Scott shares the way in which Dallas was a “sign-pointer” to the way in which Christ seeks to mentor us:

I am so grateful for how the Lord opened up the opportunity to study at USC and be mentored by Dallas Willard. I think that was a major reason why the Lord opened that door. I could not do the work I am now doing without his influence, and that of another student of his, JP Moreland.

As a student (and even still), I was amazed at how much meaning and insight Dallas could pack into a single sentence. I still am chewing on some of those nuggets he shared with me in his office hours, or in class. His insights have opened up vistas that I just could not have begun to see while a graduate student, but the Lord has since expanded into areas of research and fruitful labor for His kingdom.

I sought out Dallas originally to help me understand better postmodern thought, but I have walked away with a much broader set of horizons and opportunities – e.g., the many, many facets of constructivism; naturalism’s inability to give us knowledge; how the breakdown in epistemology today is due fundamentally to a breakdown in ontology; and how we can indeed know reality, even directly. But, I cannot help but think that these were things he already had understood and foreseen long ago.

Now that he is absent from the body, yet present with the Lord, I miss him. He is someone I could go to for advice and be encouraged. But, he leaves us with a rich deposit of articles and books that we all ought to explore and deeply ponder. Some of his philosophical works, like “Knowledge and Naturalism,” “How Concepts Relate the Mind to Its Objects,” “A Crucial Error in Epistemology,” and Logic and the Objectivity of Knowledge, are treasures worth mastering. They contain very helpful insights that apply to so many of our questions and issues today.

But now, it seems there is a big gap without him being here, to go to. Even so, I started to learn about an answer when I first started working at Biola. I was exposed to his talk, “Jesus: The Smartest Man Who Ever Lived?” and little did I know, the ideas therein, though simple in one sense, would profoundly influence me. He portrayed Jesus as the One who has knowledge (indeed, all wisdom and knowledge – Col. 2:3), who wants to mentor and apprentice me, and who gladly wants to share His wisdom and knowledge with His servants. If we humble ourselves, seek and listen to Him, and be deeply united with His heart and mind, Dallas had discovered that Jesus will be happy to mentor us, in philosophy or whatever area of life we are in. Jesus is the smartest man who has ever lived, or ever will.

I know now of His mentoring me in firsthand ways, while I bathe in prayer subjects I am researching; while I am writing and have typed sentences the meaning of which turned out to be far beyond what I had in mind when I typed them; and from listening to Him. So, while a giant and a good man has passed from among us for now, and we miss him, his Mentor is available to all of us who are His children. “Learn of Me” – this is what a Christ-shaped philosophy must be about: being actively apprenticed by Him, and not me trying to do philosophy as a Christian by my best lights, without an intimate, utter dependence upon Him. That is too dangerous, for as Dallas, who exemplified humility, knew well, apart from Him even the Christian’s heart can be more deceitful than all else, and our thoughts are not His thoughts.

Thank you, Dallas, for all these things. And thank You, Lord, for Dallas and Your Spirit at work through him, and in us.

R Scott Smith, PhD
Biola University

May 25: Dallas Willard Memorial Service

Posted on May 10, 2013 by - dallas willard

Memorial Service Celebrating the Life and Work of Dallas Willard 

Saturday, May 25, 10:30 a.m.
Church on the Way
14300 Sherman Way
Van Nuys, CA 91405

From Becky Heatley, daughter of Dallas Willard:

Dallas asked that we not make this a big deal, and wanted us to encourage people not to travel across the country for the service. So there will be a webcast of the service, and details will be posted on www.dwillard.org. 

The Willard Center has setup a page where people are leaving tributes and messages to the family at: http://dallaswillardcenter.com/guestbook/  You might want to take a look at what’s being said.

Dallas Willard (1935-2013): Life-long Learner and Lover of Christ Jesus and His Kingdom

Posted on May 8, 2013 by - dallas willard

Dallas Willard (1935-2013), a life-long learner and lover of Christ Jesus and His Kingdom, and a faithful “co-conspirator” for Jesus’ cause in the world, early this morning entered into Act 2 of the “eternal kind of life now.” His dear daughter, Becky, wrote to friends:

Dallas entered into the joy of his Master this morning at 5:55. His passing was quiet and gentle. We know that he was willing to stay and continue his work, but he was longing  to be home with Jesus and we find joy in knowing he is there now. In the day before his passing, he shared that he was experiencing moments when the veil was parting and revealing the glorious reality of the great cloud of witnesses.

It’s impossible to put into words the multi-level, generational influence Dallas has had on Christian philosophers, pastors, theologians, psychologists, educators and spiritual formation directors; and that’s the short-list of different types of influencers!

No doubt, a “Willardian” perspective will continue to influence, even though Dallas personally eschewed the mere reproduction of “Willard-ites” as a substitute for people themselves personally experiencing the Kingdom of God.

Dallas didn’t set out to make a movement or foster a trend. He did intend to cast a big vision for a “big God” in a big world. Ordained as a pastor, he never lost sight of the value of shepherding and caring for people, whether as a philosophy professor at the University of Southern California (1965-2012), or as a celebrated author, conference speaker and dear friend.

To those that knew him, these words easily come to mind: a man of gentleness, wisdom and understanding who was in awe of God, full of patience, ease, tenderness, magnanimity, good humor, and classy.

No one will have the ultimate word on Dallas and his influence, except His Master and Friend, Jesus. The next best authority on Dallas would be his lovely and faithful wife, Jane, who has (as Dallas often admitted) the “real scoop” on him.

In the days and weeks to come, we seek to feature various remembrances and celebrations of Dallas by those who studied under him at USC and who see his philosophical influences at work in their own life and in the life of others.

Dallas was more than an accomplished and seasoned “professional philosopher,” notable for his work on Edmund Husserl, and various others areas of epistemology, ontology, and ethics (including articles published with Philosophia Christi, the journal of the Evangelical Philosophical Society). Philosophy was a servant and not a master of him, enabling him to reflect deeply and richly on the God-bathed world.

He was not satisfied with “doing philosophy,” even as a disciple of Jesus, for the sake of merely furthering scholarly discussions as some kind of academic sport. His philosophical insights were put in the service of helping people better understand how to flourish well in a God-bathed world.

He loved people and cared for their dignity, and many people love him, and will continue to be nurtured by both memories and his wise sayings.

Dallas Willard: The Shape of Moral Knowledge

Posted on November 17, 2011 by - 2011 EPS conference, annual meeting, dallas willard, moral knowledge

Professor Dallas Willard’s plenary talk at the 2011 EPS annual meeting is a helpful snapshot of his long-standing work on moral knowledge, especially in light of his forthcoming book on the “Disappearance of Moral Knowledge.” Below is a summary of his presentation with my headings and some modest narration:

The Problem

“Our current social situation is one in which there is no knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong, duty and virtue, presented as knowledge by our institutions of knowledge—primarily those of “higher education,” including divinity schools.”

The Consequences

  • “An inability to settle on the primary subject matter for moral analysis.”
  • “Insistence upon something like an axiomatized system for moral knowledge, or at least deductive order in some fairly rigorous sense.” But “The unity of moral understanding and knowledge cannot be forced into a ‘deductive’ mold … The unity of moral knowledge lies primarily in object, not in a logical system.”

Because of the “disappearance of moral knowledge,” Dallas wants to say, in our institutions of knowledge, “ethics” has become nothing more than a discussion about the dialectic of theories; contact and integration with moral reality is not the focus today.

But, Dallas counsels, “To force moral knowledge into an inappropriate form, and to fail to identify a constant primary subject, is to insure its failure.”

The Need

“The recovery of public moral knowledge and its effective presentation to the world is going to be up to Christians and, more specifically, to the “evangelical” Christians, regardless of denomination. “Evangelical” thinkers and scholars—because of their calling and training—must be at the center of such a recovery. They will have to assume the role of ‘teachers of the nations'” (here, see Dallas’ wise chapter, “Teachers of the Nations,” in Knowing Christ Today)

The Solution

  • “… make THE GOOD PERSON the subject of moral theory. In real life the good person stands out as one who characteristically evokes trust, admiration, support, desire to associate with, and to imitate. He or she is not necessarily talented, successful or prosperous, etc., and they are not “perfect” by any sensible standards, even moral standards. In the measure to which a person is not good, they fail to evoke the attitudes listed and similar ones. In the degree to which a person is bad or evil, they evoke contrary attitudes.”
  • Bring knowledge to bear upon the three main dimensions of the good person (care for neighbor, cultivation and exercise of virtues, respect and conformity to moral laws).

Dallas Willard is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. More info available at www.dwillard.org.

Dallas Willard: On the Disappearance of Moral Knowledge

Posted on May 24, 2010 by - dallas willard, ethics, moral knowledge

On May 2, 2010, University of Southern California Philosopher, Dallas Willard, gave a talk at UC-Irvine, titled, “On the Disappearance of Moral Knowledge: How it Happened and What it Means.”

The lecture was hosted by the Psychiatry and Spirituality Forum at UC-Irvine and made possible by the generous support of Fieldstead and Company.

About the Lecture

Moral knowledge deals with “the thoughts and intents of the heart,” with a person’s character, and with good and evil. But can the moral life really be a subject of knowledge, or only of tradition, sentiment, and opinion or “faith”? This talk will draw upon themes from Willard’s forthcoming book, The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge. With the ascendancy of empirical thinking, moral knowledge has become more elusive for modern men and women, precisely because knowledge of the self is not empirical. Concurrent with the rise of exclusively empirical thinking in the modern world, the will has been elevated above the intellect and the affective faculties of the human person. The implications of these trends for the psychological sciences, and the possibility of recovering a shared moral knowledge, will be explored. 

Below is Part 1 and 2 of the Lecture Video.


Celebrating the Life and Work of Dallas A. Willard (1935-2013)

Posted on May 13, 2013 by -

We celebrate the life and work of Dallas A. Willard (1935-2013), who was a scholar, mentor, professor and friend to many in the EPS and beyond.

The Evangelical Philosophical Society was pleased to host him as our 2011 plenary speaker at the annual national meeting of the EPS and also a plenary speaker at the 2011 EPS apologetics conference. His last Philosophia Christi article appeared in the 13:1 (Summer 2011), titled, “Intentionality and the Substance of the Self” (7-19). His other contributions appeared in the 4:1 (Summer 2002) issue, “Naturalism’s Incapacity to Capture the Good Will” (9-28), and then in the 1:2 (Winter 1999) issue, “How Concept Relate the Mind to Its Objects” (5-20).

Before his death, Willard was completing his manuscript (tenatively titled), The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge, a snapshot of which was given at the 2011 EPS annual meeting, but more fully accessible to the public in 2010, at a lecture series hosted at the University of California-Irvine. His opening chapters in his last published book, Knowing Christ Today (HarperOne: 2009) are also relevant to these developments.

From among the EPS membership and contributors to Philosophia Christi, here are some tributes to Dallas Willard’s life and work:

For some further info on the state of forthcoming, posthumous work by Willard, please see the June 2013 interview with Bill Heatley.

Addendum: On October 4, 2013, a “Celebration of Life” memorial service was given at the University of Southern California, in honor of the many years of Willard’s faithful work at the university. A basic video of that tribute is available here.

Sweetman on Willard: “People liked him not just for his books and ideas, but also for his character and moral center”

Posted on May 15, 2013 by - brendan sweetman, dallas willard

Brendan Sweetman, Professor of Philosophy at Rockhurst University and contributor to Philosophia Christi, offers the below tribute to Dallas Willard. Brendan is the author of The Vision of Gabriel Marcel: Epistemology, Human Person, the Transcendent, which he also dedicated to Dallas:

Dallas Willard is one of the truly wise men I have known.  He had a remarkable influence on my whole approach to my work in philosophy.  Without the benefit of his expertise, guidance, inspiration and knowledge in my early career, I don’t know where I would be.  Later on, he discussed his ideas with me, used some of my ideas in his talks, wrote letters for me and also endorsed my books.  This was all in keeping with his collaborative and generous spirit.

It is fascinating to read around the internet this week all of the tributes to him from far and wide, the vast majority of which come from people who have not met him, but who know him through his books.  The Willard family should take great comfort in that.  It is also very noteworthy that people liked him not just for his books and ideas, but also for his character and moral center.  I think this is quite a rare thing among scholars. 

I remember fondly our days at USC, where I worked on my Ph.D. with him.  He was down to earth and full of humor, had a tremendous amount of knowledge and insight, and was passionately committed to philosophy as something that really mattered.  He was among the best philosophy teachers I have known, and many times in class I was afraid to look at my watch in case I would find the class was almost over!  He was also always available to talk.  We had lunch with him many times to discuss topics from our work.  He loved hamburgers and strawberry milk shakes and a good laugh!  So we often told jokes amid our serious discussions!  Once before a talk, I and my great friend and fellow student of Dallas’s, Doug Geivett, presented him with four hats, inscribed with the names of some of his favorite philosophers: (Edmund) “Husserl”, (Thomas) “Reid”, (G.E.) “Moore”.  The fourth hat was inscribed with the name of our favorite philosopher: “Willard”!  He was taken aback, but it was obvious that he was very pleased.

So farewell to Husserl, phenomenology, Christian Philosophy, realism, logical rigor, the objectivity of knowledge and value, philosophical discussions, hamburgers and laughter!; —and, of course, “the spirit of the disciplines,” which was manifested nowhere more than in his compassionate and dedicated approach to both his undergraduate and graduate students.  As a colleague said to me this week: “Dallas was one who really made a difference.”  RIP.

Dr Brendan Sweetman,
Professor of Philosophy,
Rockhurst University,
Kansas City, Missouri.
May 14th, 2013.

Moreland on Willard: ‘We Have Lost a Five-Star General”

Posted on May 10, 2013 by - dallas willard, jp moreland

“Dallas was a man with a deep, pervasive, penetrating intellect.  He was a Christian first and a philosopher second,” observes long-time friend and former student of Willard’s, J. P. Moreland in his tribute here. J.P. also said, “We have lost a five-star general in the armies of God, and the world is not what it was when he was among us.

Three days before Dallas passed on, J.P. spoke to him on the phone and reports this:

He was lucid, in good spirits, but so weak that he could hardly project his voice over the phone.  He knew he was dying.  I told him that I wanted to take a minute to celebrate his life and remind him of the impact for the Kingdom he had had.  Well, being the humble, unassuming person he was, Dallas would have none of this.  I told him he had to listen to me whether he wanted to or not, and he responded that he would take the praise as from the Lord, and I filled his ear with his wonderful legacy.  He closed our conversation by remarking on “what a glorious future we all have in the Kingdom,” and that was how the man approached his death.

Read more of J.P.’s tribute at his website’s blog.