The Divine Conspiracy Continued: Fulfilling God’s Kingdom on Earth

arrived early and as described

A deep and great exposition of christian thinking.

Excellent

I liked the continuity of the challenging questions Dallas Willard posed and answered in his previous book The Divine Conspiracy.His perspectives on an every day walk with Christ and how this can be a lifestyle witness was a wake up call to those of us who have been sleep walking in a comfortable christianity of mediocraty.

Not a good read except for anyone wanting to pursue endless discussion that leads to nowhere

I'm still working on this book and taking it slowly. I have read virtually all of Dallas' books and always thought he had a very important ministry, this book drives that point home in no uncertain terms. This is the ball hit out of the park.I think that Dallas, and many other important Christian scholars, would agree that the Christian gospels consists of Gods 3 step plan for human transformation.Step 1 - a person believes - a person comes to believe in God, that God is good, that God sent Jesus to help us and finds faith in their heart. They are saved, possibly baptized, and are re-born. Step 1 =s the gospel preached in many churches today - you profess faith, you are saved, you're going to heaven when you die - not hell. In the meantime you should read the bible and watch a lot of TBN. (we've learned about it and decided to play )Step 2 - a person loves - because of the power of Gods love in us we begin to trust in Jesus more and more and eventually choose to become his disciples. As his students we learn to live within that constant interaction with God/Jesus/ the Holy Spirit - and as a result our spiritual formation, our reliance on the Zoe ,the disciplines and the "with God life", we become vessels that can more accurately reflect Gods grace, light. love and care for others, - we are being transformed into Christ-likeness. The call to, and instructions for this type of interactive discipleship was the subject of most of Dallas previous work. (Hearing from God, Spirit of the Disciplines, Divine Conspiracy, Renovation of the Heart ) God is forming our character with our consent and by our request. It's the second step that makes us ready to be team playersStep 3 - servants lead - The graduates of step 2 who have been tamed and shaped by the spirit are to take their place in Gods grand divine conspiracy, and lead humanity out of the darkness and into eternal life. That's what this book is about - the hope for humanity's future! Could a bunch of spirit filled God lovers, love a people back to life with Gods help? Willard and Black think they can certainly put some effort into it! The good thing about God being in charge - the outcome's his.If every Christian did what is described in this book, and in Dallas other works on spiritual formation, both their lives, and the lives of many would be dramatically changed! The whole world could be saved. That's going to take a lot of home runsThat's the hope throughout this book. Dallas is summing up the vision he has, the joy that we will experience as we submit our lives, character, and kingdoms to God's! It's basically an instruction manual how to overcome the fallen world system, peacefully, and with Gods support. What more noble pursuit could you possibly be involved in?This book is much more in your face, straight to the point reading. (If you're afraid of being convicted of your lifestyle/character failures you might want to go back and read some of Dallas' other works first.:) In this Divine Conspiracy there are not many really long sentences that you have to read multiple times over to make sure you've extracted all the information. I like that. I think it's also that in this book Dallas and Gary are pulling out all the stops. If some areas were a little fuzzy before, here they're in sharp focus and you see their application. This is the gospel applied - and if we apply the gospel the way it is prescribed (this book being the prescription) we will most likely become, in very short order, the happiest people on the planet. I say Let's Do This! I'm on it and all in! Be part of the solution and get with the program! Read It. Do It. Live each moment the way it was meant to be lived - with God! I'm pretty certain that I will read this book repeatedly and that like Dallas other works, I will ask God write it on my heart so I can live it.

Sehr spannende Auslegung der Bergpredigt. Der Autor betrachtet die Bergpredigt als etwas, wonach man mit Jesu Hilfe lernen kann zu leben.

While the title for this book is appropriate, it is not only a continuation of Willard’s work in <i>The Divine Conspiracy</i>, but it is an extension of all of his works. As one who has read and re-read Willard’s previous books for years, I always found myself fascinated with the summary implications he tended to sketch toward the end of his books. Particularly in the final chapter of <i>The Spirit of the Disciplines</i>, titled “The Disciplines and the Power Structures of This World,” Willard intriguingly used broadly descriptive language to portray how disciples of Jesus in all walks of life would affect the entire world for good. Whereas that chapter was the brief, general description of how that would happen, this book is the detail that I and many readers of Willard’s previous work have been longing for.Some readers who expect another “spiritual formation” book similar to Willard’s previous work may find themselves initially disappointed. Even though it is thoroughly consistent with Dallas’ previous writings, it is also very different. However, the book should be very appropriately be found on the shelves of readers of spiritual formation classics, because it is the most thorough, inspiring, and thought-provoking explanation yet available on how true Christian spiritual formation is always, inevitably for the sake of others. “If there is to be a next stage to the so-called spiritual formation movement, this must be it.” (Kindle loc. 711)Following Willard’s death, when I first heard that this book was to be released and had been co-authored with Gary Black, Jr., I was initially skeptical. I’m not alone in saying that <i>The Divine Conspiracy</i> transformed my understanding and practice of Christianity, so to have a follow-up to such a masterful book to be co-authored by someone I didn’t know of and released after Dallas’ death made me expect a letdown. However, Black proves himself to be up to the task of coauthoring a book whose title will invite such high expectations. Having been a close friend of Willard, as well as having focused on Willard’s theology for the subject of his PhD studies and first book, <i>The Theology of Dallas Willard</i>, there is no one better qualified.As anyone familiar with Willard would hope and expect, this book will make the reader think and requires willingness to do mental work and be challenged. It is well worth the effort, though, for it is a gift for all of us who long and hope for the day when the kingdoms of this world will conform to the kingdom of our God and Christ.

Dallas Willard's valedictory challenge is the capstone of the wealth of wisdom he gleaned from experience and revelation over a lifetime of recording for us God's kingdom ways. This challenge exposes the root causes of our social disintegration. We can't lay all the blame on the world, the flesh, and the devil, because Jesus won the victory two thousand years ago. We, the church, have fallen short in defining and putting into practice the outworkings of morality and ethics into those institutions and professions that define and give structure and meaning to society. Education, business, politics, medicine, law, even the ministry lack a cogently defended set of standards and practices that objectively support a flourishing society, and individuals within it.As examples the authors cite the Hippocratic oath and the Arizona state bar oath. Whether or not the public subscribes to the values articulated therein, the simple is fact that there are licensed doctors and lawyers do not do what they swore to. That only the most egregious offenses result in disciplinary actions demonstrates this absence of intellectual consensus on moral values.What is the challenge? The authors ask us to articulate activities and standards of behavior that are moral and ethical, in each of these domains. The unique challenge is to logically link these to the gospel, to the good news of Jesus Christ, to the nature and character of God. Although Christianity is faith-based, its intellectual content must not be discarded, because the world needs to relate to standards based on logic, not faith. The world needs these standards if people and society are to thrive. The kingdom of God draws close.

No other book in recent memory has stretched my thinking, challenged my theology, re-envisioned leadership, and revolutionized my vision of what God's kingdom on earth looks like as much as "The Divine Conspiracy Continued." What Willard began in "The Divine Conspiracy" has been focused and simultaneously expanded in "Continued" with Dr. Gary Black, Jr.As a Christian leader, I have read and re-read this book several times. To lump this into books about "spiritual formation" (as many have done with Willard's writings) is a mistake. This book (along with the original "Divine Conspiracy" calls for a wholesale re-examination of the true Missio Dei, the gospel we preach, the dynamics of how human beings change, and the indispensable (and often misunderstood) role that leaders play.No doubt this is an intellectually rigorous read. Several times throughout multiple readings I was forced to study a sentence just to fully absorb what the authors were saying, not to mention the implications of their assertions. However, I found it challenging in the best of ways as my mind was forced to higher levels of thoughtfulness (as is typical with Willard's writings).Overall, I walked away feeling like this should be required reading for any Christian leader, and, indeed, anyone who aspires to be a leader. Without grappling with this content, any of us are flirting with leadership malpractice. By being trained with this content, Christian leaders truly are poised to be the "light of the world" that Jesus asserted we are.