We are happy to announce www.jpmoreland.com as the new and official home for J.P. Moreland's content. We anticipate that it will be a dynamic clearinghouse of his material from both the past, present and the future!
Dallas Willard’s Knowing Christ Today is a stunning achievement. I could not put it down. It is the foundational book for all of his other works on the spiritual life, and a must read for all who wish to grasp the appropriate framework for knowing and following Jesus in the contemporary setting. Far too often, Christians interested in the intellectual aspects of Christianity do not pay much attention to the distinctively spiritual formation side of things. But just as importantly, those who are committed to spiritual formation frequently set aside the more philosophical, cognitive side of the journey. Both sides in isolation are truncated and, fortunately, with the publication of Knowing Christ Today, the intellectual and spiritual facets of walking with Jesus are brought together in one place in such a way that their essential inseparability is laid bare for the reader in a life-changing, persuasive way. This is one of the most important books published in my lifetime, and I urge everyone to read it with care. However, I am happy to announce that those of us in the So Cal area do not need to rest with merely reading the book; no, we can attend a critical conference at which Willard himself will interact about the themes and implications of his book and handle questions from the conferees. I am deeply involved in this conference and consider it to be of critical importance. I urge everyone who can to attend it.
In November, at the 2009 annual meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society, JP gave a talk to over 100 members in attendance about how Christian intellectuals can serve the Non-Western church.
While audio is unavailable, here are the main points from JP's talk. We are happy to feature these ideas here since this topic echos so many wonderful aspects of Kingdom Triangle.
the gospel of the kingdom of God is to justification by faith as the whole is to the part, or as the beginning of a journey is to the rest of the journey. The gospel of the kingdom includes justification as an essential ingredient. And it specifies the purpose of justification, namely, to be the entry into a continuing journey, or, perhaps more appropriately, to be the start of a continuing journey. The point of becoming justified? Justification is the way one begins a life of sanctification. The gospel invites us to an entirely new, rich life lived from the resources of and according to the nature of another realm. I become justified so I can learn this new life, a life that will be mine forever ...
the gospel of the kingdom bids me to start by trusting something Jesus did for me (died and rose), and to continue that trust by enlisting daily as Jesus’ pupil so that He can teach me regarding living my life as He would if He were me, that is, living out the kingdom in my own setting.
My evangelism has been transformed by recovering this broader gospel. When I speak evangelistically, I now spend most of my time painting a picture of what life in the kingdom is like. I contrast it to life outside the kingdom. I offer an invitation for listeners to rethink their life in light of the invitation to live from within the kingdom of God. And, finally, I proclaim the need for justification by faith as the essential first step into kingdom life. By connecting justification by faith with this broader gospel, I have good news to offer people. And I have come to recognize that the gospel of the kingdom and kingdom life, generally, should be accompanied with manifestations of God’s power and presence as we see in His ministry and in the book of Acts. And Jesus’ own ministry is to be understood as an example of how to live in and from God’s kingdom in dependence on God’s Spirit. This is our invitation and what an honor it is.