Sanctus Forum

There are different theories for understanding Jesus' life, especially the miracles. On one hand there is Spirit Christology which holds that Jesus did the extraordinary things he did by the power of God the Holy Spirit. On the other hand there is what Michael Stewart Robb calls Giant Christology which is the idea that Jesus doesn't really know how to do what he does he's just a big oaf with extra powers. And then Dallas Willard has this idea that Jesus actually understood chemistry and physics as well or better than our chemists and physicists. That's this episode's topic. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

Have we really come up with anything better than Jesus' view of ultimate reality since Jesus' first taught it? There is a general cultural presumption that we have. But when you ask for details, names and citations, the crickets can be heard. In this episode Michael Stewart Robb discusses Dallas Willard's claim that Jesus knows spiritual reality (ultimate reality) better than anyone else we might mention. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

Dallas Willard speaks of a "cultural reality" which keeps people from understanding what Jesus' spirituality is. Michael Stewart Robb refers to this cultural reality as the great indifference to Jesus which stretches across Europe. And in this episode Mike shares Dallas's idea of what's behind this great indifference and what holds it in place. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

It is a great challenge for followers of Jesus in Europe to believe in God. The reason for this is because, as Dallas Willard puts it, our souls are soaked in secularity. And therefore we need to work really hard to rely on God in this life. Michael Stewart Robb ponders Willard's words on how this comes about and what we can do about it in this episode. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

Jesus invites us to see the world upside down in order to find peace in this world, peace amidst our circumstances whatever they may be. Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy calls this "The Great Inversion" and Michael Stewart Robb explains what he means and how it is gospel to those who are down and out. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

Having explained what "death" really is, Dallas Willard takes that insight and applies it to life now. The fuller consciousness that we get as we transition into God's full world is actually something which we can use to make sense of our world now. What is small and insignificant in the one context is actually very important in the other context because the other context is the one in which God is active. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

Since Jesus's friends never taste death, what will happen? In The Divine Conspiracy Dallas Willard gives some important teaching on that matter in part out of his work as a philosopher and in part out of his childhood as a Missouri hillbilly. Michael Stewart Robb also reads a story about a near-death experience which he found in the Missouri hills - one with a curious connection to Dallas Willard. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

While it used to be common knowledge in Europe and North America that death wouldn't happen, now it is taken for granted. One is possibly unwise to not write a bucket list and pursue all the good things that death makes impossible. Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy shows how Jesus pioneered wise living in light of the fact that death wasn't going to happen and Michael Stewart Robb explains why you don't need a bucket list. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

Our phones and laptops are portals into this world. And we get into thinking that this world is all there is. But Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy writes of how for Jesus's friends this is nonsense. Michael Stewart Robb comments in this episode about thoughts of the next life have disappeared from view. Perhaps because we all have phones in front of our faces. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Look at this world of goodness and it is hard to not be filled with despair at how it decays and dies. But Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy calls this the "mind of the flesh" for it does not see that "all that is good is preserved." Michael Stewart Robb explains that as "ceaselessly creative beings" we will be satisfied by nothing less than a constant participation in the good world of God - beyond death and decay. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

In this special episode of Conspiracy Commentaries Michael Stewart Robb answers questions and responds to comments posted by you. Should you have a question or comment write to us at info[that "a" thing]sanctus.institute. No promises. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

The human quandary is how to rise above "lives of quiet desperation" to something transcendent. Aldous Huxley suggested drugs. Dallas Willard suggests spirituality because we are spiritual beings who are meant to live from the spiritual. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

First off what is substance? We got to get a handle on that word in order to know what Dallas Willard is talking about. At a minimum, it means that something is capable of independent existence. But it means more than that and Michael Stewart Robb tries his best to do a little philosophy with you to get to Dallas's understanding of spiritual. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

The will or heart is the innermost core of a human being. With all the current talk of spiritual and spirituality, does anyone have in mind the will? Or when people talk about the will, what is that? Just matter and energy? If we are going to describe the spiritual, Dallas Willard thinks we must take serious personality and get around to talking about its center, the will. This applies to God just the same as to humans. And Michael Stewart Robb tries to dissect this compact section of The Divine Conspiracy. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Pretty crucial to Dallas Willard's theology and whole view of the Bible is that we can know spiritual reality. God is spirit and we can know what that means. We can know positively and not just negatively. And our means of knowledge, he holds, is through knowledge of ourselves. Listen this week for a tour through you as spirit and a lot of philosophical terms that Michael Stewart Robb wants to throw at you. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

The Divine Conspiracy is a disguised book about God. And in chapter 3 Dallas Willard has a lot to say about God's omnipresence. He seems to think that if we allow the myth of empty space to dominate our thinking, we won't understand Jesus or his gospel. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

God wants to be seen, so why don't we see him? Dallas Willard in his The Divine Conspiracy answers this by pointing our wanting to see God. Do we really want to see him? But he also points to the need to develop in our ability to see. Seeing is not so straightforward as we might think. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

Comparing God to humans can be dangerous business. But Dallas Willard feels confident to do it. And in this episode Michael Stewart Robb reaches Dallas's conclusion to how God is in space by exploring how you are in space. But in a century when spiritualism and pantheism are alive and well, Mike has some cautions to issue, the biggest being a reminder that Dallas really is a dualist. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Dallas Willard's argument for God's presence in the world takes a detour through our presence in the world. Where are you? Not where is your body but where are you in relation to your body. There's a lot to talk about here and Michael Stewart Robb will need two podcasts/videos to get it talked out. Come join us for an exploration of Dallas Willard's existential phenomenology. Oh yeah! BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

Dallas Willard says that the one place where "our contemporary mind-set" most strongly conflicts with the life and gospel of Jesus is in its understanding of space. He probably has in mind secularity. The secular mind-set has resulted, says Willard, in two attempts to reconcile the presence of God with empty space. Neither of which solves the problem. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

Dallas Willard in his The Divine Conspiracy makes a lot of the distinction between "kingdom of the heavens" and "kingdom of God." Why? Michael Stewart Robb explains why the difference matters to him and why it should matter to us. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

The lives of great people such as Sundar Singh is unthinkable and unlivable without a practical theology of God with us here and now. People throughout history have had "close encounters" with God and Dallas Willard thinks that these serve a very important role in teaching us about where we should expect God. In this episode Michael Stewart Robb explains why we shouldn't expect to live from them alone. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

The word for heaven might be a mistranslation in the Bible. At least that is what Dallas Willard thinks. Michael Stewart Robb explains why Willard thinks this is so important in our day. In short it has to do with where God is for us. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

The 3rd chapter of The Divine Conspiracy is all about immanence. In this section Dallas Willard begins his description of how Jesus comes into the world to make God present in a new way. It is a compact argument and Michael Stewart Robb does his best to help make sense of it. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

At some point Dallas Willard changed his mind on what the kingdom of God is. He eventually comes to the view in The Divine Conspiracy that "heaven is here and God is here." In this episode Michael Stewart Robb shares what he's learned about when and how he changed his mind. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

How did people depicted in the Bible, who had no Bible, know and relate to God? Dallas Willard's answer centers around experience and in this episode Michael Stewart Robb discusses how Dallas Willard characterizes these peoples' experience of God in some ways which are very different than we may have normally thought. It all comes together with the concept of heaven. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

The challenge of Jesus' spirituality is coming to believe one thing, namely "our universe is a perfectly safe place to be."⁠ That may be a bit of an overstatement and you wouldn't want to build a whole systematic theology on it but you'd have most of Jesus' spirituality under your belt if you managed to believe it. Meaning, if you managed to internalize it. Michael Stewart Robb discusses this phrase which comes from chapter three of Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

It is psychologically impossible to believe a blur. But that is where modernity including postmodernity has left us with respect to God. Dallas Willard, a philosopher in his day job, saw that in the churches he entered. Thus it will be hard to believe in a God of joy, if we barely know what God is. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute/​

Joy should characterize the life of Jesus's students. It doesn't so often because we don't know God like Jesus does. And here to help us learn theology from Jesus is Dallas Willard. Michael Stewart Robb discusses the third chapter of Willard's The Divine Conspiracy. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Michael Stewart Robb is thinking about joy today. How did Jesus have it? Supposedly it was a part of his belief system. That this was a world where one could be joyous because joy is the only reasonable response. ⁠It's not about being happy. You can be happy one hour and sad the next. Happy is a feeling it is best not to worry about it. But joy should be pursued if you don't have it like Jesus.⁠ And here to help Mike is Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute ⁠

How many people in our churches could give a Sunday school answer to the question, what is the kingdom of God? In this episode Michael Stewart Robb talks about why Dallas Willard thinks this is a worrying question and what its cause is. The gospel of Jesus, discipleship to him and the fulfilled life all depend on the kingdom of God making sense to people. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

What is it about church that keeps it from producing the kinds of people that the Old and New Testaments talk about?⁠ Dallas Willard grabs a saying from management experts, "Your system is perfectly designed to yield the result you are getting" and applies it to church. In this episode, Michael Stewart Robb shares Willard's diagnosis and he explains why Willard thinks that the solution must be natural. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Any interested in bringing the spiritual and the secular together must first be able to say what exactly the spiritual is. This is the task that Dallas Willard wants to help us with in The Divine Conspiracy's chapter three. But that's where James Catford and Michael Stewart Robb pick up the conversation and start looking around modern society for the spiritual. We talk about her majesty the queen, architecture, going to hell and even punk rock. As James once told Mike (and Mike won't let James forget), "We have to blur the divide between the sacred and the secular." BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

For all of its talk of spirituality and spiritual formation, western churches aren't known for their interest in Jesus as someone whose thoughts matter. The boom in spiritual formation has us discovering new spiritual disciplines, seeking new experiences rather than puzzling over the Sermon on the Mount. By and large our churches are not known as places where Jesus's teaching is studied and brought into connection with our moment-to-moment existence. Have we substituted spiritual liturgies or a rule of life for an everliving teacher? It makes you wonder if Dallas Willard's "Case of the Missing Teacher" is still unsolved, 25 years after Dallas Willard wrote The Divine Conspiracy. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

"There is very little that is new" says Dallas Willard at the beginning of The Divine Conspiracy. Roy Searle, a founder and former leader of the Celtic-influenced Northumbria Community and a mentor for pioneering British churches, and Michael Stewart Robb explore whether that's true. We set the Celtic Christian view of the world up against Dallas's own view of "Our God-Bathed World" and look for wisdom for modern Europe, where we must "sing the Lord's song in a strange land." Imagine Dallas Willard and St. Cuthbert sitting in a room together and chatting. This isn't that but it might be the closest you'll come this side of eternity. Or so we hope. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Spiritual formation is hardly a cure-all. ⁠There is in many churches a gap between what people believe and the abundance and obedience that ought to come with trusting Christ. What's the disconnect about? How can we find the personal integrity and whole life discipleship which seems appropriate to Jesus's spirituality? Some say the missing link is spiritual formation. But it could be much deeper than that, suggests Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Does it make any sense to follow Jesus but without the classical understandings of a transcendent God and prayer? Some think it does or at least have resigned themselves to the idea. What they believe we should hold on to is Jesus's notion of love. But what is love, if you've given up the metaphysics of Jesus's spirituality? Dallas Willard thinks this "love" can't rise above support for the reigning ideology. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Is love all you need? For some people, explains Dallas Willard, there is nothing more important about Jesus than that he "identifies with and loves oppressed people and those who are different." What these people say with all seriousness is "Get with the program! God is found in our attempts to accept all people, especially those who are having a hard time. Get rid of the oppressive and exclusive social structures and life on earth will be great." While there's much to applaud, it is hard to see why this is not an incredibly naive view of humanity and a reductionistic view of God. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Possibly one of the most confusing translations in the Bible is what's translated as "heaven." And one of the most helpful aspects of Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy is his explanation that heaven is simply where we live. That means that all the wonderful things that reside in heaven, God himself included, are incredibly near. This comes very close to being the gospel, very close indeed. It leads Dallas to make one of his most comforting and puzzling statements: "our universe is a perfectly safe place to be." Michael Stewart Robb travels to Finland to talk with Ville Kavilo, Lutheran priest and longtime reader of Dallas, about these matters. And as a bonus, Ville gives some great advice about starting spiritual formation group in your church or community. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Dallas Willard taught at a university where the gospel on the left had a foothold. He has a lot to say about how the Christian left (in America) became what it is. And "become" is the word that stands out the most in this little history. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Most of us have as adults picked up a view of God. Even if we don't believe in God, we have a view of the God we don't believe in. Dallas Willard sets out to unsettle our view of God by insisting that he's about as joyous as anyone can be. In this episode Michael Stewart Robb sits down with Dallas's friend Trevor Hudson, a teacher and author who didn't react benignly to this section of The Divine Conspiracy when he first read it. That reaction was actually common, says Dallas. We also talk about whether there might be more to say about God's heart regarding human suffering, more than just, "He's full of joy." BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Do you think that following Jesus should make a difference in the real world? That's what churches on the theological left think as well and in this episode Michael Stewart Robb adds to Dallas Willard's very short history of the gospel on the left. Basically there are two major groups and if you live in Europe you'll be able to find both. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Dallas Willard's own view of salvation can sometimes get lost in his criticism of the gospel on the right. But a lot of it can be discerned in his phenomenological exegesis of Abraham who is not only the paradigm for faith but also for salvation. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Despite what it seems there is a great deal of unity among the theological right, often called evangelicals, and Dallas Willard, in this section, wants to call the right's view of salvation into question. Merit, forgiveness, heaven are important issues but are they THE ISSUE? Michael Stewart breaks it down from Ohio, the land of lawn mowers. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

After his critiques of the reigning gospels of left and right, Dallas Willard attempts to put things back together, to put faith back together with life. Jos Douma, a seasoned pastor from the Netherlands, has been ministering along very similar lines as Dallas. Michael Stewart Robb and Jos discuss the role of preaching in finding Christlikeness, as well as the role of silence and meditation. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Does anyone still hear a gospel of heaven still being preached in churches on the right? Dallas Willard still did in his day but by the time The Divine Conspiracy came out, many "evangelical" churches were shifting to another way of presenting faith in Jesus. This makes this particular section of Dallas's book a little dated. What do churches now preach? Is it another gospel of sin management? BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

There was a day when pastors and the people listening to them dove deep into the details of salvation. Possibly we've lost that today but we've also lost the ability to understand why "those who profess Christian commitment consistently show little or no behavioral and psychological difference from those who do not." Dalles uses the early 90's "lordship salvation debate" featuring John MacArthur and Charles Ryrie as an illustration of what's wrong. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Michael Stewart Robb has been learning more about the iconic American preacher of the 20th century, Billy Graham, and how he gathered together, around the globe, people with common theological interests. But then there is Dallas with his criticism of a sin management gospel centered around believing a theory of the atonement and going to heaven when you die. Isn't that what Billy Graham preached? BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Left. Liberal. What do these words mean? What do they mean in the church? Why does Dallas Willard call the gospel of the left a gospel of sin management? This time Michael Stewart Robb is joined by Mary Poplin, Professor of Education at Claremont in California and author of Finding Calcutta and Is Reality Secular? They won't answer all these questions but they will have a good conversation about education, the poor, the sexual revolution, the left and Dallas Willard. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

In American history the Fundamentalist/Modernist controversy of the earth 20th century explains a lot. In this episode on Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy Michael Stewart Robb talks about how the right and the left of today's church share many common characteristics. They both, as Willard says, teach a gospel of sin management. But they also share in a typically American way of seeking good in the world. And in the end everybody is messed up and failure is normal. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute

Regarding implementing spiritual formation and discipleship in a church, Michael Stewart Robb often tells people that if it does not come out of the mind and soul of the main person who does the teaching and leading, then it is not likely to go far. Dallas Willard believes the failures we see in church are often due to what we are actually doing, that is, teaching. Even spiritual formation won't help. It has to be approached in a different way. BE INFORMED and PRAY for us better by signing up for the Sanctus newsletter: https://sanctus.institute