Divine Conspiracy

I finally FINALLY finished Dallas Willard's Divine Conspiracy. I'm a slow reader anyway, but this turned into an odyssey. It is not a difficult book in terms of vocabulary, style, or even concepts. In fact, many points are ones we've probably heard since Sunday school as children. At the same time, however, it is, potentially, a life changing, radical manual for the pursuit of Christlikeness. I found myself rereading sentences or paragraphs, sometimes repeatedly, until I felt I achieved enough understanding to continue. A large portion of the book focuses on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, or as Willard calls it The Discourse on the Hill. It is a clear, refreshed, insightful look at the teachings, the heart, the personality, the very nature of Jesus while He was here on Earth, as revealed in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Throughout the book there is the theme that the Kingdom, the eternal Kingdom of God is not to be seen as some future-time development, but as Christ taught, the Kingdom is here, now, all around us, and accessible to us even in our current, temporary bodies through trust in Jesus as the doorway, and then the development of understanding, obedience, and discipleship of Him. The latter portion of the book Willard calls A Curriculum for Christlikeness, and is virtually a recipe for growth toward discipleship.

I can't say I agreed with every point made by Willard. There were some generalizations about the condition of modern churches, and about the nature of human beings I had differences with. But I always felt, from earliest exposure to "church stuff", that there was a disconnect between what we recited as beliefs on Sunday mornings, and the way we conducted life the other six and three-quarters days of the week. Consumer Christianity, Willard calls it, and his book is a welcome advocacy for those that share that sense of disconnect, and long for some authenticity in their lives.