Conversatio Divina

Dallas Willard on Spiritual Formation and the Family

This week we turn our attention to spiritual formation and the family. As our friend Dallas Willard has expressed, the natural condition of life for human beings is one of reciprocal rootedness in others. We get that from being image bearers of the Trinity.  Every person on the planet needs this “firmness of footing” as a condition of walking and secure movement. We all need the assurance that others, our significant others, are for us. This is a foundational condition for stable, healthy living. If we do not receive this assurance, Dallas suggests that our life is more or less in shambles until we die.

Even more sobering, every human circle of sufficiency is doomed to dissolution if it is not caught up in the life of the only genuinely self-sufficient circle of sufficiency, that of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Against that backdrop, we offer three resources from Dallas Willard.

1. The Foundations of Confidence: Family

2. Disciple Making in the Family

3. Family and Work