The primary goals of the Martin Institute and Dallas Willard Research Center are to: (1) support a new generation of thought leaders in the area of Christian spiritual formation; and (2) help establish this discipline as a domain of public knowledge that is open to research and pedagogy of the highest order. Thank you for these, Dallas Willard.
In this week’s newsletter, the new director of the Martin Institute shares an essay titled, Christian Spiritual Formation as Public Knowledge. The author muses about these goals, provides five reasons for Christian formation being commonly seen as something less than public knowledge, and then reflects on a way forward.
Following this essay, you may enjoy the latest installment in our Telling Time in Church series to help prepare us for entering into the Church’s rhythms of fasting and feasting; and then listen in on some of Dallas Willard’s teaching on the spiritual formation discipline of fasting.
This is the first of three essays on a spirituality of fasting and feasting in the church’s calendar practice. This essay considers the biblical origins of fasting, as well as some early teaching on fasting. The second essay will explore the calendar more closely, noting how fasting blends into the Christian life’s regular temporal rhythm. The third will consider the spiritual practice of feasting
Dallas Willard teaches through a variety of disciplines at the church where he, as he later admitted, got his start as a Christian teacher. This talk on fasting is part 3 of an 11-part series titled, The Disciple, the Disciplines, the Triumphant Life.