Dallas Willard
: Articles

I attended a conference this week on anti-racism/pro-reconciliation. Though the conference was offered by one of the denominations I am affliated with, we did not talk at all about spiritual formation and transformation of the heart as the most profound answer for this complex and difficult problem.

Needless to say, I was deeply disappointed. This article by Willard in which he discusses his book Renovation of the Heart, I believe hits the nail on the head.

That’s the secret of Jesus. You watch Jesus and you see he never did “withdraw” and then “attack.” All of the time people wanted him to do it and in many ways, but he would not. Then to the body of believers he said, “This will show everyone that you are my disciples, if you love one another,” but he had already said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” So that’s the model. In that sense the transformation of the social world is at its heart the transformation of personal relations. That’s the key to transforming society in the larger arena. There is no cure for the social battles that we fight in our culture–and there’s so much grief around race, gender, and so forth–until you eliminate “withdrawal” and “attack” and replace them with “acceptance” and “help.” Once you do that and not just talk about it, these other issues will fall into place quickly. They will not fall into place at all unless it is done this way.

The church truly is the hope of the world!