Dallas Willard's Theology of Spiritual Formation | Keas Keasler
What was Dallas Willard's vision for discipleship — and why does it feel more urgent than ever for the church today?
In this episode of The UpWords Podcast, host Dan Hummel sits down with Keas Keasler, author of the first comprehensive academic study of Dallas Willard's theology. Together they trace Willard's life from Depression-era Missouri to 47 years at USC, unpack the philosophical roots of his spiritual formation theology, and explore why his vision of Christian discipleship remains so compelling — and so challenging — for the church today.
Willard believed the aim of God in human history is the formation of a community of loving persons: people apprenticed to Jesus, shaped by his character, and prepared to co-reign with him in eternity. Keasler spent seven years researching that vision. This conversation is the fruit of that work.
In this episode, you'll learn:
· Why Keas Keasler spent seven years researching Dallas Willard — and what surprised him
· The key biographical arc of Willard's life: a broken childhood, a pivotal choice between philosophy and seminary, and 47 years at USC
· How Willard's friendship with Richard Foster and a small Quaker church in Southern California helped birth the modern spiritual formation movement
· Why Willard chose phenomenology — the study of consciousness — and how it shaped his theology of transformation
· What it means that Willard was a committed metaphysical and epistemic realist — and why that grounds everything he taught
· Willard's vision of humans as co-rulers with God: what the parable of the pounds reveals, and why spiritual formation is training for that calling
· The famous Willard line — "Grace is not opposed to effort, but to earning" — and the sophisticated theology behind it
· The Golden Triangle of spiritual formation: the Holy Spirit, the spiritual disciplines, and the ordinary decisions of daily life
The "sanctification gap" Richard Lovelace identified in the 1970s — and why it has only widened since
Why there is a crisis of character in the church today, and what Willard's vision offers as a remedy
About Keas Keasler Keas Keasler (PhD, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) is Associate Professor of Spiritual Theology at Friends University, where he also serves as Program Director of the MA in Christian Spiritual Formation and Leadership. He is a Research Affiliate of the Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture and the Dallas Willard Research Center at Westmont College. An ordained Baptist minister, Keasler has traveled to more than forty countries and preached on six continents.
RESOURCES & LINKS
Kingdom Apprenticeship by Keas Keasler (IVP Academic)
Hearing God by Dallas Willard (IVP)
Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard
The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard
Becoming Dallas Willard by Gary Moon
The Kingdom Among Us by Michael Stewart Robb
Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster