Becoming Dallas Willard: The Formation of a Philosopher, Teacher, and Christ Follower
ECPA Christian Book Award Finalist; Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Finalist
Everyone who met Dallas Willard was impressed by his personal attention, calm confidence, wisdom, and profound sense of the spiritual. But he was not always the man who seemed to live on a different plane of reality than the rest of us.
Dallas absorbed some of the harshest and most unfair blows life can land. His mother died when he was two, and after his father remarried, he was exiled from his stepmother's home. Growing up in Depression-era, rural Missouri and educated in a one-room schoolhouse, he knew poverty, deprivation, anxiety, self-doubt, and depression. Though the pews he sat in during his early years didn't offer much by way of love and mercy, Dallas, instead of turning away, kept looking for the company of a living, present, and personal God.
In Gary W. Moon's candid and inspiring biography, we see how Dallas's love of learning took him to Baylor University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Southern California, where he became a beloved professor and one of the most versatile members of the philosophy department as well as a personal mentor to hundreds of pastors, philosophers, and average churchgoers.
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"Only a man of Gary Moon's astute perspective, intellectual acumen, and spiritual insight could write a biography that accomplishes what most don't. Becoming Dallas Willard combines Dallas's ordinary but compelling life events with a thoughtful grasp of Willard's intellectual journey through spirituality, philosophy, and psychology. This is a rare accomplishment for a biographer, but reading this story has a third benefit beyond knowledge and understanding, which is the ability to change us as readers. Moon's words can move us so deeply that we are not just reading a book, but participating in our own personal transformation. This is an amazing biography for a time such as ours."
--Roy M. Carlisle, acquisitions director at Independent Institute"C. S. Lewis once wrote, 'no possible degree of holiness or heroism which has ever been recorded of the greatest saints is beyond what He [God] is determined to produce in every one of us in the end.' In Becoming Dallas Willard, Dr. Gary Moon presents in narrative a developing portrait of a modern saint, a man who both believed and lived the sober truth that real change is possible for all of us. Gratefully, Gary does not write a hagiographic account of one great man's life that awakens desire to become a truly good person but frustrates us with no idea of what to do. I intend to reread what Dallas wrote. His thoughts just might light the path to where I long to go."
--Larry Crabb, psychologist, author, When God's Ways Make No Sense"Gary Moon offers a fascinating depiction of the life of Dallas Willard in this wonderful biography. As a psychologist, I have always been interested in exactly how we develop in the ways that we do. Becoming Dallas Willard gives us deep insights into the formation of this man who would become a spiritual light for many Christians. Dallas's searingly difficult childhood produced aching losses that clearly come through these pages. This biography offers a glimpse into its subject's life that honors the realism of Dallas's philosophical identity. Not skipping over the foibles and failures, we see Dallas's early fundamentalist ideas contrasting with his inner experience. We understand the contributions of his revivalist upbringing and its impact on his marriage, parenting, work, and experience with God. Yet through all of the pain, all of the resulting challenges, all of the deep relationships he experienced, Dallas Willard's life shines most with a vibrant joy of being with God. It is an extraordinary book exegeting the life of an extraordinary man."
--C. Jeffrey Terrell, dean, College of Education and Human Services, professor of counseling psychology, John Brown University"If we are fortunate, once in our lifetime a human supernova presence streaks across our mental and emotional horizon, and the intensity of this light changes us forever. Dallas Willard was such a supernova for me. . . . Dallas's brilliance, as important as it is, is far from the whole story. He possessed in his person a spiritual formation into Christlikeness that was simply astonishing. . . . The deepest, most fundamental reason for studying the life of another person is so we can learn to live our lives more fully, more truly, more authentically. This is why Becoming Dallas Willard is a genuinely important book."
--Richard J. Foster, from the foreword"I knew Dallas Willard very well. He supervised my dissertation at USC, and upon graduation in 1985, he and Jane seemed to adopt my wife and me as their children. Those who did not know Dallas in person can get a good sense of him from his lectures and writings. But what has been a gnawing omission is the details of his life made available to the public--until now. Gary Moon's incredible book Becoming Dallas Willard fills this void and more. It is a first-rate, accurate, honest, timely, and riveting biography. If you enjoy Dallas's lectures and writings, you need to read this book. I am so thankful to Gary for doing such a careful and painstakingly accurate treatment of the life of the greatest man I ever met."
--J. P. Moreland, distinguished professor of philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University; author of Love Your God With all Your Mind"'Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.' This was the life of Dallas Willard. And yet, as nice as it is to know of these rare luminaries, such a light-filled life can seem unreachable for the rest of us. In Becoming Dallas Willard, Gary Moon helps us see that who Dallas became was not always who he was. It is encouraging to know that he, too, had a long way to go. Reading this biography has made Dallas's writings on spiritual formation all the more relevant and believable. If you have found Dallas's other books to be helpful in your spiritual life, reading this biography will round out the story and drive those points home. If you haven't read Dallas's other books, this biography is the perfect place to begin. Chances are that meeting Dallas in the pages of this biography will start you on the journey of a lifetime."
--Steve L. Porter, professor of theology and philosophy, Biola University, editor, Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care, PhD student of Dallas Willard (USC 2003)"You'll enjoy the intriguing story behind a man who lived in the kingdom of God here and now. Drawn skillfully from a variety of resources, Becoming Dallas Willard shows us how Dallas thought carefully, lived authentically, and loved well."
--Jan Johnson, coauthor with Dallas Willard of Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice, Hearing God Through the Year, and Study Guide to the Divine Conspiracy
