Eternal Living

Dallas Willard spent his life making eternal living concrete for his friends. With his unexpected passing in 2013, the world lost a brilliant mind. The wide breadth of his impact inspired friends, family, colleagues, students and leaders of the church to gather their reflections on this celebrated yet humble theologian and philosopher. Richard Foster, a friend for over forty years, writes of Dallas: "He possessed in his person a spiritual formation into Christlikeness that was simply astonishing to all who were around him. Profound character formation had transpired in his body and mind and spirit until love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control were at the very center of the deep habit-structures of his life. He exhibited a substantively transformed life. Dallas was simply soaked in the presence of the living Christ." Curated by Gary Moon, director of the Dallas Willard Center, this medley of Dallas's wise teaching and lived model of Christlikeness—as well as snapshots and "Dallas-isms"—will move and motivate readers. Whether influenced by him as a family member, close friend, advisor, professor, philosopher, minister or reformer, contributors bring refreshing insight into not only his ideas and what shaped him, but also to his contagious theology of grace and joy. Contributors include: Richard J. Foster Jane Willard J. P. Moreland John Ortberg James Bryan Smith Alan Fadling Ruth Haley Barton and dozens more

Curated by Dallas Willard's long-time colleague and friend Gary Moon, this medley of images, snapshots and "Dallas-isms" moves readers toward deeper experiences of God. Whether influenced by him as a family member, friend, professor, philosopher or reformer, contributors bring refreshing insight into his ideas, what shaped him and also his contagious theology of grace and joy.

"The Lutheran Church commemorates three influential hymnwriters every October: Philipp Nicolai, Johann Heermann, and Paul Gerhardt. The Joy of Eternal Life sheds light on why Philipp Nicolai is still remembered over four hundred years after his death. During Nicolai's time as a pastor, he and his parishioners witnessed a horrendous plague claim the lives of four thousand people in five months. To comfort his people and counteract the belief at the time that death, loss, and despair rob human beings of God's goodness, presence, and love, he wrote this book. In it, he proclaims the glory of eternal life, God's love for His people, and our future resurrection in heaven. This books also includes two of his beloved hymns, "Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying" and "O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright." Pastors, musicians, and those interested in Church history will appreciate reading Nicolai's popular work in English for the first time. Additionally, laity will appreciate the devotional nature of this work, which offers the comfort and consolation of Christ to those who are in despair"--

The Newtonian concept of time has been changed by Einsteinian insight. Yet the Einsteinian world view might make it difficult to appreciate traditional concepts of eschatology, like heaven and hell, death and immortality, life after death and resurrection, last day and final judgments, because these expressions presuppose a pre-Einsteinian view of the universe. Since theology cannot remain unaffected by the new research in concepts of time, Eternity and Eternal Life tries to express the eschatological faith of the Church by using the time language of our age. To achieve this it provides an overview on the research in the nature of time done in geology, cosmology, physics, biology, psychology, sociology, history and philosophy and proposes a notion of time for “timely” Christology and for “timely” eschatology. By using the singularity event as literary form, Horvath scrutinizes how Christ’s time can lead to the times of all existing realities, through death to “eternity.” This is a pioneering work, one that needs to be tested in the community of interested readers. It is a communal search for an understanding of life, death and eternal life, not only in the light of abstract ideas and cultural linguistic doctrines in the world of religions, but also in the light of science and especially of a person as the horizon of understanding for both time and eternity. Christ as the eschatological union of time and eternity becomes the work’s unifying focus and its paradigm, which solves recognized problems and opens our minds to new ones.

The Second Coming is about how to transform a closed conscious mind into an open conscious mind. After the consciousness of one's mind has been transformed, it enables one to know and understand an eternally transcended ideal or truth from a logical and rational eternal perspective. Once an eternal intuitive perspective has been achieved, it gives one the ability to identify an immoral ideal or truth that was creatively imagined from an ideal or truth that was eternally transcended from the Eternal Intuitive Reality of Godliness. With this eternal intuitive ability, one can faithfully believe an Eternal Intuitive Essence of Godliness is responsible for everything that has ever become and will become universally and eternally. Through the power of faithfully believing, one can create an eternal personal partnership with God, Godly Being, or Eternal Intuitive Essence of Godliness. Upon this eternal personal partnership, an eternal living reality of heaven will become upon the Blue Jewel while you are still alive. Jesus professed, "If you faithfully believe in what I say, you can have an eternal existence." Jesus did not say upon one's death. To a logical and rational consciousness of mind, it appears once you faithfully believe in what Jesus said, it instantaneously becomes of an eternal living life upon the Blue Jewel. So, as you read The Second Coming, do not be surprised your universal existence is becoming eternal while you are still living life. I hope you enjoy your eternal journey as an eternal living partner with your God, Godly Being, or Eternal Intuitive Essence of Godliness. Blessed is the miraculous becoming of an eternal living life.

This book argues that Aristotle used "the most traditional Greek ideas about the gods" to develop and defend his physical, metaphysical, and ethical teachings. This revolutionary thesis stands in stark contrast to studies of Aristotle's texts that normally portray him as a "natural theologian" using rational tools to elaborate his own conception of God or the gods. Bodeus argues that Aristotle is more closely aligned with popular Greek religion than is usually thought, and attention to the ethical and political writings reveals more about Aristotle's resources for conceiving the gods than study of his theoretical works. For Bodeus, Aristotle was a refined polytheist who held that the gods were living immortals and that one could attribute to them wisdom, goodness, and benevolent concern for human beings. The author's approach is at odds with the dominant interpretation, which holds that Aristotle's unmoved mover presents his true view of God. This leads to the argument that the philosopher's apparent endorsements of popular religious ideas should be taken seriously and that his inquiries about the unmoved mover belong strictly to theoretical philosophy, which is unable to study the gods. From this novel perspective, many of Aristotle's texts appear in a new light.

In this cross-cultural, interdisciplinary study, John Hick draws upon major world religions, as well as biology, psychology, parapsychology, anthropology, and philosophy, to explore the mystery of death. He argues that scientific and philosophical objections to the idea of survival after death can be challenged, and he claims that human inadequacy in facing suffering supports the basic religious argument for immortality.