Chapel, Talk Explore Teachings of Willard

The Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture and the Dallas Willard Research Center have chosen Michael Stewart Robb’s book, “The Kingdom Among Us: The Gospel According to Dallas Willard,” as the winner of the Dallas Willard Research Center Book Award. Robb, a Christian educator and theologian, will receive the award and speak in chapel Wednesday, Feb. 5, at 10:30 a.m. in Westmont’s Murchison Gym. 

Robb will introduce key themes from his book to the Westmont community in a Provost’s Lecture, “Dallas Willard and Rational Spirituality: Claiming the Depth and Power of Protestant Spiritual Life,” on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at 4 p.m. in the Simmons Center at the Global Leadership Center. Both events are free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase at a book-signing reception following the lecture. 

Robb examined both Willard's writings and hundreds of hours of audio recordings before expanding Willard’s theological vision in “The Kingdom Among Us.” “The book will help long time readers of Willard’s books make sense of his position in professional theology and philosophy,” Robb says. “I hope all readers will encounter the most complete picture available of one of the giants of modern Christian spirituality.”

Stewart, a Wheaton graduate who earned a Master of Theology and doctorate at the University of Aberdeen, founded Sanctus, a European institute for theology and spirituality, in 2017. The mission of Sanctus is to help more Europeans find a Christ-empowered spirituality that transforms all of life. “Europeans, when they think they might need some spirituality, do not look to the churches,” Robb says. “They do not think of the church as in the business of spirituality.”