3
Bruce Demarests Satisfy Your Soul.
5
Dallas Willard is, without question, one of the "deans" of
evangelical thinking on spiritual formation, having written previous volumes on spiritual
disciplines and Christian discipleship.
6
Renovation of the Heart is his most definitive work on
spiritual formation into Christlikeness. And Bruce Demarest, Denver Seminary theologian and
a past contributor to our ETS Spiritual Formation Study Group, is especially helpful to this
discussion since he has also written both on spiritual formation and also on the doctrine of
sanctification, in his fine work, The Cross and Salvation.
7
In this paper, I will briefly explore
Willards understanding of spiritual formation through identifying 6 theses that express the
Springs, CO: NavPress, 2002). Further references to this work will be given in brackets in the
text of the paper, introduced by the initials "DW," e.g. [DW, 24].
5
Bruce Demarest, Satisfy Your Soul: Restoring the Heart of Christian Spirituality
(Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1999). Further references to this work will be given in
brackets in the text of the paper introduced by the initials "BD," e.g. [BD, 32].
6
Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives
(San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988) and The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering our Hidden
Life in God (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997). The latter volume was selected as
Christianity Today's book of the year in 1999.
7
Bruce Demarest, "Transformed into His Likeness," in The Cross and Salvation
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1997). Demarest has also written on sanctification in Gordon
Lewis and Bruce Demarest, Integrative Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 3:173-236.