Reflections on Dallas Willard’s Integration of Spirituality and the Body

Reflections on Dallas Willard’s Integration of Spirituality and the Body

                Randall Duncan

Concordia University

Reflection on Dallas Willard’s Integration of Spirituality and the Body

Before this class, I gave little thought to body ethics. I understood the call to stewardship of the body, but I did not move far beyond a pragmatic approach trying to take care of myself physically. The vital connection of spirituality and the body was absent. Willard (n.d.) was speaking to me as he wrote, “Probably the least understood aspect of progress in Christlikeness is the role of the body in the spiritual life.”

Willard (n.d.) ties spirituality and the body to discipleship, which is “conformity to Christ.” One cannot become a fully devoted disciple without discipline. The call of the disciple is conformity in every aspect of life to the image of Christ, including what we do with our bodies, for “if the body is simply beyond redemption, then ordinary life is too” (Willard, n.d.). In these words, I sense Willard confronting a subtle Gnosticism that can creep into Christian thought. Matter matters in spirituality!

Willard takes us beyond a stewardship approach of the body. He leads us to a spiritual approach to the body, and this spiritually approach to the body is submission to Christ. “When Jesus taught about discipleship, on the other hand, He made it very clear that one could not be the servant of the body and its demands and also succeed in His course of training” (Willard, n.d.). This spirituality of the body is active on our part, but supported by grace, for “nothing inspires and enhances effort like the experience of grace” (Willard, n.d.).