Understanding the extent of misrepresentation and distorted reasoning is what the pages on this website discuss in some detail. What we want to make clear at this point, is that the basic premises of this book are utterly foolish, to say the least.
If we stand back and look at the overall scope of Wilder’s book, there are three basic underlying premises, all of which are seriously misleading or worse:
- Bonding with God in love is far superior to practicing spiritual disciplines.
- Dallas Willard encouraged the use of spiritual practices instead of building a bond with God.
- The model Dallas used for his teaching doesn’t produce change.
Let’s start with number 3. The model in question (and used by Dallas) is called VIM, which is an acronym for Vision-Intention-Means. In short, the idea here is that in order to accomplish anything worthwhile, we must first cast a clear Vision for what we desire, how it will benefit us, and why it’s worth the trouble to accomplish. Second, we must actually Intend to make that Vision a reality. Otherwise, our “vision” is nothing more than daydreaming. By Intention, we mean that certain plans need to be put into place, the necessary resources secured, and we make space in our life to move forward toward our goal. The Means, of course, are the actual effort and use of resources.
To point out the obvious, this is not specifically a model of spiritual transformation. It is a model of how any new endeavor is realized, whether it is planning for a career, learning a new language, or remodeling a bathroom.
All of this to say that Wilder’s efforts to deconstruct VIM absolutely boggle the mind. One might as well try to prove there is no such thing as cause and effect. VIM is in fact how a universe of moral agents runs and accomplishes anything. To imagine that one can deconstruct this concept is to fail Philosophy 101. Whatever else Wilder was trying to accomplish, this one factor should be enough to “put down the distorted lens and step away from the book.”
Premises 1 and 2 are actually two sides of the same issue. All through the book, Wilder attempts to cast spiritual practices as slow, left-brain, activities that take a very long time to produce change. In contrast, he suggests that the fast way to transform a life is to begin with a deep love-bond with God.
There is so much wrong with this way of framing the issue, it’s hard to know where to begin. First and foremost, the goal of spiritual practices is to build an authentic, bonded relationship with God! And then to live out of that relationship and the transformed character that comes from both, the formation that comes from practice and the relationship with God. There is no such conflict between the two that Wilder wants to claim. He has totally misunderstood and misrepresented the process taught by Dallas in order to create a fictional contrast between these two aspects of transformation.
Second, one does not simply “begin” with a bonded relationship with God. If we all had that from day one of our conversion, there would have been no need to write this book! No one is questioning (least of all Dallas!) that a bonded relationship with God transforms lives. The problem is, How does one build an interactive, bonded relationship with our invisible God? Interestingly, Wilder avoids this question for the entire duration of the book. His implication is that such a relationship happens more or less automatically for the vast majority of Christians. If you doubt that, just notice how the Appendix of the book finally gets around to the “Means” of building this relationship. “For those who have difficulty” is his caveat, as though this might be the exception. All one need do is look at a survey of Christians to know that these assumptions are entirely false.
The simple fact is that Wilder has to fall back on spiritual practices as the Means for building this Relationship that he has touted as the “starting point” all through the book. And of course, building a working relationship with God is what Dallas Willard was teaching all along!
Summary
In every way, the very foundation of this book is deeply flawed. While the message of “Relationship with God changes lives” is absolutely true, nothing in the way in which Wilder tries to make his case makes any sense at all.
And the last thing anyone would need to do in order to preach that message is to present a twisted view of who Dallas was and the tremendous life-changing message he brought to the Christian world.