This website is dedicated exclusively to addressing the serious level of misinformation and subsequent confusion that has followed from the publication of Renovated by Jim Wilder. This book is probably the most extensive misrepresentation of Dallas Willard’s work ever published. We who stand behind this website offer these correctives to help reorient those who might otherwise dismiss the tremendous value of what Dallas taught, due to the manner in which Wilder presents his case.
Dallas Willard was arguably the most brilliant writer to ever put down on paper the best detailed descriptions available anywhere regarding the ways in which we can be formed more and more into the image of our Creator. His books and lectures launched a worldwide movement in Protestant Christian Formation, liberating and transforming countless Christians across the globe.
In 2002 he published The Renovation of the Heart, in which he brought together the various elements and aspects of Christian spiritual formation, making it quite possibly the most significant description of this process ever assembled in a single volume. In 2012, he was the featured key-note speaker at a conference in Southern California called “Heart and Soul” in which he presented a few of these important facets to an eager audience.
Jim Wilder has used that event and Dallas’ book as the starting point for his thesis, which basically states that spiritual formation as described by Dallas is deficient in multiple ways, and that it needs to be significanly modified in order to accommodate an attachment-based approach to spiritual development. Nothing could be further from the truth.
During his lifetime, Dallas made it a practice to not respond to his detractors, but instead to simply continue teaching to those who will listen. Today his family continues that practice, even as they continue to promote Dallas’ teachings in every possible way. However, there are those of us who have benefitted so much from what Dallas gave to us and who are so deeply concerned for those who might read Renovated and miss out on the spiritual life that Dallas made accessible, that we felt it necessary to clarify what Dallas really offered.
Our hope is that this website will help people make sense of Wilder’s deeply mistaken book, and not be misled into thinking that the teachings of Dallas were anything less than a revolution of modern Christian thinking and a workable path back toward the Christian life as God intended.
To learn more about what Dallas actually taught, we highly recommend the wonderful collection of his life-giving lectures that can be seen on YouTube.
( Please note: we are no longer allowing comments on these pages )
If you wish to contact us directly, please email “admin@no2renovated.com”.
As primary author for this site, I do apologize for whatever confusion might result from remaining anonymous at this time. But please know that there are several reasons for doing so, and the primary reason is to keep the focus on the content of the book, not on either its author or this one. This is not a contest between authors, but a conflict of ideas. The details here are of critical importance, and I would ask you to consider them carefully.
It’s very hard to consider the reliability of any of your information when everything is anonymous. If you believe in what you say, it doesn’t make sense to refuse to give your name. And it sounds like a personal attack to me.
As to why the author’s name is being withheld, please see the latest post, Why Anonymous?
Regarding your word “attack”, I would suggest that you have misjudged the problem. It was Jim Wilder who openly attacked Dallas Willard’s teachings on spiritual formation. This website is a defense of Willard’s work, and a fairly comprehensive rebuttle of Wilder’s attack, which was in fact poorly constructed. Please consider the critique itself.
Appreciate your willingness and thought to undertake this. I am always baffled by those who have a problem with Dallas’s thinking. He was brilliant and everytime I re-read his books I am impressed again by his insights.
Prayers for you friend!