The Allure of Gentleness: Defending the Faith in the Manner of Jesus
Though Dallas Willard died in 2013, his final book (assembled by his daughter) was just recently released. The Allure of Gentleness: Defending the Faith in the Manner of Jesus (HarperOne, 2015) contains some heavy-duty philosophical arguments, but its core point is simply that your character must be your primary source of credibility.
In other words, it turns out that knowing Christ (and becoming like Him) is in fact the biggest requirement for Christians. Willard does not devalue the intellect—in fact, he argues for why we need to learn to think clearly—but he does value all aspects of character. He demands wholeness, insofar as it is possible. Why? “The ultimate lifter of doubt,” he writes, “is the believer acting in faith in an interactive life with God. That’s it.”...