Kingdom Apprenticeship

We live in a time when Christians are trying to understand afresh what Christian mission involves. Keas Keasler's book is incredibly timely in providing a theological vision of formational-missional discipleship to Jesus that constructively draws on the work of Dallas Willard. In contrast with many, Willard taught that the church is not for mission in the world. Rather, the church is for training disciples of Jesus, and disciples of Jesus incarnate God's mission in the world. There is no other book that draws this point out and drives it home better than Kingdom Apprenticeship. This book is a breath of fresh air for anyone looking to be an effective witness in the world today.

I hope, pray, and believe that hundreds of years from now, theologians and church historians will point back to Dallas Willard's radiant light as a key inflection point in the Western church's renewal, the same way we do to Wesley and others today. Here's my opinion: Keas Keasler is an early adopter and pioneer, one of the first academics to realize not just the importance of Willards's work more broadly but to take him seriously as a theologian. No other contemporary thinker has imprinted more deeply on how I see Jesus, formation, and life in the Father's world than Willard. Keasler's book does more than synthesize Willard; it gives us a map for the next chapter in our story. It is a book worthy of your consideration. It's expertly written, adroitly argued, and profound in its clarity and conviction. I could not put it down.

This book is a tour de force. Not only will it put its author on the map as being one of the leading interpreters of the tradition of Dallas Willard, but it will also have the splendid consequences of applying Willard's thought to the realm of missiology. Though academic, this volume has so many practical implications for the church that it is difficult to fully appreciate it. Keas Keasler has shown us what Willard's thought looks like on the ground of the mission of God in the world today.Simply delightful.

A large part of the enduring appeal of Dallas Willard's work is its combination of systematicity and its recurring appeal to experientially discoverable features, both essential and contingent, of human persons and our condition. In this powerfully written work, informed by exhaustive research of Willard's vast body of written and recorded material, Keas Keasler skillfully and critically guides us through the core commitments and the fine details of Willard's theology of discipleship and its connections with his distinctive brand of realist phenomenological personalism. It is a monumental contribution to the growing body of literature on Willard's theological and philosophical work.

A broken and struggling evangelical church needs the wisdom of Dallas Willard, and Keas Keasler brings it for a new generation, in all its beauty and challenge.