Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge Book

This was the first of three Willard books I read this summer. His purpose in the book is to argue that Christianity, discipleship to Jesus, rests on actual knowledge. Our world tends to reserve "knowledge" for one sort of thing, such as science. Religion, it is said, is mere opinion. Hence people can assert that all religions are the same, since they are all equally devoid of truth or knowledge. But if there is truly spiritual knowledge, truly a way things really are, then religion is more than mere opinion.

Honestly, having read my share of apologetics books, I did not expect apologetics here. So I was somewhat surprised when Willard began rehearsing familiar arguments for God's existence and miracles as part of his reasoning for why we can trust spiritual knowledge. I am not sure how I expected him to argue for how we can trust spiritual knowledge when I began the book, but I didn't expect arguments for God's existence. That said, apologetics of the usual sort only supplies a portion of Willard's arguments (plus, his casting of the arguments is a bit different then those familiar with them might expect). He goes on to talk about how we can know Christ where we are. His method for this are the spiritual disciplines, "time-tested spiritual practices that can help us in our learning process." In other words, we grow in knowledge as we interact with God. It should be said then that while we can trust spiritual knowledge, it is still not the exact same as scientific or historical knowledge. We can trust all these things, but we learn what each says in its own way (i.e., the scientific method is not how we learn spiritual truth).

Perhaps the most important chapter is the second-to-last where he discussed pluralism. If, as Willard argues, there is spiritual knowledge and this truth rests in Jesus Christ, then how one handles diversity and disagreement becomes vital. In other subjects where knowledge exists, those who take a minority view may be shunned - think of those who question the received view of science or history. Religion, more like politics or philosophy, has a myriad of views. Willard greatly emphasizes humility and that even though there is spiritual knowledge, we know that none of us are perfect in our understanding of it.

Overall, this is a fantastic book.