Renovated
God, Dallas Willard, and the Church That Transforms
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4.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Outreach Magazine’s 2021 Resource of the Year in the Church Category
Christianity tends to focus on beliefs and choices as the keys for personal growth. But biblical evidence and modern brain science tell a different story.
Combining faith with the latest developments in neuroscience and psychology, Renovated offers a groundbreaking and refreshing perspective of how our attachment to God impacts our minds and hearts. You’ll find that our spiritual growth is about more than just what we believe—it’s about who we love.
Drawing from conversations he had with Dallas Willard shortly before Dallas’s death, Jim Wilder shows how we can train our brains to relate to God. Transformative and encouraging, this book offers practical insight for deepening your relationship with God through the wondrous brain and soul that He has given you.
“Elegant, clear and bountiful in hope . . . if transformation for yourself and your community is what you seek, I can think of no better place to start.” —Curt Thompson, author of Anatomy of the Soul
“Jim Wilder offers genuine hope. He uniquely combines the truth of Scripture with the truth in developing brain science to give us a path of renewal and restoration.” —Dudley Hall, president of Kerygma Ventures
“A breakthrough on so many levels. Renovated is a must-read for everyone who is serious about discipling people and seeing life transformation.” —Bob Roberts, pastor and founder of GlocalNet
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wilder (Rare Leadership), founder of Life Model Works, an organization that incorporates brain science research into the development of Bible-based religious practices, delivers an in-depth if convoluted study of a "soteriology of attachment" based on the blending of neuroscience and theology. Arguing that neuroscience proves people can be retrained into better habits (what Wilder calls "character") through "attachment love" ("vision, attention, and means" that come from an "active force created by an attachment"), he proposes that attachment to God can bring about deep character change for Christians. He structures the book around talks given by the late philosopher Dallas Willard, alternating between Willard's talks and his own commentary. Included are discussions of slow and fast track thinking, "hesed" attachments to God (bonds formed neurologically), and the breakdown of different spiritual disciplines. Wilder's engagement with the work of Willard is rounded out by short exercises that encourage the application of some of his points, such as a "mindful presence" prayer at sunrise or sunset, and meals organized around spiritual reflection and communal storytelling. While the dense explanations of neuroscience research will prove too opaque for many readers, fans of Willard will rush to this evocative study.
