Dallas Willard Book Award Announced

The Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture and the Dallas Willard Research Center (MIDWC) at Westmont have chosen Relational Spirituality: A Psychological-Theological Paradigm for Transformation by Todd W. Hall as the winner of their annual book award. Hall will accept the award in person before speaking in chapel on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, at 10:30 am in Murchison Gym.

Last year’s winner, Barbara Peacock, author of Soul Care in African American Practice, will speak in chapel on Wednesday, September 21, at 10:30 a.m.

“We chose Relational Spirituality because of its lucid, convincing presentation of an interpersonal paradigm of Christian spiritual transformation,” says Mark Nelson, Westmont’s Monroe professor of philosophy and director of the Willard Research Center. “Drawing on historical theology, biblical interpretation, clinical psychology, and neurobiology, Hall takes a multidisciplinary approach to Christian spiritual formation seeking to overcome the historic split between theoretical knowledge of doctrine and experiential knowledge of Christian life.”

Hall’s book joins other recent winners, including Responsive Becoming by Angela Carpenter; Becoming Dallas Willard by Gary Moon; Christ-Centered Mindfulness by Katherine Thompson; The Science of Virtue by Mark McMinn; and You Are What You Love by James K.A. Smith. 

Dallas Willard (1935-2013), a philosophy professor, thinker, and pastor, wrote more than a dozen books, including The Spirit of the Disciplines and The Divine Conspiracy. Now regarded as modern spiritual classics, these works have inspired thousands of ordinary Christians to become extraordinary Christ-followers, influencing an entire generation of writers and teachers regarding Christian spiritual disciplines and formation.