In Chapter 3 of Gary Black’s The Theology of Dallas Willard, Black talks about the “Essentia Dei” of Willard’s theology.  Basically, Essentia Dei is the notion of constantly pursuing the nature or essence of God, which is a central theme of Willard’s beliefs.  This viewpoint is reinforced by the words of Jesus.  In His teachings, Jesus explained the nature of God Himself, not just His kingdom.  I agree that this way of thinking is essential to understanding and believing in God.  Heaven is the place that all Christians aspire to reach, but understanding Heaven is pointless without first understanding God. 

            Black quotes Adam Clark in his description of God.  I really like what Clark has to say.  He speaks of God as “eternal, independent and self-existent… whose purpose springs from himself, without foreign motive or influence”.  I definitely appreciate Clark’s quote on God.  The simplicity in his speech gives all the more contrast to the notion that understanding God is not possible with the limits of our humanity.  Clark’s words seem to mirror what everyone already believes.  No Christian would argue that God is not completely omnipotent or that He makes decisions based off of factors not inherent to Himself.  Yet, I think that we often associate God with lesser beings.  Maybe because of His son’s humanity, we believe that God also is affected by mankind in a way that Jesus was.  We must remember though, that God is above all things; the choices He makes are solely His, they are far beyond us.  Sometimes the things He lets happen do not make sense to us, they can even seem cruel or unfair.  We need to remember though, that He is in control of everything, and it is completely understandable for his actions not to make sense to us because our understanding cannot hope to relate to God’s omniscience.  

In Gary Black’s The Theology of Dallas Willard, Black talks about anthropology and the nature of humanity according to Willard.  He includes two quotes from John Wesley and C.S. Lewis.  Wesley’s quote talks about the immortality of the human soul, and how so often we define a person by their body, without even considering the worth of one’s soul.  Wesley notes that the soul is everlasting, and therefore of more worth than any material thing.  The quote from Lewis really interested me.  He eloquently spoke of how each and everyone one of us will someday be living for eternity, either in heaven or hell.  It is not something one speaks of, but the image of viewing each person in their second life after death would be awe inspiring.  Lewis also notes how every action we take in regards to other human beings affects their eternity.  We could be urging them closer to God, or perhaps causing them to stumble and lead them towards sin.  This is a terrifying thought indeed.  I like to think that each person is responsible for themselves; no one else is to blame if a soul does not accept Jesus.  However, Lewis’ ascribes much responsibility to each and every Christian, it is our duty to model Jesus and lead others to Him as much as we can.

            I do find it interesting how there are two very separate schools of thought in this area.  The duality of mind and body insist that the soul and the physical form exist separately.  It seems that this belief gets a lot of flak from Christians, I am not sure why as it seems to make sense.  Maybe there is an underlying negativity in the theory that insists that the body is useless and the soul is the only measure of human worth.  There is also the school of thought that soul and body are intertwined.  I am not certain how connected mind and body are, though I do respect Wesley’s quote in that one cannot deny the importance of the soul.