Benjamin Lawrence Walker > Recent Status Updates

Slow progress, but good work. This book is a deep mine!

Reading this book js like molasses. Not in the boring way, but in the dense way. Takes me 15-20 minutes to get through like 2 pages!

we back

okay pop off king.

Yes, I restarted the book. 👀 Went too long between readings and when I picked it back up I couldn’t remember what the heck DallyDub was saying.

okay john mark pop off king I see you

In this short intro the editor, James R. Beck, tells the story of when all the contributors to this book got together over lunch to develop a statement to which they could all agree. The contributors and editors hope this statement and the general vision of ecumenism can guide the book's interpretation and the conversation in general.

"The tree is the World Axe in its wish-fulfilling, fruitful aspect—the same as that displayed in Christian homes at the season of the winter solstice which is the moment of rebirth or return of the sun, a joyous custom inherited from the Germanic paganism that has given to the modern German language its feminine Somme."

As the title assumes, this chapter is all about the mind as the central starting point of Christian formation. Willard goes hard into the importance of right thinking. He talks about the dangers of ideas, and their extreme potency when distilled down into images. His main point is that spiritual formation must begin in the mind with the combatance of false ideas. This is why Jesus came as a teacher.

Summary:
As practitioners and teachers of spiritual formation we must remember to never over-complicate the process of growing in Christlikeness. When we make it unnecessarily difficult or complicated people will stop believing that it is possible to grow into Jesus.

Ch 2.6: The Ultimate Boom

“It is obvious that the infantile fantasies, which we all cherish still in the unconscious play continually into myth, fairy tale, and the teachings of the church, as symbols of indestructible being.”

Okay no one panic. I’m deadass a three. We’re good.