The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Thoughts on John Ortberg & Dallas Willard

I am supposed to come up with an opinion of Ortberg and Willard. --Anyone familiar with these two?

Doing a brief search online I came up with some interesting things from which you can form your own opinion (it didn't take long for me to form mine! ):

John Ortberg: Educated at Fuller Theological Seminary (M.Div and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology), where he is also on the Board of Trustees. He pastors a "Willow Creek" church in Menlo, CA. He has written a plethora of books of which I would have you take notice of the titles and the reviews provided of them online. And lastly, I found this page that has some "interesting" information, John Ortberg Promotes Contemplative Prayer.

Dallas Willard:
Professor of Philosophy
B.A., Tennessee Temple College (Psychology), 1956
B.A., Baylor University (Philosophy & Religion), 1957
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1964

Specializations:
Metaphysics, Contemporary European Philosophy, Theory of Knowledge, Ethics, History of Ethics, the philosophy of Edmund Husserl.

Again, see this site for some criticisms: Dallas Willard — Promoting Contemplative Prayer and Mysticism.

I have read one of Ortberg's books, which I found decidedly shallow and bereft of much worthwhile teaching.

I have heard Dallas Willard speak and also read his books, and he is much more meaty and well grounded than Ortberg, and can prosecute his ideas with much more theology than can Ortberg. I will say that not all that Willard has to say has really fed me all that much, but he seems to be solidly Reformed and I know others who have benefitted from his words.

I would agree with what E.F. Grant has written about each. Ortberg is innocuous and not terribly profound, very mainline evangelical. That said, I enjoyed his book If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat. It's not a theological treatise, but still a challenging book nonetheless.

I've heard Dallas Willard speak with his cohort Richard Foster about spiritual disciplines and agree with everything they're saying. I'm not sure he's Reformed; it seems he's a Baptist of some stripe, but I'm not sure.

Willard has been unjustly associated with the Emergent Church and I'm not sure why. Perhaps because he advocates the ancient disciplines of fasting, meditation on the Word, solitude, etc. The emergents love this stuff, but Willard is hardly part of the EC "conversation".

I got half way through his most popular work The Divine Conspiracy, and just ran out of gas. It's a good book but rather weighty. I hope to finish it some day.