The overarching thesis of Dallas Willard’s book The Great Omission is that present day American congregations, across the denominational spectrum, are content to settle for merely adding membership at the expense of moving “members” toward a more mature expression of “discipleship.” 

The author emphasizes that deliberately choosing to be a disciple of Jesus is crucial, and that modern Christianity has made discipleship “optional” at best and “unexpected” for the majority of those on church rosters. The “great omission” of intentional discipleship in the contemporary church is the basis for the title of the book. Willard emphasizes that when a person decides to take Jesus seriously, this choice needs to be fleshed out through the practices and activities of the classic disciplines of the Christian life. Such activities might include prayer, fellowship, service, study, simplicity, chastity, solitude, and fasting, among many others. Willard contends these activities lead to spiritual transformation, which manifests as growth in the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

Una Agnew, SSL (Sisters of St. Louis), is spirituality professor at Milltown Institute, one of the premier centers for the study of theology, philosophy and spirituality in Ireland. She is the author of The Mystical Imagination of Patrick Kavanagh: A Buttonhole in Heaven, in which she uses the ancient mystical stages of awakening, purification, illumination and transformation to illustrate the fundamental mysticism of the poetry and the person of Patrick Kavanagh. 

In this video, Sr. Agnew discusses the role of silence as a spiritual practice and its role in the art of spiritual direction.

Biographical Sketch of the Author

Dr. Samir Selmanovic, Ph.D, is the director of Citylights (an emergent Christian community) and serves on the Interfaith Relations Commission of the National Council of Churches. He is a founder of Faith House Manhattan, an interfaith “community of communities” that brings together Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists and others who seek to learn from different belief systems. Dr. Selmanovic is a key personality of the emerging church movement, serving on the Coordinating Group for Emergent Village and co-founder of Re-church, a network of church leaders. He pastored a multi-ethnic church in Manhattan for six years, which provided him with an understanding of Western attitudes towards religion. He has published many articles on the role of religious organizations in postmodernity and is a contributor to the books “Emergent Manifesto of Hope” (Baker, 2007) and “Justice Project” (Baker, 2009).

This essay explores The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth by Dr. Gerald May and describes how the book illuminates my own experience of spiritual darkness, the implications of spiritual direction for recovery from addiction, and the meaning of May’s statement (p. 179) that “God is nada, no-thing” for the director’s understanding of God. This essay, based on personal experience and previous exposure to the theology of St. John of the Cross will interact with May’s text and my theological tradition to address these areas.