A Talbot Tribute To Dallas Willard

Joe Hellerman — May 09, 2013

We at Talbot, and especially in the philosophy department, are deeply saddened with the homegoing of our mentor and friend, Dallas Willard. We want to remember his immense contribution, not only to Talbot and Biola more generally, but specifically to our philosophy program. Dallas was a source of great encouragement to us when we began the program some 20 years ago and has remained one of our best friends and supports for our ongoing work. He mentored a number of us in our doctoral programs at USC, marked us deeply and impacted not only our professional lives but our spiritual lives as well. He was very inspirational to us to remember the right things and set our priorities accordingly. He modeled the kind of humility that continues to, we hope, define our community, where we take God's Kingdom very seriously, but do not take ourselves that seriously. We will miss him greatly and will always appreciate his calm demeanor, well thought out views, the priority of the Kingdom and his love for Jesus. We know he is better off, but I'm pretty sure we're not--his loss is incalculable. Thanks, Dallas, for your investment in our program, faculty and students.

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Joe Hellerman

Joe Hellerman is a professor of New Testament at Talbot School of Theology at ��ݮ��Ƶ. Joe has taught at Talbot for more than a decade and ministered in the church most of his adult life. Joe's seminary training at Talbot focused on Old Testament studies, while his doctoral research at UCLA dealt with the social history of the early Christians. Joe has authored three academic monographs: The Ancient Church as Family (Fortress Press, 2001), Reconstructing Honor in Roman Philippi (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and Jesus and the People of God: Reconfiguring Ethnic Identity (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2007). He has also written two books about Christian community for pastors and other church leaders: When The Church Was A Family (B & H Press, 2009) and Embracing Shared Leadership (Kregel, 2013). In addition to his full-time duties with our New Testament Department, Joe presently serves as co-pastor at Oceanside Christian Fellowship in El Segundo. Joe is constantly encouraged and delighted by the love he receives from his wife Joann and his two adult daughters, Rebekah and Rachel. Away from Talbot, you might find Joe playing jazz-rock piano or fishing on a sportsboat in the Pacific Ocean.

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