I only attended Tennessee Temple College one year before making the decision to become a Children of God Jesus Freak in August 1971.
My oldest sister handed me a brochure about Dallas Willard in the spring of 2006. He had earned a degree at Tennessee Temple in the 1950s.
I attended one of the speaking engagements featuring Willard in 2006 on the campus of Tennessee Temple. In his extemporaneous, sonorous speech he juxtaposed the phrase "the good" with the phrase "the right perfume." I later offered written commentary of his speech to a Tennessee Temple professor who had heard his speech that spring evening. I pointed out that the phrases "God saw that it was good" and "God saw that it was very good" were both mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis. On the subject of perfume I mentioned the story of Esther preparing herself--did she use perfume?--for an appointment with a king who would eventually help the Hebrew people as a result of his time with Esther. In my commentary to the professor I also mentioned the company Arcade Encapsulated Products, which manufactures fragrance sampling product to help women chose "the right perfume." The company is located on Main Street in Chattanooga, not far from the campus of Tennessee Temple. I also cited two examples of "the good" for 2006. The professor's home state won the Miss America pageant that year and my daughter's alma mater beat UCLA to win the men's division of the NCAA Basketball tournament.
At the lecture I purchased a copy of Willard's book THE DIVINE CONSPIRACY, which I believe was recognized as CHRISTIANITY TODAY'S book of the year, perhaps for 1999. I was delighted to find the word good in the book. Willard used the phrase "the good homosexual."
I am fairly certain Willard was one of the signers of the Evangelical Manifesto a few years back.
Willard's speech on the good also reminded me of Robert Persig's notions on quality as expressed in his books ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE and LILA.
Eventually I hope to investigate Willard's ideas about the late Edmund Husserl.
If I live long enough to do so that is. It is on my bucket list. :-)
