Dear Friends: Some of you have already heard of the death this past Wednesday of this past Wednesday of influential Christian author and philosopher Dallas Willard, who left this mortal life at the age of 77, as a result of cancer. Dallas was personally known to many of the long-timers at BFC, through his having led at least one retreat for us in the mid-70s, and then later when he spoke at conferences that various of us attended. Dallas was an important leader in the Renovare Christian formation movement, which he helped to shape along with the movement's founder, Friend Richard Foster. Renovare has an appreciation of Dallas's life, with links to others, here. For those of us, like me, who never had the privilege of meeting him, there are…