Much of the early content I’ll be exploring in future posts comes from “How (not) to speak of God” by Peter Rollins. I was introduced to this book from my church, Mosaic, and have been reading and re-reading it for the past week and a half. The book itself can in the same sentence makes me cringe (due to things my church tradition has taught me to believe) and make my heart burn (due to the the fact his observations cut to the heart of Jesus mission and message) at the same time.
Rollins explores such ideas as a/theism, believing in the right way, and the prejudice of love. I could not do justice to these ideas here, so if you are curious, read the book. He effectively uses parables to express ideas. He explains how God is concealed in revelation, and how doubt is central to faith. The most profound aspect of this book is its ability to show that two seemingly opposite things can coexist and work in tension with each other. This kind of thinking is more eastern than western, more Hebrew than Greek.
If I have any critcism of this book, it is that at times he makes it seem as though none of our efforts to understand God will every help us reach any conclusions. While that isn’t his ultimate point, I will say that I’ve found a careful study of the original background of the text can have incredible implications for how we read it. While history/background in and of itself can be subjective, I still think studying the context of the scriptures is critical. I also found the second section of this book to be a little strange. It is comprised of 10 service descriptions from his community. I can’t say I resonated with many of these services. I like his ideas a lot, maybe just not the way he is going about fleshing them out in services. I’m not saying they are wrong, or that there is only one way to do a service, I’m Just saying they didn’t impact me the way his ideas did.
That being said, I highly recommend this book to anyone with an open mind who desires to be transformed into a more loving person. Much of it is brilliant and very thought provoking.
