how (not) to speak of god

congratulations to pete rollins on his first book (the first of many i suspect) - how (not) to speak of god. the book is in two halves. the first 'heretical orthodoxy' explores a/theology of the emerging church. the second looks at the outworkings of that in the ikon community in belfast with outlines of several of their worship services. it's a fabulous contribution to the emerging conversation... pete draws on christian mystics to offer wisdom for how to live in the way of christ in a postmodern world. as a philosopher he also offers a way of engaging with the postmodern deconstructionists. it is a fascinating and original take. he has a way with words often seemingly speaking in paradoxes and riddles. though it's a short book it's one with weight and one you need to read a few times (at least i did). language makes the world and pete is definitely weaving the universe in a different way with a new vocabulary.

when i first read about postmodern culture and thought several years back, christians were all very defensive about truth - the postmodern critique of big stories captured in lyotard's famous quote 'i define postmodern as incredulity towards metanarratives' was seen as threatening, opening the way to relativism. in contrast i was actually quite energised by it. the notion that objective truth simply isn't available to us because we are all situated/embedded and so can't possibly have an objective view is a big relief and pretty obvious! it also explains why the christian church at times while claiming to have the truth clearly hasn't - it has at times legitimised oppression in the name of god. so a critique that says that all our claims on truth are limited as we can only see in part makes sense. but what it doesn't mean is that truth doesn't exist. we just can't grasp it fully... i concluded back then that minimally christians needed a lot of humility about truth claims and they needed to be lived out rather than shouted out.

pete shares this postmodern insight. we need our theology (speech about god) but all the while recognising that this very speech will fail to define god. it is our speech after all... god is the god beyond god. humility or to use pete's term a powerless discourse should characterise our way of being. here's a piece that suggests how christians should be in the world...

In this way the emerging conversation is demonstrating an ability to stand up and engage in a powerless, space creating discourse that opens up thinking and offers hints rather than orders. In short the emerging community must endeavour to be a question rather than an answer and an aroma rather than food. It must seek to offer an approach that enables the people of God to become the parable, aroma and salt of God in the world, helping to forma space where God can give of God. For too long the church has been seen as an oasis in the desert - offering water to the thirsty. In contrast, the emerging community appears more as a desert in the oasis of life offering silence, space and desolation amidst the sickly noursihment of western capitalism. It is here in this desert as we wander together as nomads, that God is to be found. For it is here that we are nourished by our hunger.

brian maclaren writes a foreword in the book in which he says this is one of the most rewarding books of theology he has read in ten years! there's a recommendation (and i'm sure pete must have danced round his kitchen when he read brian's generous foreword). way to go pete! good luck with the book and the conversations it sparks...

Comments

[Timothy Wright]

Hi,

"It is here in this desert as we wander together as nomads, that God is to be found. For it is here that we are nourished by our hunger."

Guess what I am going to say next-Correct.

All of us are on a pilgrimage journey toward either experiencing the presence of Jesus in heaven or in Hell experiencing the fullfillemt of our own life choices.

Our Father has given us "the Bible" to guide us on our way in our pilgrimage" and we are to understand and evaluate our experiences through His Bible and not use our feelings as our own self reference.

How do we know that our hunger that is being nourished by the presence of the trinity and not some other spirits that are not of God. I use to experience all sorts of spiritual stuff through astro projection before I was a Christian, they were not of God? I am not trying to be argumentative but what do we have aas a reference that we are faithful to the person of Jesus as revealed in the Bible?

Tim

[jonny]

read the book and then come back and talk about it

[Existential Punk]

Great review Jonny! I can't wait to get my copies from Amazon UK b/c i know Pete changed a few things from the pre-published copy he sent me. Adele

[Timothy Wright]

ok

[darren]

pete's comingto australia in january, just ordered the book and will read then pass it onto people to promote the gig...

cheers for the review

[Pete Rollins]

Thanks for the warm review Jonny! The secret behind the McLaren forward is that I looked up the phone book, found someone with that name and got them to write it - the guy is a farmer from Essex! Look forward to seeing you soon!

[jonny]

it now all makes sense pete! the brian who is beyond brian...

[andrew Jones]

the existential brian . . .

hey - i also loved the book

[Phil Groom]

Your comment about Christians getting defensive against postmodernism is spot on, so thanks for that. Crazy business: as if God's truth needs us to defend it; as if God himself needs us to defend him — was it C S Lewis said something about he'd sooner defend a roaring lion? We need to get with it, not fight it.

I can see I'm gonna have to drop by more often, check out your book comments. Any chance I can recycle this one too, please?

[jonny]

sure

[dee]

thanks for the review,

ive just finished reading it for the first time and it is definatly worth a second.

Pete is speaking at greenbelt this year, im sure he'll unpack some of his theology there.

[Anna [Kelly]]

Hello.

This was refreshing to read. I laughed out loud when you said that fact that we can't have an objective view is 'pretty obvious', because i feel like i've spent the whole of this year trying to justify that i believe that to a lot of my peers and my lecturers here at LST. It saddens me a little that this is such a great theology college, yet somewhere where postmodernism is completely scorned to the point that the universal response to it [here] seems to be 'bring back the acceptance of absolutes!!!.' I've struggled with it a lot. Especially since they don't even teach that some christians don't necessarily believe that absolutes do the world any good.. So lots of students don't even know that any Christians are thinking/writing/teaching this stuff.. ! Or if they do they think its mislead, naive or heretical.. I think its a shame that fairly post modern generation is having their post modern christian outlook kicked out of them and replaced by a fairly modern one, disguised as 'biblical'...
you should come and do some teaching here.. shake it up a a bit.. or ask Pete Rollins to.
I have an exam on this on friday.. finally a healthy outlet for my screaming head!
Hope you're well.

[jonny]

hey anna hang in there! keep asking questions... we have to do the imaginative work of how faith looks in our culture. it's an old missionary idea that it's really only those who are native/indigenous to the culture who will be able to really lead and 'do it from the inside' - you're native to the new (postmodern) environment so get ready to lead us forward :-) i'm sure your instincts are good.
it was so lovely to see you the other month.