Words

Well, I am not sure if you are aware of Peter Rollins or not, but if you are not, my guess is that at some point in the near future you will be. He is the founder of Ikon, an organization in Northern Ireland. His book How (Not) to Speak of God, is fairly controversial. I have just began reading this work and it is one of those works that either makes you applaud and cheer as you read or get mad and yell! At this point, I have only read through chapter one and you can tell Peter is a thinker and philosopher. i can see why his thoughts are controversial, but I have not yet decided what I think of them. If you are familiar with the emerging church movement, this work seems to be a philosophical treatise for that movement. He argues that in the current postmodern culture what we do with what we believe is much more important than what we believe. He posits his argument between fundamentalism (ignore postmodern culture’s critique of knowledge of God) and liberalism (accept postmodern culture’s idea that we can not grasp God so we must just live socially good lives). He accepts the criticism of postmodernity that we can not truly know anything apart from our own culture, language, upbring, economic status, etc. and attempts to provide a way to be Christian in that context. It is an interesting read, but I am not convinced yet of his argument. I need to finish the book before I can make some decisions. Meanwhile, here are some links for you to check out on Peter and his book, I’m sure you can find more through a google search! Let me know your thoughts!

After Yale University meeting with Peter Rollins some thoughts and conversation ensued.

Emerging Women has some thoughts on Peter Rollins

Tall Skinny Kiwi (aka Andrew Jones) has some thoughts on Peter and his book.

Scot McKnight of JesusCreed has some thoughts as well.

Andrew Tatum has some thoughts.

PurplePastor has some input to give.

Emerging Church Info has an interview with Peter Rollins.