Peter Rollins's Blog, page 16

On the Subversive Meaning of the Supreme Court Ruling: Let them be as miserable as the rest of us

One of the common threads that I’ve seen in relation to the Supreme Court decision concerning same-sex marriage is the idea that same-sex couples can now participant in the transcendent and sacred sacrament of marriage. Whether people agree with this decision or disagree, they all seem to hold marriage up as something truly sublime.

I’d like to take a more psychoanalytic approach and reflect briefly on the idea that what makes this decision so important lies predominantly in the other direction: that now same-sex couples have access to a profoundly mundane and unfulfilling type of relationship configuration that was previously prohibited to them, and that is where the true radicality of the ruling lies.

To begin, let’s reflect on one of the predominant fantasies of the fundamentalist in relation to same-sex attraction: that there is a community of people having unrestrained sexual enjoyment. A community that is fully sexually fulfilled, having fun and enjoying life in an excessive way, outside the constraints of traditional societal norms.

This can be seen, for instance, in the passionate proclamations from the pulpit about the excessive promiscuity of gay men and the thinly veiled joy witnessed in the preacher who speaks of the coming wrath of God (i.e. the claim is not that gay people are unhappy, but that they should be made unhappy).

In psychoanalytic terms this is the fantasy of a non-castrated other. An other who has access to what gives them overwhelming satisfaction. An other who is able to have the pleasure that we have had to renounce or somehow lost.

We see this same fantasy playing out in the jilted lover who imagines that their ex is having unmediated pleasure while they are suffering. The fantasy is of “them” having all the fun that is blocked off from “us.” Often the person only lets go of their bitterness when they discover that the other is not having some access to a full life that they are not (while they may be happier in small concrete ways, they still suffer from the same things that everyone else does).

On the other side people can also play into this fantasy by attempting to enact the enjoyment that the other imagines them having. Here an ex might enact revenge by pretending to have excessive enjoyment (posting up pictures of themselves partying and with other people). What happens here is a version of the saying “the best revenge is success.”

Fundamentalists have held, and continue to hold, a huge amount of power. They are able to persecute and exclude gay people in a variety of ways. Their hatred being fuelled by the fantasy of the other as sexually fulfilled and excessively happy. One of the few weapons of response is to act up to this image, to pretend that one is having all the fun that the other is imagining. An act that can be very exhausting, unfulfilling and destructive to the self.

For real progress to be made the fantasy of the non-castrated other/self has to be burst. One of the unconscious reasons why fundamentalists don’t want same-sex couples to be able to get married might well be because it threatens the psychic structure they have built that keeps the gay and lesbian other as an enemy. When someone can be seen to embrace the mundane of marriage then it’s harder to imagine them out in the world having full sexual satisfaction that is denied to us. The sublime is unending sexual fulfilment through the creation and immersion of a never ending variety of sexual acts (something encouraged by consumerism with the drive for ever more sex toys). The mundane is precisely marriage. The elusive sacred is in the former, while the materialist position is more generally found in the latter.

This is why I take a more controversial stance regarding polyamory. While many of my friends are polyamorous, I think that polyamorous communities often fall foul of the desire for full sexual satisfaction. Many polyamourous individuals (though not all) are looking for the non-castrated full pleasure that they see as missing from marriage. But here they misread the radical blessing of marriage for its curse. It is precisely in accepting the lack of sexual satisfaction that marriage offers that one can find a good reason for defending it.

Of course, many people get married because they think it will satisfy, but at its subversive core the marriage act involves two people opting out of the excessive demand for multiple partners, sexual satisfaction and constant stimulation. It is freedom from this exhausting and ultimately oppressive dream. Marriage does not hold out the freedom to have sexual satisfaction, but the possibility of a freedom from having to seek that out.

The marriage vows are then a way of saying, “look, lets hang out, have fun, explore our sexuality, and care for each other while basically accepting that the idea of some perfection out there doesn’t exist.”

Recall, the final scenes in Roman Polanski’s 1992 comic masterpiece Bitter Moon. Oscar and Nigel watch on as their partners first dance together, then sleep together, with no concern for their gaze. Something that Oscar cannot stand. Oscar has masochistically endured (and enjoyed) the sadistic games of Mimi, because the sadomasochism connects them. But now he is left out completely. He can’t handle it and shots Mimi before killing himself. We are then left with the original unsatisfied, repressed couple (Fiona and Nigel). With one difference: they have gone through the adventure of seeking a non-castrated pleasure and found it wanting. The couple at the end are the same as the couple at the beginning, but now perhaps they have been somewhat disabused of their fantasy that there is a non-castrated form of pure enjoyment. This then opens up the possibility of them having a more satisfyingly unsatisfied relationship.

The important thing about the Supreme Court ruling therefore might be not that same-sex couples are free to enter into a more satisfying and sublime type of relation, but that now they can choose this form of unsatisfying and mundane path. One that, if done well, might be very enriching and fun.

Wake: A Boutique Festival Curated by Peter Rollins

This will be the fourth year of Peter Rollins’ boutique Belfast festival. Taking place in venues throughout the cultural heart of the city, the festival brings together 50 people from all over the world and offers them a rich blend of ideas, music, film, art, alcohol and conversation. Set in Peter’s hometown this is an amazing opportunity to see one of Europe’s most famous and vibrant cities, as well as experiencing the context out of which Peter’s work grew.

Pervious guests have included John Caputo, Jay Bakker, Gladys Ganiel, Kester Brewin, Katharine Moody, Barry Taylor and Terri Hooley.

Tickets are going fast. We’ll be announcing this years guests closer to the event. But buy now to avoid disappointment.

While the event starts on Tuesday 26th, there will be pre-event drinks on the 25th.

Price excludes food and accommodation (but we’ll recommend a variety of options for both)

 

The Pledge, Turn and Prestige of Christianity

Here Peter Rollins talks offers a brief introduction to the subversive message of Pyrotheology through the lens of a magic trick. A theme he explores in The Divine Magician.

To get The Divine Magician click here

Giving the Three Fingers

Here Peter Rollins talks about how the unpleasent things we cannot speak find ways to speak unpleasantly. A theme he explores in The Divine Magician.

To get The Divine Magician click here

A Handful of Mustard Seeds

Here Peter Rollins talks about how we all seek to run from our suffering, but that the path to a richer life lies in confronting that suffering. A theme he explores in The Divine Magician.

To get The Divine Magician click here

Christianity and the loss of the Sacred Object

Here Peter Rollins introduces the idea that Christianity is not concerned with what one believes, but rather describes a type of life that enables us embrace doubt, complexity and ambiguity. A theme he explores in The Divine Magician.

To get The Divine Magician click here

Five Minutes to Get Out

Here Peter Rollins talks about how Radical Theology isn’t concerned with escaping the world, but with entering more fully into it. A theme he explores in The Divine Magician.

To get The Divine Magician click here

In Defense of Total Depravity

As some of you will know, every year I run a small festival in my home town of Belfast. This year one of our guests was the ever brilliant philosopher John “Jack” Caputo. During a discussion in the talks part of the festival someone asked him what the main difference was between the two of us. The question was asked partly because we share so much in common and I’ve been so influenced by his writing. Yet, there still seems a slight difference in our approaches. 

In response Jack said, “I think in listening to Pete this week I’ve finally worked it out, he’s a philosophical Calvinist!” For Jack, the Lacanian influence in my work manifests itself in the proclamation of a lack that touches every part of our being. Something he felt is a philosophical version of Total Depravity. The difference between us then lies in the way that Jack (as a heretical catholic) is much more positive about human subjectivity than myself.

Far from wanting to reject this claim, I think that he put his finger on something very important. The only thing I’d want to push back on is the idea that my position is depressing.

To understand the claim it will be good to briefly reflect on what Total Depravity actually means. To begin with, it shouldn’t be thought of as the idea that humans are utterly and completely sinful, but rather that every part of the human subject is touched by sin. If we take sin as an ontological category rather than an ethical one (something that is actually a conservative theological move, even if it is not one reflected in the contemporary church) then we can define Total Depravity as describing a lack that is infused into being itself.

Theologically speaking this means that Total Depravity defines the idea that human subjectivity is something other than a form of “pure life.” It is rather a form of impure life. It is a life infused with death. In philosophical terms this can be said in the following way: a human being is constituted by a lack at the heart of its subjectivity.

This recognition can actually be seen as the fundamental insight of religion. Namely, the religious impulse is born out of the sense of a lack experienced in the very heart of subjectivity. Rather than explaining religion as the result of some need for tribal identity, as the means by which we come to see the human essence, as a will to power, or as the result of postulating agency in a hostile world, Lacan saw the religious impulse as arising fundamentally from a recognition of the incompleteness hard-baked into the very nature of human subjectivity (a lack formed in and by language). The religious individual experiences this lack and then attempts to stop it up via some signifier such as “God,” “Historical Necessity,” “The scientific method,” or “Evolution.”

By directly affirming the ground out of which religion is born (in its sacred and secular forms), Pyrotheology affirms a form of Total Depravity in that it recognizes the constitutive lack at the core of being, and the various ways this lack is made manifest (the Real). The point however is not to offer up a way of closing down this lack (which is ontological in nature and thus cannot be filled). This strategy of corking up the lack is the way of fundamentalism, and secular philosophies such as positivism. Rather the theory and technology of Pyrotheology is concerned with directly assuming the lack and enjoying the desire that it creates, rather than seeking our pleasure in the closure of the gap.

It is this religion of the gap that I explore in my most recent trilogy of books: Insurrection, Idolatry of God and The Divine Magician.

Vanishing Act of God, Belfast, UK

Over the last twenty years I’ve been developing a project that has been described as “Pyrotheology.” Born and bred in Belfast, Pyrotheology has now grown into a vibrant movement with a world-wide impact. 

In this intimate event, I’ll be presenting a clear and compressive introduction to the theory and technology of pyrotheology in the city where it all began.

This event will involve a mix of talks and discussions, and should be of interest to students of religion, academics, religious leaders and laypeople alike. We’re going to limit the tickets to 60. To register click on the Ticket link.

Cost £50

Price includes light refreshments, lunch provided by Flour Power, beer from Boundary Brewery and a free copy of “The Divine Magician” (or other book)

To secure your ticket, click here

Collective, Deland, FL

In “The Lost Supper” Peter will offer a subversive reading of the Christian narrative and tradition, in which a community is gathered around a loss. Rather than an object of desire or faith, he will offer the lack of this object as the radical heart of good news. From here, he will offer a reading of the last supper as the “lost” supper, a slant sure to disturb and inspire.


5PM | 111 S ALA Ave. DeLand, FL | Childcare Provided

Suggested Donation $10