Peter Rollins's Blog, page 45
January 26, 2012
East Lake, Seattle, WA
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January 19, 2012
The Embrace of Unknowing
What if the significant difference is not between those who know the secret of the universe and those who don't, but rather between those who do not know the secret but who acknowledge this unknowing and those who do not know know the secret but who refuse to face up to their unknowing?
This video was created by Bala Boyd
Your God Raises the Dead? Give Me a God Who Raises the Living!
No matter how great a song is it cannot raise the dead, cure cancer or make your lost lover return. Music does not change the world you live in, reverse time or change history. It does not promise snake oil solutions to life's woes. But music is anything but impotent; indeed it can be experienced as one of the most potent forces in our universe. For music can assist us in changing the way that we interact with the world we live in.
Great music can help us to affirm life, embrace it, face it and sublimate it. In other words music can help sensitize us to, and celebrate, the life that we participate in.
The poet is one who helps us experience life as inscribed with a rich and sensuous texture. She helps us to call forth, confront and confirm our existence. Inviting us to find the courage that might enable us to say "yes" and "Amen" to life in the midst of its complexity and in spite of our anxiety.
In light of this we might begin to understand how a divine miracle is not something that simply raises the dead but one that is able to raise the living to a place where life is not experienced as death. For without the latter the former would appear to be nothing more than the work of an evil demon.
I guess that is why I was never that interested in gods who raise the dead. The real power lies in raising the living: something that is testified to in the act of love.
Love is that which experiences another as worth more than the mundane matter of which they are composed. In love we find a cause for which we would be willing to die, and it is there that we experience life as worthy of living. In love we find a world worth dancing in and celebrating.
The claim that "God is love" testifies to this miracle. It points to the idea that, in the act of love, we encounter a transcendent depth and mystery that sets our world ablaze, a depth and mystery that we cannot grasp, but which renders our world worthy of being grasped. In other words it hints at the idea that the highest good is not some object that we should love, but a reality we participate in through the act of love itself.
Love is then the true miracle; it is in love that the living are raised from death to life. In love we do not run from our world, but learn to embrace it and raise it to the level of the sacred.
January 15, 2012
The Embrace of Unknowing
This video was created by Bala Boyd
The One Year Experiment, New York, NY
Recently I have been exploring the possibility of setting up and running a one year experiment in community based on my experience with ikon in Belfast and my most recent theoretical work.
Nothing is set in stone at the moment, however one of the locations I am looking at is NYC (the other being LA where I hope to set up a similar meeting in the next few months).
To gauge interest in such a project I would like to call together an informal meeting with anyone who might be interested in attending or being more directly involved in such a group.
The venue will be mailed out to all people who sign up to the Facebook page (the location will depend on the amount of people interested). We will also post the location up on the page a few days before for those who don't use Facebook (the place will likely be in Williamsburg – though the event will probably be in Manhattan).
January 11, 2012
One Year Church Experiment
Recently I have been exploring the possibility of setting up and running a one-year experiment in community based on my experience with ikon in Belfast and my most recent theoretical work.
Nothing is set in stone at the moment, however one of the locations I am looking at is NYC.
To gauge interest in such a project I would like to call together an informal meeting on the 23rd January at 19:30 with anyone who might be interested in attending or being more directly involved in such a group.
The venue will be mailed out to all people who sign up to the Facebook page (the location will depend on the amount of people interested). We will also post the location up on the FB a few days before for those who don't use social networking (the place will likely be in Williamsburg).
Hope to see you there.
January 7, 2012
Salvation for Zombies
Here is a lecture that I gave recently at Fuller Theological Seminary. This talk expresses some of my most recent work and might provide a useful framework for understanding Insurrection in a deeper way.
The above picture is a live sketch by Matt Lumpkin drawn during the talk.
January 3, 2012
The Secret Garden, Belfast, UK
In the aftermath of Christmas and the New Year celebrations, join us by an open fire in Belfast for a quiet evening of song and storytelling delving into the themes of darkness and light in the pursuit of love, meaning and human connection.
Featuring fairytales and music from myself, Ursula Burns, Padraig O Tuama, Stephen Caswell, Rachel Austin, and more…
Brought to you by the ikon collective… for more information click here
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