How (Not) to Speak of God: Marks of the Emerging Church

by Peter Rollins

In this brief exchange we are not presented with the traditional form of atheism (by which one would deny the existence of a creator). Instead Meursault has turned his back on both theism and atheism altogether, rejecting the former because it strikes him as asking a meaningless question and the latter because it takes this question too seriously. For Meursault there is no response to the spiritual question precisely because there is no question. This approach can be described as a type of quiescent anti-theism in the sense that it pays no attention to either theism or atheism. In many ways this character can be taken to represent a contemporary response to religion, one which rejects the religious ‘answer’ as irrelevant precisely because the question is believed to be irrelevant. If the question has no relevance then an answer can have no purpose.