St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church
Adult Education Seminar
Considering
Peter Rollins’
How (Not) to Speak of God
(Paraclete Press, 2006)
Directed by
Dr. Roger R. Easson
Sunday, October 18, 2009
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
This is the website/blog put together for Peter by his publisher. It contains an
amazing archive of his work. Highly recommended.
This is a blog I am creating to go with this class. It contains many interesting videos, interviews with Rollins, and my notes and thinking about this book.
We are now moving into the section Rollins calls Orthopraxis: bringing theory to church. Here we find a series of liturgical dramas designed as Rollins writes “To treat something as an Icon is to view particular words, images or experiences, as aids in contemplation of that which cannot be reduced to words, images or experience. Not only this but an Icon represents a place where God touches Humanity” [38].
So in an effort to create a place where God touches Humanity, Rollins has written these liturgical plays to transform the worship place to encourage transformation within the worshiper.
I like what Rollins says when he writes “For as we all know, one does not learn to be a Christian, but rather one engages in the process of being one” (73). “Part 2 is thus aimed at showing how the ideas expressed in Part 1 may be employed in the religious environment so as to help facilitate a context for personal and communal transformation . . . . Each service is evangelical in so much as it aims to facilitate a type of conversion amongst those who attend” (74). “Each service also attempts to remain faithful to the Augustinian axiom that only God gives God. Because of this the services are designed in such a way as to minimize specific doctrinal statements in favor of employing the Christian narrative to create a space for reflection and encounter” (75).
Service 1
“Eloi, Eloi, lama, sabachthani?”
In this service we have something very novel and yet very traditional at the same time. Based on the Saturday experience, the day after the murder of Jesus and the day before the resurrection, this service explores “the true horror of the cross [which] allows no shelter, for it considered in itself, it signals the seeming abandonment of God by God and the possible victory of an all embracing nihilism. . . . we must be courageous enough to close our eyes and imagine the unimaginable end of God. For it is here, in this space, thatg is the truly radical decision can be made. Faith, although not born at the crucifixion, is put on trial there” [78].
Service 2
Prodigal
Further exploring this theme of the absence of God¸ Prodigal takes the story of the Prodigal Son and turns it on its head. The difference is that here it is the Father who leaves and the sons who remain behind waiting like Godot for the return that never occurs. Rollins writes “Prodigal explores the idea of over-abundant revelation by exploring how God’s revelation by exploring how God’s participation with the world is so luminous that all our attempts at rendering God present to the mind or experience turn out to be wounded, provisional and inadequate. By exploring how faith includes a sense of God as one who is absent (because of our inability to grasp God’s presence), we explore how seeking after God is a part of what it means to have faith, rather than something that happens as a preliminary step in the move towards faith. With this in mind, ‘Prodigal’ aims to facilitate a space for contemplation upon the idea that our longing for God is actually a sign of God’s (hyper)presence” [87-88].
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