(re)Visiting Peter Rollins

A friend of mine once called Peter Rollins his favorite heretic. How one picks a favorite heretic, I will never know. But, those who know me well have at some point heard me discuss Peter Rollins in passing or in depth. I have owned and read all of Rollins's books. I consistently follow his online writings, and I was published in my college's academic journal for writing on Rollins's 'Pyrotheology'. Thus I return once again to the work of a man I deeply admire, even though his writings remain resolutely (un)orthodox. Here, I will revisit the theory & technology of Rollins's Pyrotheology & offer a confessional critique to his paradigm for parables.

Heresy, Heretics, & Parables

The word heresy or heretic evokes a rather nasty image of thought police, witch trials, or perhaps Halo 2 for those familiar with the campaign. Heresy as a concept relates closely to the idea of systematics you will find articulated in the work of Dr. Sarah Coakley. If an 'orthodox' tradition of thought means no matter where you enter all the pieces fit together, then heresy functions as beliefs operating within a tradition that problematize, contradict, or simply do not "fit in." In early Christian tradition & practice, one was not condemned for believing heresy, but rather admonished to believe that which is true & orthodox. The title heretic applied to those with some measure of teaching, authority, or power who knowingly taught contra-orthodox beliefs.

Yet Peter Rollins problematizes this very framework in his first major publication The Orthodox Heretic. Using self-written parables to turn contemporary conceptions of God, religion, & faith on their head, Rollins subverts the lines of belief & unbelief. He intends to shift the conversation of faith from a particular set of beliefs about the world to a better way of living in the world. For him, orthodox beliefs do not 'fit in' to Christianity if they are not fulfilled in actions of unconditional love for one's neighbor.

In a podcast with Rob Bell, Rollins explains what makes parables so disturbing & de-centering. For him, parables start with position 'A', the position the audience is most likely to hold. Position 'B', the opposite or antagonist of position 'A', waits around the corner. In the story, someone in position 'A' faces a problem where in order to live out what they believe in position 'A', they most adopt position 'B'. In the process the character & audience discover a way in which position 'A' & 'B' are not incompatible beliefs, but rather a way to fulfill one another when they are lived out.

For example, Rollins tells a parable about a pastor who, whenever he prays for someone, the person he prays for loses their faith in God. For years, as a good pastor with this problem, he never prayed for his people. Then one day on a train, the pastor sat across from a business man on the phone, swearing at his secretary & popping pills to keep his heart rate down. The businessman, seeing the pastor reading the Bible said "Are you a man of faith as well? I'll tell you what, if it wasn't for my faith keeping me grounded, I don't know if I could keep working with the stress of my job. When I'm angry & my wife is upset because I'm always working, it gives me peace knowing God & I are ok." The pastor then asked, "May I pray for you?" Years later, the pastor ran into the same businessman on a different train. When the businessman saw him, he wept and told the pastor, "After I met you, I couldn't shake the feeling that my faith was a sham. So, I gave up on it. Without my faith I couldn't stand my job anymore, so I quit! Because I was home for so long looking for work, my wife & I rekindled our desire to take in foster children. Our family is so big, & we're connecting kids with families all over the world! Thank you for helping me find my faith again." Essentially, unbelief may be closer to finding the beauty in a life of faith more than faith itself.

In a parable like the one above, Rollins advances a certain thesis. He sees a particular problem at work in Christianity, religion, Capitalism, Republicans & Democrats, Catholics & Protestants alike. Rollins calls his unique project to diagnose this problem & live out a daring solution Pyrotheology. Next, I turn to the underlying philosophy (what Rollins calls the 'theory') of Pyrotheology & the events/practices Rollins offers his readers to live into Pyrotheology (the 'technology').

The Theory of Pyrotheology

Peter Rollins believes that most religion, ideology, therapy, & advertising offers a kind of certainty & satisfaction. For him, the classical/orthodox reading of the Good News (Gospel) of Christianity means offering someone certainty they will be rewarded with heaven & perhaps be supremely satisfied on earth if they believe in Jesus. Yet the complexity & difficulty of life testifies against the kind of certainty religion offers. It will ultimately leave you less satisfied. Thus religion, ideology & their counterparts only exacerbate the underlying problem of the obsessive desire to find ultimate certainty & satisfaction in an inherently meaningless, absurd world.

In response, Rollins suggests that faith takes a deeply materialistic turn. To reject the beliefs which keep one desiring a certainty that will never come is to ultimately find freedom to live a life devoted to unconditional love & affirmation. "It uncovers how faith helps us resolutely confront our brokenness, joyfully embrace unknowing, and courageously face the difficulties of life." If there are no conditions for perfect certainty & satisfaction, this creates room for a life lived in unconditional love for one another. Thus, to reject the spiritual & eternal for Rollins means to find the beauty of life Jesus was pointing to in his own parables & teachings. To fulfill the teachings of Christ is to reject Christianity as a religion.

The Technology of Pyrotheology

As I referenced in the introduction, Rollins's books were my first introduction to Pyrotheology. The Orthodox Heretic, How (Not) to Speak of God, Insurrection, The Fidelity of Betrayal, The Idolatry of God, & The Divine Magician all articulate the project Rollins has devoted his life to. In my first critical engagement with Pyrotheology, I suggested that Rollins had not presented coherent, tangible steps to begin living into Pyrotheology beyond the theory. However, since then (and not because of my critique) he has developed different courses & events designed to bring Pyrotheology to practice.

In addition to his books, writings, & lectures, Rollins cultivates two primary practices which from the 'technology' of Pyrotheology. The first is transformance art, events which center around a film, musician, play, or visual art gallery intentionally designed to bring about the same shift Rollins elicits in his parables. The second is decentering practices, such as "Atheism for Lent." These practices take traditional Christian times (such as Lent or communion) and, again, concoct to shift one's assumed beliefs into a new, less certain & unfamiliar starting point. At heart, each practice of Pyrotheology attempts a materialistic turn away from the unhealthy answers to certainty & satisfaction one wants, instead offering a space to fulfill those desires in acts of love, honesty, humility, & endurance.

(Full)fillment

In my past visits into Rollins's Pyrotheology, I neglected the importance he places on parables. They were not only the first medium through which he articulated Pyrotheology. His paradigm for parables forms the structure for both the diagnosis & answer Rollins gives to the problem, the experience of space between your imagined ideal self & the desire to certainly & satisfactorily fill that space. The crux of all Rollins's Pyrotheology, his materialistic faith, falls on the assumption that there is no full-fillment. That space we desire to fill with things, religion, relationships, certainty & satisfaction ultimately cannot be filled. The parables articulate two contrasting positions that both point to the same experience: there is no final fulfillment of one's desire. In the end, it is a better choice to turn that desire to find unconditional love & affirmation for life & those who live it.

What fascinates me about Pyrotheology at once continues to sadden me. It seems to collapse down to a just another moral imperative. "Life is absurd, unknowable, & nothing will fulfill my desires. Therefore, love unconditionally. It's more healthy." In order to avoid the problem of believing in yet failing to live out a divine law, Rollins simply offers a new law. And if orthodox Christianity teaches anything, it teaches that the Law kills. Our innate loving & desiring nature is at the heart of Pyrotheology. To diagnose the human dilemma as desiring too much rather than not enough is precisely where Rollins's parables, and thus Pyrotheology as a project, miss the mark.

You see, I believe Rollins correctly diagnoses a gap between what we say we believe & what we do. He rightly situates the crux of this gap in desire. Much like St. Augustine & all standing in orthodox Christianity, Rollins asserts a notion of the Fall. The orthodox account says we not only desire too much, but we desire the wrong things & in the wrong ways. Perfect certainty is only God's, yet we desire it as we are made in his Image. Satisfaction involves a correct ordering of our desire such that we desire good things as we ought. And most importantly, Jesus fully saw the gap between who we are & who we desire to be. The Law articulated this gap, and it will only ever condemn those who fail to love as we ought unless there is a real grace which helps us become the kind of people who love as we ought. Where Rollins tells parables to mean there is no fulfillment of our deepest desires, Christ told parables to illustrate how He himself is the (Full)fillment of these desires. Indeed, Christ isn't just the (Full)fillment. He, in the unity of Father, Son, & Holy Spirit, is the grace through whom we may hope to become like Him, perfectly loving God & our Neighbor. On the orthodox account, to be human isn't to revel in our finitude but rather to confess our fallenness & finitude to a Triune God who, by grace, transforms us so that we might participate in the Divine life.

In the Church, we confess the Creeds not because we truly believe them, but because we desperately need God's grace to truly believe them. We confess our sin not because we are just finite, but because we are fallen & have wronged both God & our neighbor. We confess our need for the Law, not simply as an ideal to strive towards, but in the hope that God will complete His work in us to become the people who truly follow it.

In the end, I believe Rollins is attempting to offer a true, helpful solution to the problems of idolatry & hypocrisy. He wants people to offer unconditional love, and this is a deeply Christ-like desire for the world. But, the only answer I have found worth believing in is the one where Jesus is the fulfillment and not just the example. The answer to hypocrisy & idolatry is not a new law, it is the old Law fulfilled in Christ & the ever-new Gospel of grace. If what I believe about orthodox Christianity is true, then even Pyrotheology must fit in the story. I believe it does. But where Rollins's parables speak to desire unfulfilled, Christ speaks to desire (Full)filled.