I am a big fan of Peter Rollins. His latest book, “The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief”, is a treat. Rollins accomplishes something rare. He brings the deep philosophical discussions of the last few centuries down to the layman’s level without reducing them to meaningless dribble. Usually when someone attempts to summarize the work of the world’s greatest philosophers in a nutshell, it ends up about as valuable as a nutshell. Rollins succeeds where most have failed because he recognizes that philosophy is more about questions rather than answers. Philosophy is a process of intellectual wrestling with ideas. Providing us easy answers would only rob the reader of the experience of the search. Regurgitating obscure philosophical riddles would simply make the book another in a long line of intellectually inaccessible attempts. This book strikes a perfect balance, or maybe I should say the perfect tension.

For too long, Christian theology has become more like the cheap reassurance of a placebo. A successful theologian, however, is someone who leads his readers into a few sleepless nights. I’ve had that feeling this weekend as I began reading this book. The real value of the book is not only what Rollins has to say, but the process you enter once you start reading. He’s shown that there is a serious connection between faith and doubt, fidelity and betrayal. Maybe intellectual wrestling and sleepless nights isn't for everyone, but I'm thrilled by it. For me, a new question is like a present under the Christmas tree.

Rollins has this to say about postmodern Christianity…

As this structure is revealed, I argue that the consequences are twofold. First, we are led to embrace the idea of Christianity as a religion without religion, that is, as a tradition that is always prepared to wrestle with itself, disagree with itself, and betray itself. Second, this requires a way of structuring religious collectives that operate at a deeper level than the mere affirmation of shared doctrines, creeds, and convictions. It involves the formation of dynamic life-affirming collectives that operate, quite literally, beyond belief.

Christians have grown leery of philosophy and I assume that is why theology has become less philosophical and more systematic. We too easily forget that it was the questions of Plato and Aristotle that caused Augustine and Aquinas to wrestle their way into the development of traditional orthodoxy. By engaging with Descartes, Nietzsche, and Derrida, Peter Rollins has done something wonderful for Christians. He’s asked us to think. Theology is like having a conversation with the history of our faith. Peter Rollins has asked us to wrestle with the tension about God and the Bible in the way the fathers of our faith had once done. He then asks us to take the next step and enter into conversation with the philosophers of our time. I'll be posting more as I finish up the book this week.