Peter Rollins
| Peter Rollins | |
|---|---|
| |
| Peter Rollins in 2019 | |
| Tradition | Radical theology, Postmodern philosophy of religion |
| Influenced by | Søren Kierkegaard, Jacques Derrida, Slavoj Žižek, Paul Tillich |
| Lifespan | 1973– |
| Notable ideas | Pyrotheology; Church beyond belief; parables and apophatic theology |
| Occupation | Writer, public speaker, philosopher, theologian |
| Influenced | Contemporary radical theology and emerging church movements |
| Wikidata | Q2318969 |
Peter Rollins (born 1973) is a Northern Irish writer, public speaker, and philosopher known as a radical theologian in contemporary Christianity . Drawing on postmodern philosophy and psychoanalytic theory, Rollins challenges traditional religious doctrines and practices. He has gained a reputation for overturning conventional notions of faith, often preaching the “Good News” of doubt and difficulty rather than certainty and triumphalism . Through his books, talks, and experimental communities, Rollins advocates a form of Christianity that questions the desire for absolute belief and easy answers, inviting believers to find meaning in uncertainty and struggle . His work has made him both an influential voice among postmodern Christian thinkers and a controversial figure in the eyes of more orthodox critics .
Early Life and Education
Rollins was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, against the backdrop of the sectarian conflict known as The Troubles. This environment of religiously-fueled division and violence shaped his perspective on faith – he saw early on how religion could be used to justify injustice and entrench tribal identities . At age 17, Rollins experienced a conversion to Christianity within a charismatic evangelical context . He became active in church planting and enthusiastic evangelism, but he soon grew uneasy with the dogmatism and “certainty” he found in that tradition . This discomfort would eventually spur him to seek new ways of understanding and living out faith.
Despite leaving high school without advanced qualifications, Rollins later attended Queen’s University Belfast, where he excelled academically . He earned a BA (Honors) in Scholastic Philosophy, an MA in Political Theory and Social Criticism, and eventually a PhD in Post-Structural Thought . His doctoral research surveyed how modern thinkers like Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche challenge religious ideas, and engaged with philosophers Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-Luc Marion to imagine a faith beyond the binary of theism vs. atheism . Although Rollins never pursued a traditional clergy or professorial career, he has maintained ties to academia – he served as a research associate at Trinity College Dublin’s Irish School of Ecumenics and has taught on the faculty of the Global Center for Advanced Studies . This blend of philosophical rigor and real-world religious questioning set the stage for Rollins’s later innovations in theology.
Ikon and the Emerging Church Movement
In the early 2000s, Peter Rollins and a group of friends established a collective in Belfast called ikon, which became the testing ground for his unconventional ideas about community and worship. Ikon has been described as an “experimental, transient church” that meets not in sanctuaries but in pubs, art spaces, and on the streets . Rollins once recounted how the idea began almost spontaneously – chatting in a dimly lit pub, he imagined creating a neutral space where people could explore faith without the usual church baggage . The result was a series of “anarchic experiments in transformance art,” as he terms it: part worship service, part performance art designed to provoke reflection rather than deliver doctrine . Ikon gatherings incorporated poetry, music, theatre, and interactive rituals (dubbed “theodramatic” events) to blur the line between the sacred and secular . These events intentionally cultivated what Rollins calls a “suspended space” – a temporary community where participants could set aside their religious or ideological labels and meet as equals amid shared doubt and curiosity . Ikon’s own members playfully described the group as “iconic, apocalyptic, heretical, emerging and failing,” signaling their comfort with paradox and failure in the journey of faith . In this freer space, atheists and believers, Protestants and Catholics, could all participate in creative liturgies that celebrated questioning and brokenness over pat answers . As one observer noted, in ikon “doubt is viewed as healthy and necessary” for owning our human limitations, a sharp contrast to dogmatic religion .
Though Rollins himself does not claim the “emerging church” label too strongly, ikon quickly became linked with the wider Emerging Church movement – a loose network of postmodern Christian communities reinventing church traditions. By the mid-2000s, Rollins was recognized as a prominent figure in the emergent conversation in the U.K., known for revitalizing Christian practice with self-critical theory . His influence extended internationally as well: pastors, theologians, and seekers involved in emerging church circles read Rollins’s work and attended his events for inspiration. Emergent Christianity tends to be experimental and questioning, and Rollins’s combination of philosophy and faith pushed those experiments even further “out there” on the theological spectrum . (He has joked that his role is to go to the frontier and “push the boundaries”, even if it makes others uncomfortable .) In short, ikon became a hub for Rollins’s radical re-imagining of church, and its ethos of holy doubt and radical welcome would permeate all his later work.
Radical Theology and Pyrotheology
Rollins’s intellectual journey led him from relatively mystical beginnings to a starkly radical theology. His first book, How (Not) to Speak of God (2006), grew out of his doctoral ideas and early ikon experiences. In it, Rollins drew on apophatic theology (the tradition of speaking only about what cannot be said of God) and post-structural philosophy to question whether our religious language captures God at all . The book’s blend of medieval mystics (like Meister Eckhart and Pseudo-Dionysius) with postmodern theorists (like Derrida) set the tone for Rollins’s project . Early on, his work still spoke in many traditional theological registers – God, prayer, mystery – albeit with a twist of deconstructive critique. However, with his second book The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief (2008), Rollins signaled a bolder shift toward what is known as Radical Theology . In this phase, he increasingly critiqued the idea of a personal, theistic God out there to solve our problems. Instead, influenced by radical thinkers like Slavoj Žižek (a political philosopher) and Jacques Lacan (a psychoanalyst), Rollins began to explore the notion that God, as we traditionally conceive Him, must “die” in order for true faith to emerge . This provocative idea places Rollins in line with the 1960s “Death-of-God theology” movement, albeit updated for a 21st-century audience .
In subsequent works – notably Insurrection: To Believe Is Human, To Doubt Divine (2011) and *The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction* (2013) – Rollins pressed further into this existential, psychoanalytic approach to Christianity . He wove together influences from G.W.F. Hegel’s philosophy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s prison writings, and Paul Tillich’s existentialist theology, among others . Rollins’s basic assertion is that much of organized Christianity has sold people a false promise – that believing in God (and the right doctrines about God) will complete us, remove our suffering, and give us absolute certainty . In contrast, he argues that this very promise becomes an idol, and that clinging to a God who fixes all our problems actually intensifies our dissatisfaction and anxiety . True faith, for Rollins, involves the honest embrace of uncertainty, loss, and the “absence” of God. In Insurrection, for example, he suggests that the journey of Christ – especially the cry of abandonment on the Cross – calls believers to experience the “death” of the God of guarantees so that a deeper, more authentic trust can arise . He pointedly asks, *“Can we burn off the structures of religion and find what remains?”* – implying that something real (perhaps love, or a mode of life) might be left once our comforting religious props are set ablaze.
To describe this incendiary approach, Rollins coined the term “pyrotheology.” This neologism literally means “fire theology,” and Rollins was partly inspired by a famous anarchist slogan: “The only church that illuminates is a burning church.” Rather than advocating physical arson, Rollins uses the image metaphorically – he wants to set fire to the layers of dogma, false certitude, and shallow comfort that often pass for faith. What burns away are the illusions that God is a product guaranteeing happiness or that religion is a bargain for security . What might remain, in the flames of pyrotheology, is a purified encounter with the unknown ground of being – a form of Christianity stripped of its idolatrous trappings. Rollins aligns this idea with Bonhoeffer’s notion of a “religionless Christianity,” a faith expressed in action and love amid doubt, without the scaffolding of institutional religion and its otherworldly claims . In practice, pyrotheology is less about what doctrines one affirms and more about how one lives out faith amid unknowing. Rollins argues that authentic Christianity is not a system of belief; it is a “mode of life” – a way of transforming our relationship to the world by accepting the lack of ultimate answers . Key themes he emphasizes include: the virtue of questioning (celebrating doubt and ambiguity rather than fearing them), the acceptance of brokenness and trauma as part of life, and the rejection of tribal religious identities in favor of love that cuts across divisions . By undermining our false certainties, Rollins believes, faith can become a liberating force that doesn’t deliver us from the struggles of life but teaches us how to transform those struggles into sources of depth and solidarity .
One concrete example of Rollins’s approach is his annual course “Atheism for Lent.” In this program, which he has led for many years, participants spend the season of Lent not on devotional readings or Bible studies, but on reading atheist and anti-religious critics of faith – figures like Nietzsche, Freud, Marx, or contemporary skeptics. The idea is to treat atheistic critique as a spiritual discipline. Rollins suggests that undergoing a disciplined “purification” by atheism can function like an exorcism: it casts out our attachments to a simplistic, idol-like God so that a more genuine faith might emerge . Practices like Atheism for Lent exemplify Rollins’s conviction that questioning God is not the opposite of faith but an essential part of it. This radical style of applied theology – taking doubt seriously through creative practice – has set Rollins apart from both traditional preachers and academic theologians.
Major Works and Publications
Over the past two decades, Peter Rollins has authored several books that articulate and build upon his theological vision. These publications mix philosophy, theology, storytelling, and social critique, often in an accessible, anecdotal style despite their deep concepts. Below is a selection of Rollins’s major works:
| Year | Title (Subtitle) | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | How (Not) to Speak of God | Postmodern theology and apophatic faith; introduces the idea that our talk about God fails and that community experiments (like ikon’s gatherings) can explore divine mystery beyond doctrine. |
| 2008 | The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief | Bridges mystical theology to Radical Theology; argues that being faithful to God may require “betraying” rigid beliefs, signaling Rollins’s turn toward a more materialist, doubt-embracing Christianity. |
| 2009 | The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales | A collection of original parables and tales; uses story and paradox to subvert conventional religious thinking (e.g. reconceiving biblical narratives to surprise readers). These parables illustrate theology through narrative and invite interpretation. |
| 2011 | Insurrection: To Believe Is Human, To Doubt, Divine | Develops Rollins’s idea that true Christianity entails experiencing the “death” of the traditional God-concept. Emphasizes that doubt and despair (echoing Jesus’s cry “Why have you forsaken me?”) are integral to faith’s journey toward resurrection life. |
| 2013 | The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction | Critiques the consumerist desire for God as a guarantor of happiness. Proposes that the God we often seek — one who gives us certainty and cures our angst — is an idol that must be abandoned for genuine freedom. Urges acceptance of incompleteness and freedom from the tyranny of “needing to be right.” |
| 2015 | The Divine Magician: The Disappearance of Religion and the Discovery of Faith | Uses the metaphor of a magic trick in three acts (pledge, turn, prestige) to explain how religious structures conceal the absence at their core. Argues that the apparent loss of the sacred (the “vanishing” of the magical object) can usher in a deeper, more transformative experience of faith beyond illusions. |
Rollins’s books have been published by both religious and secular presses (for instance, many by the imprint Howard Books). By 2011, Insurrection was already noted as his fourth major release, following the influential works How (Not) to Speak of God, The Fidelity of Betrayal, and The Orthodox Heretic . He went on to add The Idolatry of God and The Divine Magician to this list of provocative titles . Throughout these works, Rollins combines scholarly insight with an approachable, story-driven style. Each chapter in Insurrection, for example, opens with a short parable or joke before delving into theory . This creative approach has helped his dense ideas resonate with lay readers, and some of his turns of phrase (like “to believe is human; to doubt, divine”) have entered popular Christian discourse. Even as the books vary in focus – from reimagining church ritual to dissecting our psychological cravings for certainty – all remain centered on Rollins’s core question: What if true faith looks more like losing God, and finding something beyond our understanding, rather than holding onto our presumed answers?
Reception and Influence
Peter Rollins’s work has evoked a mix of fascination and critique across the Christian spectrum. On one hand, he has been praised as a refreshingly honest and insightful voice for Christians disillusioned with conventional church. The Internet Monk blog described Rollins as “an intelligent voice” speaking to those wandering a postmodern, post-Christian wilderness – someone who provokes the church to face hard truths with startling clarity . Many readers have found Rollins’s message liberating: by permission to doubt and to “fail” in one’s faith, they discover a more authentic spirituality beyond the veneer of piety . Rollins’s events and workshops (from Belfast to Los Angeles) have drawn a loyal following of spiritual seekers, artists, and pastors who credit him with helping them deconstruct toxic religious ideas and find new joy in uncertainty. Even those who don’t fully agree with his conclusions often find his writings engaging. A reviewer of Insurrection noted that even if one “vehemently disagrees” with Rollins’s pyrotheology, the journey of reading him is “thrilling” in the way it challenges one’s thinking . In this way, Rollins has carved out a niche as both a guide and a gadfly for people on the edges of faith – he gives language to the doubts and questions that many harbor silently.
At the same time, Rollins has faced substantial criticism and pushback. In more conservative and traditional Christian circles, his ideas are often seen as dangerously unorthodox — or even heretical. Critics worry that in rejecting the need for concrete beliefs or in saying “God does not exist” in the way we think, Rollins may be leading people away from Christian truth rather than toward it . Some evangelical theologians have described his work as misleading and “damaging to the church,” arguing that he undermines core doctrines (like the resurrection or God’s providence) by treating them only as psychological metaphors . Beyond charges of doctrinal unfaithfulness, other critics focus on what they perceive as an imbalance in Rollins’s project. They note that he is adept at tearing down certitudes – one commenter quipped that giving Rollins a stage is like handing a preacher a chainsaw, implying he’ll slice through any theological or institutional “sacred cow” in reach . However, these critics argue that deconstruction by itself is not enough to sustain a living faith. As one reviewer put it, Rollins excels at showing why our religious “house” is flawed, but he offers “no true new landscape” to build on once the old structure is demolished . In their view, he sometimes leaves believers in a lurch – with broken pieces of theology on the ground and little guidance for how to reconstruct a meaningful practice of discipleship. Along similar lines, some theologians in the radical theology camp contend that Rollins’s work, for all its radical rhetoric, is ultimately too abstract. They see him as translating Christian ideas into the language of psychoanalysis and continental philosophy in a way that can become a cerebral “exercise in intellectual gymnastics” . From this perspective, Rollins is critiqued for missing the ethical and political dimension of radical theology – the call to actively struggle against injustice. One such critic argued that truly radical theology should be about “the divine program of world transformation” and the fight against real socio-political evils, whereas Rollins’s version, centered on individual experience and philosophizing, might amount only to a form of liberal theological tinkering . In sum, detractors question whether Rollins’s provocative ideas edify the church or merely deconstruct it, and whether they lead to tangible change or just clever nihilism in religious disguise.
Despite the critiques, Peter Rollins’s influence in contemporary Christian thought is significant. He has helped introduce concepts from postmodern philosophy into church conversations, equipping a generation of clergy and laity to grapple with doubt, pluralism, and the seeming absence of God in new ways. His notion of embracing uncertainty has found a home especially among progressive and post-evangelical communities. For example, the practice of Atheism for Lent that Rollins pioneered is now hosted in various churches and discussion groups each year, guiding people through secular philosophies as a spiritual discipline. Likewise, his creative liturgical ideas (sometimes called “transformance art”) have inspired churches to experiment with art, poetry, and lament in worship settings where questioning is welcomed. Rollins has also been part of broader dialogues, rubbing shoulders with other radical theologians and popular speakers. He has appeared on numerous podcasts, given talks at international festivals (such as the Greenbelt Festival in the UK), and co-hosted the \"Fundamentalists\" podcast to bring these explorations to an even wider audience. As of the mid-2020s, Rollins split his time between the U.S. and Northern Ireland, continuing to lecture and lead seminars worldwide . His ongoing “Holy Ghosts” and “Wake” events (curated festivals of ideas, often in his native Belfast) indicate that he remains actively engaged in sparking conversations at the intersection of faith, art, and philosophy .
Conclusion
Peter Rollins stands out as a provocateur and innovator in 21st-century Christian thought. Neither easily categorized as a pastor nor a conventional academic, he occupies a niche where he can ask uncomfortable questions and experiment with new forms of religious life. Through concepts like pyrotheology, he invites believers to imagine that letting go of the quest for absolute certainty might be the beginning of a deeper faith. By embracing doubt, ambiguity, and even moments of “divine absence,” Rollins argues, we can encounter a kind of truth that isn’t captured in creeds – a truth lived in compassion, creativity, and community. Whether one views him as a much-needed reformer of hollow religiosity or as a source of confusion, Rollins undeniably has spurred rich discussion. In churches and pubs, in print and in performance, he has given modern skeptics permission to reclaim the Christian narrative in a new way – not as a solution to life’s difficulties, but as a courageous engagement with life as it is. In doing so, Peter Rollins continues to challenge the faithful to “doubt well” and to find in that doubt not despair, but a different kind of hope.
References
- L. Gregory Jones, “Seeds of doubt: Ikon’s Peter Rollins,” The Christian Century, June 30, 2009. *(Interview with Rollins detailing his background, Ikon community, and approach to faith.)* – https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2009-06/seeds-doubt
- Peter Rollins (official website), “About Peter” *(Biography from Rollins’s site, including education and summary of pyrotheology.)* – https://peterrollins.com/
- Peter Rollins – Wikipedia (Justapedia) *(Encyclopedic overview of Rollins’s life, work, and the concept of pyrotheology.)* – https://justapedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rollins
- Maria Drews, “Insurrection: To Believe is Human, To Doubt, Divine” (review), The Englewood Review of Books, 2011 *(Review of Rollins’s book Insurrection, explaining his themes of doubt and ‘burning down’ religion.)* – https://englewoodreview.org/featured-insurrection-by-peter-rollins-vol-4-25-5/
- Gladys Ganiel, “What Troubles You about Peter Rollins? Towards an Assessment (Part I)”, GladysGaniel.com (blog), May 11, 2012 *(Analysis by a religion scholar, summarizing common critiques of Rollins as unorthodox or misleading.)* – https://gladysganiel.com/social-justice/what-troubles-you-about-peter-rollins/
- Patrick Holt, quoted in “Pushback on Peter Rollins,” Zero Books Blog, April 8, 2015 *(Critical comment arguing Rollins’s theology is overly abstract and lacks focus on real-world injustice.)* – https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/blogs/zer0/pushback-on-peter-rollins/
- Michael Spencer, “On Peter Rollins: Deconstruction Is Not Enough,” Internet Monk (blog archive), Aug 22, 2013 *(Blog review of The Idolatry of God, using a “chainsaw” metaphor to critique Rollins for deconstructing without rebuilding.)* – https://imonk.blog/2013/08/22/on-peter-rollins-deconstruction-is-not-enough/
- Cathy Higgins, et al, quoted in “Peter Rollins – Wikipedia” *(Context on how Northern Irish sectarianism and the Ikon community’s values of doubt influenced Rollins’s work.)* – https://justapedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rollins
- Thomas J. O’Loughlin, “Peter Rollins’ Religionless Christianity: The Radical Bonhoeffer for a New Era” (2011) *(Discussion connecting Rollins’s ideas to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s concept of “religionless Christianity.”)* – DocSlib.org (archived doctoral paper) – https://docslib.org/doc/7208169/peter-rollins-religionless-christianity-the-radical-bonhoeffer-for-a-new
- Peter Rollins, “Atheism for Lent” *(Description of the Atheism for Lent course from Rollins’s site, explaining its purpose as a purification ritual.)* – https://peterrollins.com/