How (Not) To Speak To God

Book Review.
Rollins, Peter. How (Not) To Speak About God. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (Paraclite/SPCK) 2006.
P.R. Founder of the experimental collective Ikon. A freelance philosophy lecturer, etc. specializing in various aspects of continental philosophy, phenomenology and emerging church theology. A research associate with Trinity College, Dublin.
Comment. Henry.
This resource seeks to speak to the ‘conversation’ between the emergent church and the Western Church. Phyllis Tickle says’ “Here, in pregnant bud, is third-millennium Christendom”. Brian McLaren declares that he is “a raving fan of Peter and his resource”. In his Foreword, Brian says, “Peter represents a hopeful expression of Christian theology being done in a postmodern context, while rooted more in a faith community than in an academic institution”. In the first part of the book Peter explains his ideas about emergent church. In the second part he describes ten different kind of ‘services’ “Ikon” that demonstrate these ideas. These gatherings are held in a bar and are definitely ‘alternate’ services. I found this book informative re: emergent church but concerning the ‘conversation’ between E.C. and Western Church I felt the W.C. part was not effectively presented.
In his introduction Peter gives a summary of presentation. “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence (mystical humanism). God is the one subject of whom we must never stop speaking (religious fundamentalism).” It is the dialogue between these two positions that will benefit the Western Church. “That which we cannot speak of (unspeakable God) is the one thing about whom and to whom we must never stop speaking.”
There is something to be said for not just having the right belief but to also believing in the right way. “Orthodoxy as right belief will cost us little. Orthodoxy as believing in the right way will cost us everything.” (3)
Those who are part of the emerging conversation “acknowledge that Christianity involves a process of journeying and becoming”. (5) We don’t need new answers to theological questions; we need to understand the answers we have. “Christianity is premised upon the idea that there is a connection between the creation and the created. God has graciously disclosed something of God’s nature to us” (7) through revelation. Enlightenment placed reason above revelation. And yet our real world is interpreted (filtered) “through our experiences, language, intelligence, culture, etc.” (11) Idolatry can be conceptual, hence there is such a thing as theological idolatry, “idolatry of ideology”. (11) “Placing the divine into representational form. Any encounter with the divine cannot be reduced to an idolatrous understanding.” (16) Revelation offers many, personal meanings if we are able and ready to hear. Revelation is not so much given for us to interpret but that “we all love it and are transformed by it”. (17) It is difficult to comprehend God’s transcendence and his immanence. “God remains concealed amidst revelation.” (25) Soteriologically , “Truth is the ungraspable Real (objective) that transforms the individual (subjective). (56)
In PART TWO of the book ten services (gatherings) are described that go by the term Ikon. They are “a means of introducing the ideas (of the emergent conversation) into a liturgical environment” (74), a faith community. These services are held in a bar called the Menagerie. The focus is interaction with reference to a specific theme. There is a heavy involvement of the arts. Ikon is multi-sensory, sight, sound, and smell. It is “bringing theory to the church” (73).