The great Illusionist Derren Brown recently asked an group of people to bring the picture of a loved one to a gathering (a cheap copy rather than some original). When people arrived at the venue with their pictures he held up a Satanic Bible and described an eleventh century rite contained within it. The rite itself was [...]

Posted in Blog, Philosophy/Theology | Tags: ambiguity, complexity, Derren Brown, doubt, early church, Paul, Radical Theology

In this video I explore what it means to confront what we believe. I delve into this subject more in the book Insurrection. For more of my videos click here

Posted in Video | Tags: Belief, doubt

The word “faith” is a much misunderstood term. In contemporary discourse it often means the act of believing in something that lacks empirical evidence, something that one affirms through intuition, the interpretation of a particular personal experience or the interpretation of a publicly observable phenomenon.  However the term, in its more theological sense, has much more in [...]

Posted in Philosophy/Theology | Tags: Belief, certainty, doubt, faith

Drew Marshall show This is an interview I did with Drew Marshall where we talked about the nature of belief and the possibility of losing it.

Posted in Audio | Tags: Belief, doubt, Drew Marshall, Peter Rollins

This is a clip from a talk I gave in Grand Rapids in which I explore the idea of rituals which invite us into the experience of doubt, complexity and ambiguity.

Posted in Video | Tags: Church, doubt, Liturgy, rituals

(Compiled and read by Peter Rollins, music by Rothko) === Please listen to reflection before reading on === Let us make a distinction here between meganarrative and metanarrative. A meganarrative being that term which refers to the story that one lives while a metanarrative referring to the story that intellectually justifies and makes sense of [...]

Posted in Philosophy/Theology | Tags: doubt, emergence, meganarrative, metanarrative, Mother Teresa, Peter Rollins, Rothko

In the last post I made reference to the phenomenon whereby the seemingly uncompromising and unwavering belief of a parent is sometimes only maintained insofar as that belief is accepted by their child. And that if this child expresses their doubts then the parents are forced to confront, not merely the child’s loss of a [...]

Posted in Philosophy/Theology | Tags: Belief, believing through the other, doubt, Peter Rollins, Religious conviction, Zizek

I wish to offer two philosophical reflections on the subject of believing through the other. The first relates to the common situation in which someone who no longer has religious beliefs, or who is riven with doubts, lies to their parents: pretending that they still believe and attend church regularly. Knowing that revealing their true [...]

Posted in Philosophy/Theology | Tags: Belief, believing through the other, doubt, Lacan, Peter Rollins, Religious conviction