I was reading Neal Locke’s blog a few weeks ago, and he wrote about how his son asked him, “Daddy, is Jesus God?” He wasn’t sure whether to just give him the “easy Christian answer” or to engage in a theological discussion with his three year old. He chose somewhere in the middle and engaged in a conversation with his son about why he asked that question and asked him what he thought. Reading the post made me think about God and our knowledge of God. We really are so limited in our ability to make statements “about” God, one might wonder if we can really make any at all?
One of my favorite books is “How (Not) to Speak of God” by Peter Rollins. Rollins’s book focuses on the emerging church conversation, and gives both a philosophical and theological background for why this movement is so important in today’s religious landscape. In his book, Rollins reflects on our ability to speak about God. He has a great section that I wanted to share with you briefly:
“For the mystic, God was neither an unspeakable secret to be passed over in silence, nor a dissipated secret that had been laid bare in revelation. Rather, the mystic approached God as a secret which one was compelled to share, yet which retained its secrecy. The union can be articulated like this: That which we cannot speak of is the one thing about whom and to whom we must never stop speaking.”
I love this paradoxical idea of God being “that which we cannot speak of” and yet, that doesn’t mean that we never speak to God or speak about God. Just as my friend - though certainly not knowing everything of God - was still able to have a conversation with his three year old, so too can we speak to God and not be ashamed to speak of the things we do know of God. This doesn’t mean that we know everything of God - surely not! Yet, we live in the tension of both being humble about our knowledge of God and desiring to share with others our experience of God.
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Great post. And a really great quotation. I guess I might add that often the best speech isn’t talking. St. Francis said, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words when necessary.”
Rollins’ book is indeed excellent — probably the most influential in my thinking about theology in the past three years. Sucks that I missed both him and you here at PTSEM by a year.
I completely agree: quite an excellent book indeed. I felt like I read How (Not) to Speak of God for about a year, because I kept on having to go back and re-read, not for clarity’s sake, but for sheer excitement. I’d read a section and just be so stoked about talk about it with everyone, and then have to gather my thoughts and re-read before moving on. Such an influential book; a definite recommendation to anyone interested in what Emerging theology is/becoming.
Yes, this is such a helpful concept. It really has changed the way I approach speaking of God.
If anyone’s interested, I just finished up a five day conference/workshop with Peter Rollins and three others from the Ikon collective. I blogged about the whole experience: http://adammoore.wordpress.com These guys are really doing some good work.
I read rollins book. I liked a lot of it and a lot of it scared me a bit. I like to think i am a mystic at my core, but i still think we need something to grab hold of. I think that has been the bible for me. I don’t claim to always interpret the bible right and i am skeptical of anyone that claims to, but i still think that we can confidently and comfortably repeat what the Bible says about Jesus and God. Whether we fully grasp (or even come close) or not. Rollins doesn’t actually cite the bible much in his book, which also made me a little wary of it.
I think it’s a great book to read because he brings out A LOT to chew on and contemplate, but he takes a low view of the authority of scripture and seems to drift. I think that i have to believe in the authority of scripture but at the same time be super humble about how much i think i understand it… And completely avoid trying to ‘grab’ that authority and rule anyone or anything with it.