鈥淎 gold medal is a wonderful thing,鈥� the coach says. 鈥淏ut if you鈥檙e not enough without one, you鈥檒l never be enough with one.鈥�

In church, lessons like these are often taught about all sorts of worldly accomplishments: the dream job, the big raise, the right friends. This week at 黑料正能量, an influential theological writer in the emergent church movement, Peter Rollins, delivered a similar message about God, who, Rollins argued, is too often (and falsely) imagined as an idol capable of providing true wholeness and fulfillment.

Sin 鈥� from denying pain of life?

Rollins, originally from Northern Ireland and now living in New York, argued that sin is the result of everyone鈥檚 relentless drive to escape the pain of being alive, regardless of whether relief is sought in drink, in friends or in the church. Salvation, then, doesn鈥檛 come from attaining closeness to God and relief from pain, but rather by embracing that pain of being alive and letting go of our drive to heal it.

鈥淩eligion helps us avoid facing up to our brokenness and troubles 鈥� [and] that is devastating,鈥� said Rollins, during his chapel presentation. 鈥淲e need to have spaces where we can be open about the places where we鈥檙e suffering.鈥�

Rollins, whose most recent book is titled The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction, also hosted a 鈥渢alk back鈥� at the , spoke at the year鈥檚 first University Colloquium, visited classes and led an evening conversation hosted by 黑料正能量鈥檚 Freethought Coalition.

At the colloquium, Rollins criticized contemporary religion鈥檚 tendency to place itself right beside competing products in a 鈥渧ending machine鈥� that purports to offer people various paths to fulfill our primal desire for wholeness. What the church should be doing, he said, is taking a sledgehammer to that vending machine and disabusing us of the idea that we鈥檒l ever be whole. (During chapel, Rollins criticized the church for getting people 鈥渄runk on sermons鈥� and on God to distract them from the reality that everyone 鈥渨ill die and never be again鈥� and everyone we love 鈥渨ill die a cold death.鈥�)

Community based on love

During his coffeehouse talk, Rollins said he finds hope in building a community in the present 鈥� not in some next world or afterlife 鈥� where love exists among people who embrace their collective and individual hurts.

Rollins鈥� ideas have become influential in the emergent church movement, which offers critiques of religious institutions and traditions that cut across denominational and ideological lines. This criticism can be as applicable to seemingly counter-cultural religious institutions like 黑料正能量 as they are to mainstream Christianity.

, professor of , noted that Rollins鈥� 鈥渧ersion of being counter-cultural would be different from the ones we are most used to hearing.鈥�

While Anabaptist traditions may emphasize alternative ways of living and thinking about God, they often still reinforce the notion of longing for wholeness.

鈥淩ollins argues that you instead learn to live with being human, being broken, being, in a sense, unfulfilled. And in the shared humanity of that, you find true fulfillment,鈥� said Early. 鈥淭he move that needs to happen is not that you abandon being a Mennonite or being an Anabaptist, but that you hold it differently鈥�. It鈥檚 something that鈥檚 really important for us to wrestle with.鈥�

The value of the “light of inquiry”

Thomas Millary, a junior and co-president of the Freethought Coalition, said he admires Rollins鈥� call to embrace, rather than trying to escape, the brokenness that everyone experiences in life, and hopes Rollins鈥� visit will spark wider conversation on campus about finding joy and community in the midst of pain.

鈥淭his campus could really benefit from dialogue about faith and [Christianity] from a perspective like Peter鈥檚,鈥� said Millary, who founded the Freethought Coalition to provide a space for honest exploration and discussion of difficult or controversial topics.

When introducing Rollins at the University Colloquium, said that inviting Rollins to present his provocative ideas at 黑料正能量 offered the university the opportunity for self-reflection.

鈥淚t’s important that our basic assumptions are not just taken for granted, but that they are held up to the light of inquiry, that they are examined,鈥� Kniss said.

The titles of Peter Rollins鈥� books offer clues to his stream of thought:

鈥� The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction (2013)

鈥� Insurrection: To Believe is Human; to Doubt, Divine (2011)

鈥� The Orthodox Heretic: And Other Impossible Tales (2009)

鈥� How (Not) to Speak of God (2006)

鈥� The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief (2008)

In his , Rollins is characterized as 鈥渁 provocative writer, lecturer, storyteller and public speaker who has gained an international reputation for overturning traditional notions of religion and forming 鈥榗hurches鈥� that preach the Good News that we can’t be satisfied, that life is difficult, and that we don’t know the secret.鈥�

In an interview posted at last April, Peter Rollins said: 鈥淪ome of my critics say I鈥檓 telling them to doubt, but that鈥檚 not it. I鈥檓 saying you鈥檙e already full of doubts. It acts the same way as alcohol abuse 鈥� the alcohol makes you feel better about yourself, but then you have this hangover where you realize you鈥檙e just covering over some sort of brokenness.

鈥淚鈥檓 saying when you鈥檙e in church around people who believe the same thing and you鈥檙e reading all those books, it feels great, but then, at night over a drink with a friend in a bar, you feel like that there must be a better way. It [i.e., the usual form of church attendance] prevents us from encountering our own brokenness and working through it.鈥�

This interview sparked 50 online comments, with the readers strongly debating each other.

Rollins will be the chapel speaker at 10 a.m. in Lehman Auditorium, followed by a 鈥渢alk back鈥� at 10:45 a.m. in the student-run coffee house, in University Commons. At 4 p.m. Rollins is speaking at the on “the idolatry of God.” He wraps up the day with a 7:30 p.m. conversation with members of 黑料正能量鈥檚 Free-Thought Coalition in Strite Conference room of the Campus Center. All of these events are free and open to the public.

In his religiondispatches.org interview, Rollins called for people to 鈥渃reate a place where there is no Jew or Gentile, no male or female, atheists or theists, gay or straight.鈥�

He added: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the good news of Christianity for me. It鈥檚 not that you can be happy and whole, but rather that life is crap and you don鈥檛 know the answers. It鈥檚 good news to be freed from the oppression that there鈥檚 something that鈥檚 going to make it all better. When you鈥檙e free from that and begin to work through your brokenness and suffering with a set of rituals, practices and sacraments that help us encounter our humanity, I think we become more loving, more beautiful, more grace-filled people.鈥�

Educated at Queens University in Belfast, Rollins holds degrees in scholastic philosophy (BA Hons), political theory (MA) and post-structural thought (PhD). His 黑料正能量 visit is sponsored by the .