MatterCon Recap 4: Peter Rollins, “Performace Dis-courses”

Last week I was at MatterCon ’09: A Theological Creativity Event featuring Pete Rollins and presented by Shechem Ministries at Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, TX.  I am recapping the event by publishing my notes for your fondest enjoyment.

Peter Rollins, "Performance Dis-courses"

-equal opportunity evangelism: we all still have aspects of our lives that need to be renewed.
-the crucifixion has become a product.
-the role of the pastor changes with an educated congregation—now the pastor becomes a dispensor.
-the pastor should instead become the poet of God, asking questions.
-the Church is good at taking a radical voice and finding a place for it to tame the message.
-Points on the question "Is Christianity true?:

1. We are starting with different definitions of truth.
2. Is God an object we can contemplate like a biologist contemplates animal life? Can we name God?
3. Theologians try to name God by creating theological systems.
4. hypernimity: the opposite of anonymity; we don’t know God because there is too much information, the light of God is so bright that it blinds us, an overwhelming mystery we cannot contain.
5. Everytime we name God we are saying something about ourselves (or who we want to be).
6. God transcends all of our thoughts because he is imminent (so close).
7. The incarnation is the mystery of God coming close to us, a secret that remains secret in the sharing.
8. all our beloveds are universal to explore; we never know everything about our beloveds.
9. GODISNOWHERE= God-is-no-where or God-is-now-here
10. In light of new experiences we always have to rewrite the law.
11. Christianity is a religion without religion.  Both priest and prohpet together.
12. How can something exit but not be objectified?
13. Our life cannot be objectified—we can see because of light but never see the light.
14. theology becomes a theopoetics, a discourse inviting you to a new form of living.
15. the truth of Christianity is that you are changed as a result of it.  Knowledge of Christianity cannot be divorced from our modes of existing.
16. our theological discourse must be a dis/course that sends us off course and reminds us we cannot know God (absolutely).  "I pray God rid me of ‘God.’"
17. The early Christians were "athiests" in port because they rejected idolatry but also because they rejected their own inadequate conceptions of God.
18. God as holy is set apart and Other—he is Father but not like our definitions of father; he is Love but not like our definitions of love.
19. theopoetics is a discourse that opens up multiple possibilities.  The point is not to have the right interpretation but to always come back for different understandings and meanings.  We should not interpret Scripture to find one meaning but instead wrestle with and love with Scripture.  Israel, to wrestle with God, is a metaphor for how we should approach the Scriptures and God.
20. if we want to understand wisdom we have to give up the belief we can nail down one answer.

-success in theopoetics is to always return to the event that gave birth to the early church, Pentecost, and not to the early church itself.
-in theopoetics we know no more or no less than any other saint or theologian: we are all present to the event of Christ.
-our creeds are belief oriented and not praxis oriented—we should have praxis creeds, too.
-in the Bible we find a lack of belief: "we cannot know God," and an excess of belief: "God is a warrior, God is a peacemaker; God is love, God is wrath; God is unchanging, God regrets…" too much belief that it does not always hold together.
-We should have both faith in Christ (belief) and the faith of Christ (participate in life as he did—be Christ).