In this incendiary new work, the controversial author and speaker Peter Rollins proclaims that the Christian faith is not primarily concerned with questions regarding life after death but with the possibility of life before death.
In order to unearth this truth, Rollins prescribes a radical and wholesale critique of contemporary Christianity that he calls pyro-theology. It is only as we submit our spiritual practices, religious rituals, and dogmatic affirmations to the flames of fearless interrogation that we come into contact with the reality that Christianity is in the business of transforming our world rather than offering a way of interpreting or escaping it. Belief in the Resurrection means but one thing: Participation in an Insurrection.
"What Pete does in this book is take you to the edge of a cliff where you can see how high you are and how far you would fall if you lost your footing. And just when most writers would kindly pull you back from edge, he pushes you off, and you find yourself without any solid footing, disoriented, and in a bit of a panic…until you realize that your fall is in fact, a form of flying. And it's thrilling."
--Rob Bell, author of Love Wins and Velvet Elvis
"While others labor to save the Church as they know it, Peter Rollins takes an ax to the roots of the tree. Those who have enjoyed its shade will want to stop him, but his strokes are so clean and true that his motive soon becomes clear: this man trusts the way of death and resurrection so much that he has become fearless of religion."
--Barbara Brown Taylor, author of Leaving Church and An Altar in the World
“Rollins writes and thinks like a new Bonhoeffer, crucifying the trappings of religion in order to lay bare a radical, religionless and insurrectional Christianity. A brilliant new voice—an activist, a storyteller and a theologian all in one—and not a moment too soon.”
--John D. Caputo, Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion Emeritus, Syracuse University
“What does it mean when the Son of God cries out, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me’? Brilliantly, candidly, and faithfully, Rollins wrestles here with that question. You may not agree with his answers and conclusions, but you owe it to yourself and to the Church at large to read what he says.” --Phyllis Tickle, author, The Great Emergence
"Excellent thinking and excellent writing! I hope this fine book receives the broad reading it deserves. It will change lives, and our understanding of what religion is all about!"
-- Rohr,O.F.M., Center for Action and Contemplation; Albuquerque, New Mexico
Carlijn
19-2-2026
Zal aan mij liggen maar ik vond het heel erg taai en moeilijk te volgen. The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer succinctly articulated the answer shortly before his execution by the Nazis. In a compilation of his personal correspondence entitled Letters and Papers from Prison, he wrote of how the question for us today is whether or not religion is necessary in order to participate fully in the life testified to by Christ radical expression of a faith beyond religion might look like and how it has the power to give birth to a radically new form of Church we must not be afraid to burn our sacred temples in order to discover what, if anything, remains. Regardless of whether or not such a being actually exists, the desire is then a perfectly natural one. We find great solace in the idea of someone presiding over the world who guarantees that our small and seemingly insignificant lives are being seen and cherished. To believe is human. It is in light of this that we can appreciate the power of Voltaire’s famous statement, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” In short, God is rendered into a psychological crutch, a being we affirm in order to sleep better at night. In the Jewish faith, the Hebrew Scriptures are read, memorized, and recalled in the original language, not one’s native tongue, so while this cry might be inspired by the psalm, the words reflect a person’s heartfelt cry of agony and loss rather than some mere quote. To read it otherwise would be to view it as part of some kind of cosmic theatrical show, a phrase that provides the whole Crucifixion scene with a sense of drama and despair all the while offering a wink that tells us everything is really fine. The religious system of the day sought his execution, the political system happily provided it, and his social circle quickly abandoned him. All that would ground him had been fundamentally shaken apart. There is no support here for Christ. On the Cross he is left naked, alone, dying. The deus ex machina is an idol of our creation. And when we strike at it, we strike at ourselves. Is this not what we see taking place on the Cross? As Christ is cut off from his own essence, so our loss of the religious God is not the loss of some foreign power external to ourselves, but instead a loss of that which is fully us This is what love does. It does not make itself visible but, like light, makes others visible to us. In this way love is not proud and arrogant. It does not say, “I am sublime, I am beautiful, I am glorious.” Love humbly points to others and whispers, “They are sublime, they are beautiful, they are glorious. Christianity has been called the religion of love not because Christians are more loving but because of the way that it transitions us from the idea that the highest truth is to be loved to the idea that the highest truth is love itself. What if the Church should be less concerned with creating saints than creating a world where we do not need saints? A world where people like Mother Teresa and MLK would have nothing to do.
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