Peter Rollins - Lacan, Desire, and Religious Language ~ Praxis Habitus - On Race Religion & Culture

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Peter Rollins - Lacan, Desire, and Religious Language

Quick Post: Peter Rollins is a provocative writer and speaker who views contemporary social theory as a resource for theological reflection rather than as an enemy to Christianity. In a new post, Rollins proves himself a good teacher of theory (insights in bite-sized chunks) and offers another example of his appropriation of modern thinkers many people simply ignore.

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Take this as a highly inadequate introduction to Peter Rollins.

In his books and thoughts, Peter Rollins combines a strain of "postmodern theorists" (oh please forgive me for such an inaccurate term) with the history of Christian theology to reintroduce what he calls "heterodoxy." In this latest post, Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic views are brought into a discussion of discourse and desire.
...we could not operate in the world if we were constantly expressing the desires hidden within language (something that would be impossible anyway). What is of interest to me is, firstly understanding this structure, secondly exploring how it can help us understand religious discourse, and thirdly to explore how an application of this knowledge can help us instigate real change in the religious landscape.
Check out his post to see how he develops this in a few words.

Rollins always offers a a quick background on theorists, presents a shortcoming in current Christian thought, and then recovers alternative conceptions through a combination of biblical scriptures, church history, and poetic parables to bring forth an interesting view.

His first book, How (Not) to Speak of God, is a short one where the first half consists of a string of such thoughts.

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