How (Not) to Speak of God and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime free trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn more
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
or
Get a £0.90 Amazon.co.uk Gift Card
How (Not) to Speak of God
 
 
Start reading How (Not) to Speak of God on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

How (Not) to Speak of God [Paperback]

Peter Rollins
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.99
Price: £7.69 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.30 (30%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.
Only 3 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want guaranteed delivery by Thursday, June 7? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £5.63  
Paperback £7.69  
Trade In this Item for up to £0.90
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in How (Not) to Speak of God for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.90, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.

Frequently Bought Together

How (Not) to Speak of God + The Orthodox Heretic: And Other Impossible Tales + Insurrection: To Believe is Human; to Doubt, Divine
Price For All Three: £24.77

Show availability and delivery details

Buy the selected items together


Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: SPCK Publishing (19 May 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0281057982
  • ISBN-13: 978-0281057986
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 147,040 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter Rollins
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Visit Amazon's Peter Rollins Page

Product Description

Review

"'This book brings together Christian mysticism, postmodern philosophy, and the practices and liturgies of an alternative worship community trying to make sense of Christianity in a postmodern environment. The results are stunning - original, provocative, and creative.' Jonny Baker 'In this calm, quiet, well-reasoned book, Peter Rollins bursts the silence and grinds the 'posts' into the nothing they have become. Here in pregnant bud is the rose, the emerging new configuration, of a Christianity that is neither Roman nor Protestant, neither Eastern nor monastic; but rather is the re-formation of all of them. Here, in pregnant bud, is third millennium Christendom.' Phyllis Tickle"

Product Description

"Church Times" article on Greenbelt 2005 described Peter Rollins as 'holding a seminar spellbound', and Ikon's 'gentle, symbolic, and creative multimedia act of worship' as 'weird but wondrous'. The emerging church is still an embryonic movement, yet it currently faces a serious challenge. How it responds will reveal whether it is little more than the latest re-imagining of the evangelical tradition, designed to address the decline in church attendance, or a radical re-envisaging of faith. Having been born out of a post-modern sensitivity, Peter Rollins believes the emerging church is in a unique place to acknowledge the long forgotten insight that revelation embraces concealment; that our various interpretations of revelation will always be provisional, fragile and fragmentary; that we speak always with wounded words about a wounded Christ. The emerging church thus has the potential to leave aside the security blanket of certainty and recognize that what is important is that we embrace the beloved rather than somehow agree about how we understand this beloved, acknowledging that the God we follow touches us in deeply personal ways that are singular and which cannot be dissected via some universal understanding. "How (not) to Speak of God's" sustained exploration of the theory and praxis of emerging church is firmly anchored in an analysis of twelve Ikon services, on topics such as: 'The Prodigal Father', 'Risk' and 'Advent'.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 


Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Richard M. Seel VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
I loved this book. It's in two parts: the first looks at the nature of God and how we might know/encounter him; the second gives a number of 'scripts' from sessions of Ikon, an alternative worship community in Belfast, of which Rollins is a leader. Pete Rollins teaches philosophy and brings interesting insights to this book. Rollins starts with two epigrams, one from Wittgenstein, the other from his charismatic evangelical background: "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence." and "God is the one subject of whome we must never stop speaking." He finds a resolution of these two apparent opposites in an apophatic approach to God--that we cannot ever know about God but that we can experience God. He sees Christianity as a/theistic, citing Anselm, amongst others, on his side: "Therefore, Lord, you are not merely that than which a greater cannot be thought: you are something greater than can be thought."

This sense of radically engaged unknowing pervades the book. Rollins dissolves the debate between the transcendence and immanence of God by asserting that God is immanent and it is the brilliance of his closeness which leads us to experience Him as transcendent, just a really bright light will blind us. There is much more to engage and startle the reader. You don't have to agree but if it doesn't make you think afresh I'll be surprised.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is perhaps one of the most original and philosophical of books to come out of the `emerging church' in the last few years. Brian McLaren arguably the Father figure of the movement writing about it states:
`Reading it did good for my mind and for my soul. It helped me understand my own spiritual journey more clearly, and gave me a context for the work I'm involved with. In fact,I would say this is one of the two or three most rewarding books on theology I have read in ten years.'

Dr Rollins' `How (not) to Speak of God' certainly challenges those who read scripture with a `modern' mindset. This he does with both compassion and understanding having been previously an evangelist with a charismatic church for some years.
His original stories and parables, as well as his playing around with words adds to its charm. Nevertheless this is not a light read and is well worth rereading at least once.
The second part of the book entitled `Towards orthopraxis: Bringing theory to the church' consists of a series of services that were held by the `Church' Ikon that he founded some years back. Again these will challenge our preconceived ideas of God ,the Church and the world and hopefully cause us to reflect and become at least a little more humble when it comes to our belief that we hold the Truth and nothing but the Truth.This book I recommend for everyone involved in the `Emerging Church' Conversation and for those who wish to understand the philosophy behind it. For a more critical appraisal of the emerging church read D.A. Carson's 'Becoming conversant with the Emerging Church'.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By Jeremy Williams TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Here's an interesting book. Rollins is a philosophy lecturer and founder of the experimental worship community Ikon in Belfast, and this reads like a manual for doing theology in a postmodern world, although I don't think Rollins uses that term anywhere. It may be the first Christian book I've read that takes a postmodern context as given, which is refreshing.

Rollins is concerned with finding ways of presenting God within and through a climate of relativism and deconstructionism, rather than fighting it. He explores how we have considered orthodoxy to be right beliefs, rather than believing rightly. He talks about God as being subjective, not objective, and raises any number of other issues and paradoxes of faith that the church has traditionally been uncomfortable with, but that the emerging church welcomes and celebrates.

However, as with so many of these books, the practical outworking seems incomplete. The second half of the book is ten descriptions of services at Ikon, which are meant to demonstrate the theology in action. Intriguing perhaps, and highly creative, but I found this bit less useful, mainly because I can't imagine the model being useful outside of Ikon. Rollins also seems to be courting controversy a little on issues that the book isn't really about, and it seems a shame to forfeit the real debate by losing readers over details (See Steve Chalke and the `cosmic child abuse' debacle). I'd have valued some real discussion on the practical elements instead, which in my mind makes this a thought-provoking contribution, rather than a milestone, in this important debate.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject








i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback


Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges