Peter Rollins

Peter Rollins
Peter Rollins in 2015
Born	(1973-03-31)31 March 1973 Belfast, Northern Ireland
Era	21st-century philosophy/theology
School	Continental Philosophy Postmodern Philosophy Postmodern Christianity Post-Structuralist Psychoanalysis Phenomenology Existentialism Apophatic Theology Radical Theology
Main interests	Radical Theology
Notable ideas	Pyrotheology Transformance Art Suspended Space
Influences Dietrich Bonhoeffer John Caputo Jacques Derrida Meister Eckhart Sigmund Freud G. W. F. Hegel Martin Heidegger Mother Teresa Søren Kierkegaard Jacques Lacan Emmanuel Lévinas Gabriel Marcel Karl Marx Jean-Luc Marion Friedrich Nietzsche Saint Paul Paul Tillich Slavoj Žižek
Influenced Jay Bakker Rob Bell Brian McLaren Phyllis Tickle Emerging Church Movement

Peter Rollins (born 31 March 1973) is a Northern Irish writer, public speaker, philosopher and theologian who is a prominent figure in Radical Theology.

Drawing largely from various strands of Continental Philosophy, Rollins' early work operated broadly from within the tradition of Apophatic Theology, while his more recent books have signaled a move toward the theory and practice of Radical Theology. In these books Rollins develops a "religionless" interpretation of Christianity called Pyrotheology, an interpretation that views faith as a particular way of engaging with the world rather than a set of beliefs about the world.

In contrast to the dominant reading of Christianity, this more existential approach argues that faith has nothing to do with upholding a religious identity, affirming a particular set of beliefs or gaining wholeness through conversion. Instead he has developed an approach that sees Christianity as a critique of these very things. This anti-religious reading stands against the actual existing church and lays the groundwork for an understanding of faith as a type of life in which one is able to celebrate doubt, ambiguity and complexity while deepening care and concern for the world. He argues that the event which gave rise to the Christian tradition cannot itself be reduced to a tradition, but is rather a way of challenging traditions.

In order to explore and promote these themes Rollins has founded a number of experimental communities such as ikon and ikonNYC. These groups describe themselves as iconic, apocalyptic, heretical, emerging and failing and engage in the performance of what they call 'transformance art' and the creation of "suspended space." Because of their rejection of "worldview Christianity" and embrace of suspended space these groups purposelessly attempt to attract people with different political perspectives and opposing views concerning the existence of God and the nature of the world.

Although Rollins does not directly identify with the emerging church movement, he has been a significant influence on the movement's development.

Rollins grew up in East Belfast during The Troubles, a period of intense and violent sectarian conflict that erupted in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s and resulted in the deaths of more than 3,600 people before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998, which is generally regarded as the end of the conflict, though pockets of violence persist today. He attended Orangefield Boys High School and left at the age of sixteen without the qualifications required for further study. He was unemployed for several years before taking a job as a youth worker in Carrickfergus and working in a homeless shelter run by the Simon Community on the Falls Road, Belfast.He then went on to study an access course on the Castlereagh Campus of the Belfast Metropolitan College (an intensive one-year course designed for disadvantaged students who wish to attend university but lack the entry requirements). Rollins has a B.A. Honors in Scholastic Philosophy, an M.A. in Political Theory and Social Criticism, and a Ph.D dealing with Post-Structural Theory from Queen's University, Belfast.