This week we are talking all about CONVERSION! What the heck do we even mean by that? This last week Scott spent time growing alongside, engaging with, and learning from Peter Rollins (and pals!) all about the idea of “conversion”.
If you are wondering who Peter Rollins is, he is a philosophical, theological, and psychological thinker who self describes as “giving nihilistic despair for cash”. Peter is known for flipping ideas and concepts on their heads and re-imagining how we can see/participate in our world today, particularly theologically.
“The argument is made that naming God is never really naming God but only naming our understanding of God. To take our ideas of the divine and hold them as if they correspond to the reality of God is thus to construct a conceptual idol built from the materials of our mind.”
Peter Rollins
He is a cool dude with some cool wild thoughts; Scott has been a long time fan of Peter and his work, so getting the opportunity to learn directly from Peter was “no small thing” and something we are so excited to invite y’all into.
We begin by unpacking the human condition of a sense of lack. A key idea from Peter is that fulfillment and happiness are a myth. As Scott explains further, we hold happiness as an idol in our culture and its our perceived need for pure happiness that is actually detrimental to our well being. These beautifully realistic concepts are music to Macie’s enneagram 4’s ears!
We then jump into the buzz word for the night: conversion. We dance around a definition of the word itself, but its seems that to participate in true conversion one must completely abandon their previous notions/belief systems and jump directly into uncertainty…talk about scary, yet also a liberating idea!
To close the night Scott explains a few practices/methods for converting which includes psycho-analytic inspired friendships 🙂 We end by reading a short benediction written by Peter himself, Go in Pieces….
NO SMALL THING 