The Idolatry of God by Peter Rollins
Let it first be known that anything we write about this beautiful book is incomplete in its ability to capture the intricate argument and the compassionate way in which it is carried out throughout this book.
In The Idolatry of God, Peter Rollins speaks truth to Christians who have lost creativity and imagination in their faith and theology. Rollins shows the way that Christian theology has commodified God, turning God into an idol akin to a Corvette. Christianity has been presented as the final “item” that will fulfill humans in a more eternal, everlasting way. Yet, we are seeing the myth of fulfillment in the ways people are leaving churches in higher numbers than ever before. The story of God that a majority of Christians are telling is simply perpetuating the cycle of idolatry that Rollins describes in this book: recognition of lack, pursuit of fulfilling idol, momentary satisfaction, recognition of lack, etc, etc. Christians have framed Jesus and his salvific work in this cycle. Jesus, in this system, offers the momentary satisfaction that is perceived to fill the lack. However, the work of Jesus and the character of God is much more mysterious and complex than what this cycle of idolatry allows.
According to Rollins, the work of Jesus offers “freedom from the pursuit of what we believe will satisfy us,” (80). Jesus destroys the whole system of idol making. He breaks the cycle of idolatry through the sacrifice of sacrifice in the crucifixion. This pursuit of a fulfilling idol wrongly gives us permission disengage from the world around us. It makes us miss the beauty of God as the ground of our being because we are looking for a God that we can grasp as the fulfiller of our soul. It is in accepting the mystery of God as seen in the crucifixion that we can being living “without being complete and can celebrate mystery instead of being afraid of it,” (145).
Aside from the beautiful language and the highly satisfying, yet accessible philosophical richness, Rollins is able to achieve something in this book that few can. He completely reframes the person and work of Christ in a way that moves away from the bloody sacrifice of substitutionary atonement but does not completely disregard the narrative of Christ on the cross. One issue that progressive theology faces in trying to move away from sacrificial atonement is that there is a temptation to not address the cross at all. Rollins models a way to approach the cross as the destruction of the sacrificial model and the end of the cycle of idolatry, challenging progressives to not avert our eyes from the Crucified Christ.
Rollins contributes a beautiful challenge in identity formation through The Idolatry of God as well. Today’s world continues to be divided between polarized identities perhaps even more so than when this book first was published in 2012. Yet, he offers us the language that we need to wrestle with otherness. He offers practices like “literalistic listening” to help us not consume the other in conversation by interpreting everything they are saying in terms of our own identity and experiences (70). He exposes Christians and churches for placing the Christian identity as one among many identities and myths to be adopted, rather than that which “cuts across all these existing identities,” (106). One might ask why a book about idolatry addresses otherness in such a specific way, but Rollins clearly shows the relationship between the theological framework that keeps Jesus as an idol to be grasped and the ways in which people who claim Jesus other others.
The book ends with several interesting applications of these lessons that Rollins integrated into his community of faith. In doing so, he offers a challenge to every leader of a faith community. It is great to read books that offer new thoughts and challenge old systems, but it is most important to put legs on these ideas, offering people an opportunity to see them put into action.
All in all, this book’s teachings offer a lot for a person to wrestle with in regards to faith and identity that can actually transform a person.