“Since I first became aware of Peter Rollins’s work in 2018, I’ve come to see embracing of contradiction/Lack as vital. Where I initially found it not only unrelate-to-able but downright antithetical to my paradigm, I now perceive it as the greatest freeing I could possibly experience. It’s liberation from running myself down in my head. It’s liberation from the exhaustion of forcing myself to chase after “becoming a better person.” It’s liberation from society’s neverending demand that I figure out and then raggedly chase whatever it is that makes me truly happy.
It is also liberation from religion’s relentless, crushing pressure to “obey God, improve my relationship with God, please God, be perfect.”
McGowan’s way of presenting it all feels very accessible to me. My problem, as ever, is the how. What’s the practical side? How do I turn tarrying with contradiction into something that’s more than a mental/meditative exercise? Practices such as AfL do, in a strange way, “recenter” me to remaining decentered. (YAY, PARADOX.) But I need more than a yearly Lenten practice. I need a frequent, regular “Sabbath” of pyrotheological decentering, something that grows me into true satisfaction with and enjoyment of[…]”
Excerpt From
Appetite for Antithesis: (De)Knowing God in a Lenten Practice
Courtney Cantrell
Today, I just want to share some inspiration from Courtney. I am still plowing through her book and enjoying the journey. I am so glad she is walking alongside my last AFL.
One more week.
