The Orthodox Heretic

Peter Rollins is a philosopher by profession, and founder and co-ordinator of IKON, an emergent church community in Belfast. In this book he explains by way of parables some of the ideas he has written about in his other books. He is much taken by paradox and many of the parables are paradoxical in nature. Not all of the parables stand up by themselves, but in the book they are all followed by an explanation (which does sadly undermine the power of parable). However, the parables and the following explanations provide serious food for thought about what it means to be a Christian and the nature of what belief is. He is clear that we are to think for ourselves (this was evidenced in a talk at Greenbelt where he said "I'm not sure that I believe some of what I'm saying") and in this book provides enough challenging parables to make us do just that. You may not agree with his answers, but thinking about what he is proposing will challenge what you do think and believe.