Expressing Human Flourishing Niche in the Langauge of Christian Atheism

Having been re-text'd by flourishing human companions and a seasons of time, I have perceived a niche among the world in the form of a poetic (missional) statement using language that I name as Christian Atheism. It comes from recent emerging seasons of honest doubt and learning to speak differently, knowing "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence." (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, L. Wittgenstein), and a prayer of Meister Eckhart, “I pray God make me free of God."

Sun rises
sun sets

returning
to the Way it is.

imagining
shalom

beholding
riven things

co-existing
among minjung

re-text’d
by word become wind.

orienting
disorienting
reorienting

enduring
overcoming
fragility
doubt
injustice
danger.

sagacity
creating
beyond itself

surprising
serendipitous
events.

may humanity
flourish
rebound.

Over much time contemplating the past and current context of Christian theology and the manifestations of religious practice in Christian tradition, I continue to re-tool language that allows me to be truthful while conveying reality intelligibly in a fragmented world filled with harsh realities. In doing so (an ongoing project), I have come to realize what Peter Rollins seeks to express in his evolving theology of Christian atheism. Christian atheism has come to be a necessary practice in this age where a religious view of life that sees everything as working towards an ultimate plan ultimately controlled by a sovereign God (deus ex machina) must die at the cross where Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” Thus our participation in this crucifixion means laying down that worldview and that concept of God (or "cut off from the system that we construct and which constructs us"). We must embrace the pain, the darkness, and the uncertainty that are real. In place of this “religion” Peter Rollins says “[T]he Resurrection points us to a new way of living and thinking of God. God is not an object to be loved, but he is found in the very act of loving others” (the ultimate inclusion of "all" who are captured in the almost hackneyed phrase which still points to the perfection worth shouting for, viz., 'for God so loved the WORLD' [male, female, gay, straight, Jew, Muslim, "criminal", ignorant religious, conservative christian, etc.]). Insurrection, New York: Howard Books, 2001, p. 123. 

See Peter Rollins, Insurrection Tour