I bang on a lot about dualism but how do we practically try and live this out, this post try\u2019s to explore that using the idea of resistance and the need to ask questions OF the way and questions ALONG the way.<\/p>\n
Theology, at its most vital, resists the seduction of resolution. It thrives in the fertile soil of paradox, where dualisms dissolve and the sacred reveals itself not as a fixed destination but as a dynamic tension between presence and absence, immanence and transcendence. I\u2019ve played around the edges of some radical theology and wondered what would it look like to reframe theological inquiry through two interwoven strands:<\/p>\n
– Questions of the Way, drawing on Peter Rollins\u2019 Church of the Contradiction, Alfred North Whitehead\u2019s process thought, and Thomas Altizer\u2019s death-of-God theology,<\/p>\n
– Questions Along the Way, informed by Tripp Fuller\u2019s relational openness, Sophie Strand\u2019s ecological mysticism, and Thomas Jay Oord\u2019s theology of love.<\/p>\n
Together I think questions of and along the way, sketch a spirituality that embraces uncertainty as sacred, reimagining wholeness not as a static ideal but as a participatory dance between becoming and letting go.
\n5 Questions of the Way: Unsettling Dualism Through Paradox
\n1. What if faith is sustained by doubt, not dissolved by it?
\nRollins\u2019 Church of the Contradiction rejects the dualism of belief\/unbelief, arguing that faith flourishes when we relinquish certainty. His liturgy of the \u201cKinder Surprise\u201d (a hollow egg) invites worshippers to confront the absence at Christianity\u2019s core, a God who, in Lacanian terms, is \u201cbarred\u201d from full presence. This mirrors Altizer\u2019s claim that the death of God is the event of faith: transcendence collapses into immanence, and the divine is reborn in the act of letting go. Here, faith becomes a practice of holding, not resolving, the tension between God\u2019s absence and presence.
\n2. Can process theology redeem God from perfection?
\nWhitehead\u2019s God is not omnipotent but a \u201cfellow sufferer who understands,\u201d evolving through time. This undermines the dualism of Creator\/creation, reframing divinity as a persuasive force within, not above, the world\u2019s unfolding. If God is \u201cdipolar\u201d, both eternal and temporal, how does this reshape our vision of holiness? Holiness becomes a collaborative pursuit, not a fixed state.
\n3. Is divine self-annihilation the heart of Christian love?
\nAltizer\u2019s radical kenosis, (God\u2019s self-emptying into the world) collapses the transcendent\/immanent binary. The cross becomes the ultimate icon of this inversion: God\u2019s death births a sacred world. This provokes a startling question: Does atheism, in its rejection of a detached deity, become Christianity\u2019s fullest expression?
\n4. How do liturgies of absence heal our addiction to answers?
\nRollins\u2019 \u201cpyrotheology\u201d designs rituals to expose the void beneath religious symbols, Such practices disrupt the dualism of sacred\/profane, inviting communities to dwell in the anxiety of unresolved questions. Could embracing liturgical instability train us to resist ideological certitude in politics and ethics?
\n5. Does beauty demand imperfection?
\nWhitehead\u2019s God lures the world toward harmony, but beauty arises from contrast, order and chaos, novelty and tradition. If God is not a cosmic dictator but a poet coaxing cadence from chaos, how do we reconcile suffering with divine persuasion? The answer lies in releasing the dualism of control\/chaos, seeing creativity in constraint.<\/p>\n
5 Questions Along the Way: Weaving Immanence and Transcendence
\n1. Is prayer a collaboration, not a petition?
\nTripp Fuller\u2019s open theology reimagines prayer as co-creative dialogue. God, as the \u201cliving body of the world,\u201d does not dictate outcomes but participates in the messy improvisation of existence. This erodes the dualism of divine\/human agency, framing prayer as a dance of mutual influence.
\n2. What if decay is sacred?
\nSophie Strand\u2019s eco-mysticism finds divinity in decomposition, the mycelium breaking down fallen logs, the carbon cycles of life and death. If God is entangled with ecological processes, how do we ritualize grief for a warming planet? Strand suggests composting despair into activism, seeing rot as resurrection in slow motion.
\n3. Can love exist without coercion?
\nThomas Jay Oord\u2019s kenotic love insists God cannot override free will. This rejects the dualism of power\/weakness, proposing that divine strength lies in vulnerability. If love is inherently non-coercive, how does this transform our approach to justice? Perhaps justice becomes less about imposing order and more about nurturing conditions for flourishing.
\n4. Is uncertainty a spiritual gift?
\nFuller and Rollins both frame doubt as a generative force. If the future is truly open, faith becomes a commitment to curiosity. What spiritual practices, silence, communal discernment, paradox meditation might help us embrace \u201choly not-knowing\u201d?
\n5. Are churches crucibles for collective becoming?
\nRollins\u2019 insurrectionary communities and Fuller\u2019s \u201cHomebrewed Christianity\u201d reimagine church as a lab for experimentation. This resists the dualism of institution\/individual, suggesting that spiritual growth happens in the friction of diverse perspectives. How might congregations structure themselves to prioritize questions over answers?<\/p>\n
Perhaps the conclusion is that \u00a0Wholeness is found in Dynamic Tension, To resist resolution is to participate in the pulsing heart of Christian faith, a tradition rooted in the scandal of a God who is both transcendent and immanent, crucified and risen, fully divine and fully human. The Incarnation, Trinity, and Eucharist all encode this nondual logic: wholeness emerges not from erasing tension but from holding it reverently.
\nJulian of Norwich\u2019s \u201cAll shall be well\u201d is not a naively optimistic slogan but a radical affirmation that wellness resides in the struggle itself. When we release the dualistic urge to resolve the questions of the Way and along the Way, we encounter a God who is neither \u201cup there\u201d nor \u201cdown here\u201d but in the relational flow between. This is the dynamic fullness Paul described as \u201cChrist in you, the hope of glory\u201d a hope that thrives precisely where certainty ends.
\nIn the end, resisting resolution is an act of trust: that the tension between transcendence and immanence is not a problem to solve but a mystery to inhabit. As Whitehead wrote, \u201cThe art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.\u201d To live the questions, then, is to participate in the divine art of weaving wholeness from paradox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I bang on a lot about dualism but how do we practically try and live this out, this post try\u2019s to explore that using the idea of resistance and the need to ask questions OF the way and questions ALONG … Continue reading