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The Orthodox Heretic: And Other Impossible Tales

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According to a recent article about heart/brain communication, research shows that fibers in the nervous system are 90% dedicated to sending messages to the brain and only 10% going out from the brain. "Neurally speaking," states Rollin McCraty, PhD, "the heart sends far more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart." If that is the case I need to read more books that connect straight with my heart, not just ones that simply stimulate my thinking. Peter Rollins new book, "The Orthodox Heretic: And Other Impossible Tales" does just that.

In 33 short chapters Rollins weaves tales designed to bathe readers in the possibilities of faith, love, freedom and forgiveness. And in the same way that Jesus told parables to shock his listeners; Rollins uses this literary technique to poke his readers. I ended several of the sections with a laugh, a chill, or an audible gasp as a point was driven home.

He follows each tale with some of his own processing that went into the story as a jumping off place for reflection. This is helpful in understanding Rollins thoughts, but the processing doesn't end with reading the book. These tales stick with you. Several times I found myself grabbing a friend or family member and saying, "Sit down, you have to listen to this story!" as I read aloud to them and entered into meaningful conversations. This book will serve as an excellent resource for discussion groups as they engage with these narratives.

I highly recommend this book!

Who else is doing this stuff? Peter Rollins expands some ideas from his other books to create over 30 original parables that will make you think harder about tenants of your faith you may take for granted. This book is a beautiful work of art as well as a finely crafted device for helping communicate transcend truth where normal language sometimes breaks down. As Jesus realized, some things can only be communicated via story, our modern systematic theologies often fail to articulate the most profound aspects of the way of Jesus. Rollins commentaries are also very helpful, though I would recommend reflecting on each story yourself before moving on to Rollins explanations, surely Rollins would welcome his work speaking to different people in different ways. Part of the beauty of parables is there is usually an ambiguity that makes the medium of the parable or short story all the more valuable. In my opinion, this is the most thought provoking book I have come across in quite a long time, and is a great intro to Rollins' (timely) thinking.

Orthodox Heretic might not be Pete Rollins' most challenging book, but it is surely his most powerful. Having shown his academic chops in his previous two books, Pete shifts gears to show us some true subversion, along with the depth and breadth of his hermeneutic.

This is a collection of parables, each of which acted like a tiny explosive device as they detonated slowly and successively, crumbling my understanding of the world and of Christianity, and showing me something much more beautiful, messy, powerless, and true. Here, Pete displays creative and courageous exegetical skill, his radical interpretation of the essense of Jesus' teachings and practice, and his deep understanding of human nature. What he leaves us with is a kind of Christianity that supercedes belief: a life of love and sacrifice and fidelity.

So on second thought, perhaps it is Pete's most challenging book: not challenging to understand, but extremely challenging to live (and I'm sure it was quite challenging to write). Because in it, Pete challenges our very confidence in our ideas of God, pointing us away from the heresy of orthodoxy, and toward orthodox heresy.

First of all, this isn't a book that's easy to describe. Sure, it's easy enough to say that Peter Rollins' latest book is a collection of parables, but that just doesn't do justice to the content of this unique book. In "The Orthodox Heretic" Rollins attempts to communicate more than mere ideas about the Christian faith. Instead, through the medium of parable, Rollins takes aim at our common ways of thinking and reading and creates provocative opportunities for transformation. If you haven't read any of Rollins' books, this is a great place to start. And if you have read Rollins, then I imagine you agree that his books shouldn't be missed. This is a book that you will return to again and again. Certain stories will stick with you and you will continue to find new meaning every time you read them. This is a book you will want to buy for your friends, and it would be great to read with friends. I highly recommend it.

pete rollins kinda scares me. first, he's clearly so off-the-charts smart. he's got some kind of super-rare combo platter going on of wicked smart and uber-cool and completely non-pretentious. he doesn't care what i think of him, or what anyone else thinks, i'd guess. his book how (not) to speak of god blew me away -- so good and so disequilibrating at the same time. i felt slightly off-balance for a week after reading it. so this book was a little let-down after that; but it's still "so good and so disequilibrating." it's a collection of parables, each with a few pages of unpacking. i liked the parables more than the unpacking; but the unpacking was often helpful and necessary. there wasn't enough of a thread to hold them all together as a book, for my taste (other than "so good and so disequilibrating"!). but it's still very much worth the read if you want to be pushed a bit to think of the jesus way from different perspectives. no question: some of the parables are ones i will be reading in sermons or hoping to use (with permission, of course) in some future book i might write.

Perhaps the most familiar of Jesus' words to people today are His parables. Most people, religious or not, regularly recall many of Jesus' characters in these tales such as "the good Samaritan" and "the prodigal son". His parables have proved to be timeless, for sure. What makes them so evocative is their jarring nature; they tend to go against the grain of common thinking and shake things up a bit. Jesus sought to subvert the thinking of many of His listeners. He described a common situation, with common characters and places, but by the time He was finished something profound was communicated underneath the story and some way of thinking was upended within the listener.

Peter Rollins, a popular speaker on the Emerging church movement and the pastor of a church in Ireland, writes and speaks in this same creative, subversive way through which Jesus spoke His parables. Rollins' style of communication is a fresh, modern echo of Jesus'. He combines gifted storytelling, art, and spirituality into a creative package. You can get a feel for Rollins' style from his blog, which can be found here.

I received a copy of Rollins' new book, "The Orthodox Heretic: And Other Impossible Tales" (Paraclete Press, hardback, 184 pages, $19.99) and was immediately pleased by the book's cover. The cover's pixilated, black-and-white cross sums up Rollins' blend of traditional Christian thought with outside-the-box thinking and writing. He combines it all together into a unique expression of faith. Seeing endorsements from Rob Bell and Phyllis Tickle on the back cover, two of the best thinkers within the Emerging movement, also gave Rollin's some clout in my book before even opening to the first page.


"The Orthodox Heretic" is a collection of 33 parables--a poignant number to say the least--along with short commentary after each parable introducing Rollins' own thoughts on each tale. The parables cover many themes such as faith, love, doubt, and forgiveness and feature a wide range of characters. A diverse cast--from an orthodox priest to the Devil himself--find themselves as characters in Rollins' tales along with traditional figures from the Bible and Jesus' own parables.

Rollins' prefers to call his own parables "impossible tales" to distinguish them from the trite folk stories that many associate with the word "parable". These tales seek to shock and challenge rather than satisfy or present a pleasant thought. Rollins' stories are "impossible" in the sense that commonly held attitudes are undermined through inconceivable means or characters; hospitality is offered to the most unlikely of guests while grace and forgiveness are offered where neither would be at all expected.

Each story, along with its following commentary, takes only a couple of minutes to read, but the book is definitely not one that can adequately be read through quickly. I am typically a faster reader who likes to plow through books, but there was a definite force that made me put the book down regularly. These stories invite deep thought, even after reading Rollins' commentary. In fact his commentaries often invite more questions and wonderings, so each parable requires much probing and unpacking.

One of my favorite "impossible tales" is "No Conviction", in which a man is brought before a judge and jury in a land where Christianity is illegal. Though the man professes to be a follower of Jesus, the judge pronounces the man innocent of being Christian, thereby forcing the man to provide evidence of his professed faith. If true Christianity is illegal--which Rollins believes to in fact be the case--would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Another of my favorites is "Jesus and the Five Thousand", which is a re-telling of Jesus' feeding of the multitude in the Gospels. However, Rollins' version is told through the eyes of a third-world citizen gazing upon first-world Christian disciples. In Rollins' version, Jesus and His disciples collect scraps of food from the crowds which are combined to form a large mountain of food. Jesus and the disciples then greedily scarf down the entire mound of food while the hungry followers simply watch. This parable seeks to view our Western Christianity through a much difference lens than we're used to.

However, as is the case with many who seek relentless creativity and freshness in their spirituality, I felt that Rollins sometimes crosses the line of orthodoxy just to tell a cool story or "subvert" for the sake of it. In fact, the "impossible tale" that forms the namesake of the book, "The Orthodox Heretic", is one of these types. In this story God audibly tells a man to turn-in a political dissident to authorities. The man instead believes deeply in the Biblical principle of radical hospitality and therefore disobeys God's voice by protecting and harboring the refugee. In the end, God "smiles and withdraws" as a sign that the man made the right choice. This is of course, uncomfortable and subversive like all of the rest of the parables, but in this particular one I think Rollins veered off a little too far.

Overall, Rollins' "impossible tales" are close parallels to Jesus' original ones. We modern disciples often suffer from the "unfamiliarity of familiarity" when reading the words of Jesus; we know them so well and have heard them so many times that in the end we don't really know them at all. We typically don't experience the shock and the subversive nature of Jesus' tales when we read them today. Reading Rollins' parables, however, brings freshness back to Jesus' own stories. While all of Rollins' tales rattle my thinking, and while a few even over-step the bounds of my own theology and orthodox teaching, if anything I think "The Orthodox Heretic" provides a reinvigorated view of the parables that Jesus told. By reading Rollins' words, you can't help but experience the provocation and shock of Jesus' original words that His original listeners first experienced. So, I wouldn't recommend this book for anyone looking for firm, orthodox Christian teaching, but for those seeking to experience the parables of Jesus in a new way, this is one of the best choices out there.

I go through quite a number of books and this is definitely one of the best books I've read this year. The stories are short and completely thought provoking. I've been integrating the parables into our sunday gatherings and it's been creating some great conversation. Can't recommend it enough.

The Orthodox Heretic promises parable, and delivers. It bears searing insight, subversive wisdom, manifold layers, invitational rather than exclusionary critique. It is luminous, potent, and full of hidden treasure. It's gentle and fierce. Both captivates and frees. This work is a giant.

These pithy parables will penetrate your social, political and religious assumed realities, but Rollins is not only a seer, he's an artist. He doesn't force. He doesn't even tell. He draws you in, shows you a new way, releases you to your own work. You discover these truths for yourself.

Beware: this is not a safe book. Your encounters here will challenge everything, all that was settled and reasonable. You might feel threatened. You will surely feel grateful. If you engage with it truly, you are likely to meet God. One thing is certain: this profound work cannot be consumed. It reads you.

After reading Peter Rollin's other two excellent books, "How (not) To Speak of God" and "The Fidelity of Betrayal", I wondered if anything new would be in the "Orthodox Heretic" or if this was just a more accessible offering of Pete's ideas. My expectations were met and then exceeded. This book is indeed filled with some of Pete's ideas familiar to those of us who have encountered them in his other writings, but with new approaches and insights that are quite profound and challenging. In this format, where the story is centralized over philosophical and theological language, I am finding myself encountering new and familiar ideas under a very different light. Just like Pete's other books, I can't seem to pull myself away from this one - even after I have already read it a couple times! The parable format should facilitate even broader appeal and is a great place to start for anyone wanting to get into Pete's work. This book is without a doubt yet another brilliant contribution to the emergent conversation.

Although I knew what I was in for when I ordered this book, it still surprised me. Reading it is much like reading poetry for me. Read one of the parables, put the book down, reflect, and let it find its way into my heart and mind (this is rare book that does both). It's taking me a long time to get through, as does a good book of poems.

There were times when I felt 'ah yes, I already know this' when I read some parables. These were the ones that touched me most if I allowed the new layers of meaning to filter down into my heart, and didn't assume I already 'knew' something.

This book is not about 'getting' something, accumulating knowledge or understanding. It's about opening to a radical vibration that both stirs and soothes. 5 stars for sure.