Peter Rollins - The Archive

In this segment from Wake 2021 I talk introduce the theme of the night by talking about the profane temple.

This is the first talk from Wake 2021 in which I explore the nature of trauma and the trauma that is the Death of God.

Every month on Patreon there is a movie discussion group called Exposure. Exposure is a monthly film club where we use movies as a lens through which we can look at some important but difficult concepts from philosophy, theology and psychoanalysis. This month Peter Rollins talks about the movie Pig, directed by Michael Sarnoski and staring Nicolas Cage, through the lens of Levi-Strauss' famous work on myth. He argues that Pig offers us one of the best cinematic examples of a 'complete' narrative arc. It is a story that revolves around the question of mourning; offering an answer through a ‘double twist’ in which the problem itself is not overcome, but integrated.

The Profane Temple by Peter Rollins

The Four Discourses by Peter Rollins

The Real by Peter Rollins

My Truth or The Truth | The Stoic, the Skeptic and the Sinner in Hegel by Peter Rollins

How (Not) to Speak of God | Deconstruction Vs. Denomination by Peter Rollins

From Enemy to Neighbor by Peter Rollins

As Claude Lévi-Strauss famously demonstrated in his seminal essay ‘Do Duel Organizations Exist?’, one of the issues that faces a society involves the fact that different groups map social conflict in radically different ways. It’s not the case that opposing political groups agree about the basic issues that face the world they inhabit, then line up on different sides; rather they inhabit different worlds. Worlds that are incommensurable in regards to the other. The result is constant misunderstanding and misrecognition that generates little more than a cottage industry of Youtube videos where different representatives of a group claim to ‘own’ the other. One of the areas where there is a fundamental disconnect relates to questions concerned with racism. In this pop-up seminar, I want to introduce a basic matrix that might help us begin to understand why the political discourse around race is so divisive. I’ll be concentrating on the two forms that racism takes - Supremacy and Orientalism - showing how these both feed on each other and how they misunderstand each other. In doing so, I’ll attempt to show how their relationship mimics the complex relationship that exists between Sadism and Masochism.

In this talk from Revolution I explore the dangers - and possibilities - located within the new Purity Culture.

Coffee and Concepts is an online interactive event that takes place on the first Saturday of every month. Each session begins with the introduction of a philosophical concept that is then dissected and discussed. These morning events (depending on where in the world you are) are designed to help kick your day off with an important idea picked specifically to offer insight into how we might live well. A concept that will also connect with the work and world of pyrotheology. This C&C explores the meaning of Enjoyment in psychoanalysis.

If you'd like to join me for this year's Atheism for Lent (starts 17th Feb) visit peterrollins.com

The Anthropologist Lévi-Strauss famously analyzed a situation in which two groups within the same tribal community drew a map of their village in radically different ways. Their understanding of the objective village layout being directly connected to their social standing. Instead of taking a relativistic stance - with the village layout being seen as purely subjective - or taking the position that an objective mapping was possible - viewing one of the maps as more accurate, or reconciling them in a more exhaustive drawing - Lévi-Strauss argued that this phenomenon hinted at an unsymbolized antagonism in the community. One that prevented the social organization from achieving some kind of some simple, symmetrical, non-antagonistic equilibrium. However, for Lévi-Strauss, it was precisely this antagonism that simultaneously produced and maintained the very system that it distorted and threatened. In this pop-up seminar I use Lévi-Strauss’ reflections - employed by Lacan and, more recently, Žižek - as a jumping off point for examining the current unrest in America. In the seminar I look specifically at the political significance of taking seriously the radically different ways in which social antagonism is mapped out by members of society. Along the way, I draw out the meaning of the Real as a political category, describe how ideology functions and outline a way in which the present social antagonism might be mobilized. Recommended Reading - 'Do Dual Organizations Exist' By Lévi-Strauss (Vol 1, Structural Anthropology) - 'The Matrix, or, the Two Sides of Perversion' By Slavoj Žižek (online)

It’s very easy for us to question the possibility of experiencing a lasting happiness. Can we really find it? Is it something that we can hold onto for prolonged periods of time? The answer is likely ‘yes’. Indeed there are many who have dedicated their entire lives to cultivating it, even creating retreats and seminars designed to help others realize it. However, in psychoanalysis there is a price to pay for happiness: the fundamental compromise of your desire. The more that happiness pervades ones life, the more that individual becomes estranged from their unspeakable passion. In this way, people like Žižek refer to happiness as the category of the fool. It is the pursuit undertaken by one who would rather avoid confronting the contradictions and antagonisms that lie within them. Contenting themselves instead with a peace that is opposed to chaos, rather than a peace that is hard won via tarrying with the chaos. In this seminar I explore the chasm that lies between happiness and desire via reference to an ancient Jewish parable and the Lacanian notion of the barred subject.

The is an except from part three of a ten part reading group I ran on the book Capitalism and Desire by Todd McGowan. In this clip I outline the main themes from the third chapter of the text. You can find the whole course on my Patreon.

What Does the Miser Lose | Weil and the Non-Existent Reality of God by Peter Rollins

Recently I joined Michael Gungor for a conversation about themes connected to projection, the Gaze and unhealthy trends in social media. This was part of a Liturgists episode looking at Cancel Culture, which you can find on their podcast channel.

The work of Paul Tillich and Slavoj Zizek criss-cross in a number of fascinating ways. While Tillich rightly passes as a theist, and Zizek rightly passes as an atheist, there is an atheistic dimension in the work of the former and a theistic dimension in the work of the latter. In addition to this, Tillich’s theological vocation is profoundly philosophical, while Zizek’s philosophical project has a deeply theological core. Both draw from similar intellectual sources (German Idealism, Psychoanalysis, Marxism), both wrestle with the nature of desire (Ultimate Concern, Drive) and both offer a reading of true religion as the revelation of a type of quantum indeterminacy at the heart of reality. In this seminar, I will draw out the ways in which Tillich and Zizek orbit around a similar constellation of questions. Once we have seen how their work is complimentary in many ways, I’ll turn my attention to their differences regarding the ultimate aim of religion and the nature of salvation, or the cure. All my lectures can be watched live or later via Patreon. To access this - and all other - pyroseminars, you just need to be signed up to the Flame level, or above, on Patreon.

The is an except from part two of a ten part reading group I ran on the book Capitalism and Desire by Todd McGowan. In this clip I outline the main themes from the second chapter of the text. You can find the whole course on my Patreon.

The is an except from part one of a ten part reading group I ran on the book Capitalism and Desire by Todd McGowan. In this clip I outline the main themes from the first chapter of the text. You can find the whole course on my Patreon.

Concluding Q&A by Peter Rollins

Absurdo Confido | VI by Peter Rollins

In this penultimate seminar in my six part series on Pyrotheology, we look at the idea of a community that helps people affirm their individuality. A community that enables us to think for ourselves, take responsibility for our actions, and find freedom from the tyranny of utopia.

In my forth seminar from the six part Pyrotheology course, we delve into the meaning of Lack as a positive force. Here we touch on the idea of a community held together by a shared loss and how the sacred returns to us in a virtual form after its loss as a fantasmic, fictional object. Get full seminars, book studies and courses by joining up at https://pyrotheology.com

In this third seminar from my six part Pyrotheology course, I turn to the theological dimension of the loss of the Sacred Object as described in the previous seminars. Here we turn to the relationship between the Pleasure Principle and the Reality Principle, the Object of Desire and the Object Cause of Desire and the difference between Loss and Lack. Get full seminars, book studies and courses by joining up at https://pyrotheology.com

This is the second of six seminars introducing the theory and technology of Pyrotheology. In this talk, I explore the move from a sense that we are lacking some secret that would make us whole, to the the experience of lack as the secret itself. Get full seminars, book studies and courses by joining up at https://pyrotheology.com

This is the first of six seminars introducing the theory and technology of Pyrotheology. In this talk, I use the structure of a traditional magic trick to outline the trajectory of pyrotheology. Get full seminars, book studies and courses by joining up at https://pyrotheology.com

In this talk I outline what Marx means by Class Conflict and explore why he believed that this was the central antagonism within Capitalism. Note: In the Q&A I said that I thought that the term 'Cultural Capitalism' was used by Angela Nagle on the podcast What's Left, but that's not correct.

This is from a live zoom meeting from one of my Pints and Parables lockdown events. Here I talk about the difference between Desire and Demand.

This is a small excerpt from one of the reading groups I run on Patreon. In this group we tackled Gabriel Marcel's essay 'On the Ontological Mystery' over 2 ninety minute sessions. In this excerpt I did a summery of the first half of the article before we dived into the second half. To find out about future reading groups, visit https://peterrollins.com/calendar

Watching a movie is anything but a passive experience. What happens on the screen is not something we merely observe, but rather offers a mise-en-scène that hooks our desire. Movies show us something about the desire of the society from which they emerge, and something of the desire of the individual that enjoys them. Yet great movies can do more than simply express, incite and manipulate our desire. Some of the most critically acclaimed movies - such as Citizen Kane - confront us with the frailty, contingency and impotence of the objects that often fascinate us the most. This unnerving experience is something that Lacan referred to as an experience of the Gaze. In this seminar, I be look at what this means via reference to some concrete cinematic examples and then connecting it to the work of pyrotheology.

It’s common for evolutionary psychologists to make comparisons between the animal kingdom and human society. One such area of comparison is in relation to the development of hierarchies. We witness hierarchies in the animal kingdom that rest upon some animals natural dominance over others. It’s said that we witness the same thing in human societies. Left to our own devices, we form hierarchies that reflect our respective strengths and weaknesses. But is this really the way hierarchies operate in society? In this proseminar I’ll be looking at how we are never at one with the positions of authority that we inhabit. That they predate us and are never properly tailored to us. Facts that we often attempt to disavow. I draw out how a proper understanding of how we inhabit our various social roles can not only give us insight into the nature of human subjectivity, but also help us understand childhood development, the nature of freedom and the subversive meaning of the Crucifixion.

In recent years Progressivism has developed into one of the most powerful political and religious forces in the contemporary world. Even within more traditionally conservative communities, Progressivism has made significant inroads. One of the common phrases heard within Progressivism is that there is a ‘right side of history’. This idea captures the belief that there is a correct position to take on many contentious issues within contemporary society. Depending on where you locate yourself in relation to that position, defines whether you are a relic of the past or a citizen of the future. In this way, the Progressive appears to posses a type of clairvoyant ability to know the future, or at least, how the future should turn out if we heed their sagely advice. But what if the future is radically undecided and all our visions of how things should be are in actual fact adaptations of our present worldview… much like animated sitcom The Jetsons offered a fantastical future that really just represented the ideals of the age in which it was made. In contrast to Progressivism, I’ll be making a case for Apocalypticism. In Apocalypticism we do not pretend to know what the future will be like - or should be like - and instead concentrate on exposing the cracks within the present system. An approach that can open up the possibility of novelty in the world, and lead to the formation of previously unimagined solutions to the problems we face today. In this seminar, I use the example of Northern Ireland to offer a critique of the Progressivism that dominates the contemporary religious and political landscape, exposing its implicit dangers and offering an alternative approach that can provide real solutions. Get full seminars, book studies and courses by joining up at https://pyrotheology.com Follow me here, Instagram: https://Instagram.com/peter_rollins/ Facebook: https://Facebook.com/OrthodoxHeretic Twitter: https://Twitter.com/PeterRollins Soundcloud: https://Soundcloud.com/peter-rollins Get The Fundamentalists podcast here, https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fundamentalists/id1346820645?mt=2

In this final seminar exploring Nietzsche's parable of the Madman, I look at what it might mean to be part of a community that helps people move through the experience of the 'Death of God'. As part of this, I look at the way an oppressive superstition remains effective today at an unconscious level and what a 'Cruciform' collective can do to overcome it. Get full seminars, book studies and courses by joining up at https://pyrotheology.com

This continues developing the themes from part 1. In this seminar I look at how we might understand what Nietzsche is referring to by entering into a higher stage of history. Along the way, we touch on Hegel's notion of contradiction, the meaning of Absolute Knowledge and Feuerbach's relationship to Humanism.

Here I explore Nietzsche's parable of the madman. I look primiarily at how the proclamation of the death of God is from the mouth of a religious figure, directed at a secular audience. For over 100 hours of lectures and courses, visit https://pyrotheology.com

Here I look at the critique of religion expressed in Feuerbach and Marx, before looking at a possible critique from Hegel. Get full seminars, book studies and courses by joining up at https://pyrotheology.com

In this talk I outline Anselm's Ontological argument, and connect it with the tradition of theological atheism. For over 100 hours of lectures and seminars, check out pyrotheology.com

For over 100 hours of seminars and courses, visit pyrotheology.com

Whether it is in the realm of the personal, the political or the religious, we are saturated with promises that we can overcome the seeming contradictions that we face. That there is a way for us to overcome the obstacles that are preventing peace, prosperity and fulfillment. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the revival of non-dogmatic spirituality. In an age of anxiety, the promises of “Perennial Philosophy” are alive and well in the claims of various self-appointed gurus. Gurus who, with the air of humility and reticence, offer their help in penetrating the veils of illusion, so that we might (re)discover our oneness with the One. However, the Perennial Philosophy is neither limited to the world of contemporary mysticism, nor is it at its strongest there. Beyond the territory of The Secret, Progressive Spirituality, the Enneagram, Psychedelic Enlightenment and the New Age, we find the same structures at work in the political economy and various self-help techniques. This is the first lecture in a series called 'The Tyranny of Oneness'. You can get access to the whole course on Peter's Patreon or website.

This is an introduction to a seminar on the nature of freedom.

This is a short introduction to the nature of Decentering Practices and Atheism for Lent. We look at what it means to embrace a type of dis-course that sends you off course, and the positive power of negative thinking.

In this third look at guilt I explore what it might mean to have a desire that isn't the desire of the Other. This leads us into an understanding of what freedom might look like. If you're interested in deeper explorations of these ideas, jump on over to my Patreon.

This is a second short reflection on the idea of guilt that I did in response to some questions I received. Here I talk about the nature of Law, the desire for transgression, and the possibility of moving beyond this dyad.

In this short reflection I give an introduction to Lacan's famous aphorism "The only thing of which one can be guilty is of having given ground relative to one's desire". If you'd like more in-depth seminars, please visit my patreon.

I'm joined by Sean McDonald, who is a Lacanian psychoanalytic psychotherapist with a private practice in Los Angeles. In this conversation we talk about Christmas and the oppressive injunction 'Enjoy!', what psychoanalysis offers as an alternative to this, and the relationship between clinical psychoanalysis and Pyrotheology.

The Quantum Level of Reason | C.S. Lewis and Ezekiel Bulver by Peter Rollins

This is the second seminar in my Dialectics of God course. Here I explore the Radical Theologian in William Hamilton's categories of Detective, Assassin and Artist. We look at what it might mean for God to die in a cosmic sense, and touch on the connection between Altizer's work and pyrotheology.

Here is part three of The Dialectics of God. In this seminar I look at an essay by Altizer that argues for a theological vocation that fully embraces the profane without limit. An embrace that affirms life. And one that will give birth to a new epoch in faith.