ESR student and Raysville Friends pastor Michael Sherman offers a reflection on Peter Rollins’ new book, The Idolatry of God. Rollins will be on campus at ESR as the keynote speaker for our annual Willson Lectures on April 8.

Rollins demonstrates the Christian Church’s use of the pursuit of God/Christ as the fulfillment of our lacking.  If you just had this one thing you’d be better - it will fix all your problems.  In using God/Christ the church never addresses the problem of our perceived lacking; it uses and preys upon our sin to sell itself, thus creating an idol of God/Christ.  If we just did all this Christian stuff better or prayed more or read more Scriptures then…but all of that falls apart.  There is no amount of prayer or reading which can bring us closer to a God who is already at hand.  The truth is there is no separation.  Jesus says “The Kingdom of God is at hand”, right here at our fingertips.  We cannot move ourselves to reach it, because it is already here.

You can read the full post here: http://esrquaker.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-idolatry-of-god.html