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- Author: Peter Rollins
- Full Title: The Orthodox Heretic
- Category: #books
- The problem with so much religious communication is that it aims at changing our minds. The result is that we can hear the message of the preacher without necessarily heeding the message; we can listen to the “truth” and agree with it, yet not change in response to it. To use an example, many of us have had a conversation with someone about how accumulating wealth does not bring happiness, about how working all the hours God sends is not healthy, and that owning bigger and better cars is damaging, not only to the soul, but to the world. But then, after the conversation, those involved turn round and act as if they believed these things.
- Rather, the parable facilitates genuine change at the level of action itself. The message is thus hidden in the very words that express it, only to be found by the one who is wholly changed by it. In the words of one great Storyteller, the parable can be heard only by those with ears to hear.
- What if Jesus taught an impossible forgiveness, a forgiveness without conditions, a forgiveness that would forgive before some condition was met? Now, that kind of forgiveness can really annoy people, and might help to explain why Jesus got a reputation for hanging out with drunkards and prostitutes (rather than with ex-drunkards and ex-prostitutes)! Indeed, it would seem clear from the Bible that Jesus did not hang out with drunkards and prostitutes merely as a strategy to make them ex-drunkards and ex-prostitutes.
- The father has no interest in whether or not his son is repentant. All he cares about is the son’s return.