Peter Rollins - The Archive

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...

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 desi...

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 tha...

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...

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 course...

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 “...

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.