
The Orthodox Heretic
And Other Impossible Tales
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $14.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Peter Rollins
-
By:
-
Peter Rollins
About this listen
For so many, the Christian faith is viewed as little more than a drug that enables the weak to escape reality. An opiate that helps its users to avoid facing the injustice of the world and making a stand against it. In short, the Christian faith is perceived to be a counter-revolutionary ideology that keeps people passive, infantile, and ineffectual.
In contrast, Peter Rollins has crafted a series of parables that shatter this popular perception. Parables that demonstrate how radical faith has never been concerned with escaping the world we inhabit but rather with engaging it more fully. That genuine Christian faith has never capitulated to injustice but rather fought against it at every turn.
These parables outline a non-religious approach to a subversive message of Christianity, one that is not concerned with questions regarding theism and atheism, but rather one that invites us into a different way of living in the world.
©2008 Paraclete Press (P)2013 Peter RollinsListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Idolatry of God
- Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction
- By: Peter Rollins
- Narrated by: Peter Rollins
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether listeners are devout believers or distant seekers, The Idolatry of God shows that we must lay down our certainties and honestly admit our doubts to identify with Jesus. Rollins purposely upsets fundamentalist certainty in order to open listeners up to a more loving, active manifestation of Christ’s love. In contrast to the usual understanding of the "Good News" as a message offering satisfaction and certainty, Rollins argues for a radical and shattering alternative. He explores how the Good News actually involves embracing the idea that we can’t be whole, that life is difficult, and that we are in the dark.
-
-
Finally.
- By Brandy Moehnle on 08-30-16
By: Peter Rollins
-
Insurrection
- To Believe is Human. To Doubt, Divine.
- By: Peter Rollins
- Narrated by: Joshua Swanson
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this incendiary new work, the controversial author and speaker Peter Rollins proclaims that the Christian faith is not primarily concerned with questions regarding life after death but with the possibility of life before death. In order to unearth this truth, Rollins prescribes a radical and wholesale critique of contemporary Christianity that he calls pyro-theology.
-
-
The deconstructed cliff
- By ND4SP33D on 09-22-16
By: Peter Rollins
-
The Sin of Certainty
- Why God Desires Our Trust More than Our "Correct" Beliefs
- By: Peter Enns
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With compelling and often humorous stories from his own life, Bible scholar Peter Enns offers a fresh look at how Christian life truly works, answering questions that cannot be addressed by the idealized traditional doctrine of "once for all delivered to the saints".
-
-
Title may mislead the actual content
- By Adam Shields on 05-26-16
By: Peter Enns
-
Do I Stay Christian?
- A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned
- By: Brian D. McLaren
- Narrated by: Brian D. McLaren
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do I Stay Christian? addresses in public the powerful question that surprising numbers of people—including pastors, priests, and other religious leaders—are asking in private. Picking up where Faith After Doubt leaves off, Do I Stay Christian? is not McLaren's attempt to persuade Christians to dig in their heels or run for the exit. Instead, he combines his own experience with that of thousands of people who have confided in him over the years to help readers make a responsible, honest, ethical decision about their religious identity.
-
-
Stunning
- By pslwallace on 06-30-23
By: Brian D. McLaren
-
Jesus and John Wayne
- How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
- By: Kristin Kobes du Mez
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did a libertine who lacks even the most basic knowledge of the Christian faith win 81 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2016? And why have white evangelicals become a presidential reprobate's staunchest supporters? Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping account of the last 75 years of white evangelicalism, showing how American evangelicals have worked for decades to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism.
-
-
Like reading a history of my evangelical life
- By Renee on 10-15-20
-
Making Sense of God
- An Invitation to the Skeptical
- By: Timothy Keller
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.
-
-
Good for confirming existing beliefs...
- By Mikkikon on 12-20-16
By: Timothy Keller
-
The Idolatry of God
- Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction
- By: Peter Rollins
- Narrated by: Peter Rollins
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether listeners are devout believers or distant seekers, The Idolatry of God shows that we must lay down our certainties and honestly admit our doubts to identify with Jesus. Rollins purposely upsets fundamentalist certainty in order to open listeners up to a more loving, active manifestation of Christ’s love. In contrast to the usual understanding of the "Good News" as a message offering satisfaction and certainty, Rollins argues for a radical and shattering alternative. He explores how the Good News actually involves embracing the idea that we can’t be whole, that life is difficult, and that we are in the dark.
-
-
Finally.
- By Brandy Moehnle on 08-30-16
By: Peter Rollins
-
Insurrection
- To Believe is Human. To Doubt, Divine.
- By: Peter Rollins
- Narrated by: Joshua Swanson
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this incendiary new work, the controversial author and speaker Peter Rollins proclaims that the Christian faith is not primarily concerned with questions regarding life after death but with the possibility of life before death. In order to unearth this truth, Rollins prescribes a radical and wholesale critique of contemporary Christianity that he calls pyro-theology.
-
-
The deconstructed cliff
- By ND4SP33D on 09-22-16
By: Peter Rollins
-
The Sin of Certainty
- Why God Desires Our Trust More than Our "Correct" Beliefs
- By: Peter Enns
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With compelling and often humorous stories from his own life, Bible scholar Peter Enns offers a fresh look at how Christian life truly works, answering questions that cannot be addressed by the idealized traditional doctrine of "once for all delivered to the saints".
-
-
Title may mislead the actual content
- By Adam Shields on 05-26-16
By: Peter Enns
-
Do I Stay Christian?
- A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned
- By: Brian D. McLaren
- Narrated by: Brian D. McLaren
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do I Stay Christian? addresses in public the powerful question that surprising numbers of people—including pastors, priests, and other religious leaders—are asking in private. Picking up where Faith After Doubt leaves off, Do I Stay Christian? is not McLaren's attempt to persuade Christians to dig in their heels or run for the exit. Instead, he combines his own experience with that of thousands of people who have confided in him over the years to help readers make a responsible, honest, ethical decision about their religious identity.
-
-
Stunning
- By pslwallace on 06-30-23
By: Brian D. McLaren
-
Jesus and John Wayne
- How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
- By: Kristin Kobes du Mez
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did a libertine who lacks even the most basic knowledge of the Christian faith win 81 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2016? And why have white evangelicals become a presidential reprobate's staunchest supporters? Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping account of the last 75 years of white evangelicalism, showing how American evangelicals have worked for decades to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism.
-
-
Like reading a history of my evangelical life
- By Renee on 10-15-20
-
Making Sense of God
- An Invitation to the Skeptical
- By: Timothy Keller
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.
-
-
Good for confirming existing beliefs...
- By Mikkikon on 12-20-16
By: Timothy Keller
-
The Universal Christ
- How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope for, and Believe
- By: Richard Rohr
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world.
-
-
Off the Reservation
- By Amazon Customer on 07-04-19
By: Richard Rohr
-
Searching for Sunday
- Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church
- By: Rachel Held Evans
- Narrated by: Rachel Held Evans
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like millions of her millennial peers, Rachel Held Evans didn't want to go to church anymore. The hypocrisy, the politics, the gargantuan building budgets, the scandals - church culture seemed so far removed from Jesus. Yet despite her cynicism and misgivings, something kept drawing her back. And so she set out on a journey to understand the Church and to find her place in it.
-
-
Don't bother
- By Andi Andrzjewski on 12-05-16
-
Living Buddha, Living Christ
- By: Thich Nhat Hanh
- Narrated by: Ben Kingsley
- Length: 2 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World-renowned thinker and scholar Thich Nhat Hanh, considered by many to be a "Living Buddah," explores the spiritual crossroads where the traditions of Christianity and Buddhism meet. Living Buddha, Living Christ reawakens our understanding of both religions and the connections between them.
-
-
Beautiful
- By Jennifer Weatherbee on 04-18-15
By: Thich Nhat Hanh
-
The Pagan World
- Ancient Religions Before Christianity
- By: Hans-Friedrich Mueller, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Hans-Friedrich Mueller
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Pagan World: Ancient Religions Before Christianity, you will meet the fascinating, ancient polytheistic peoples of the Mediterranean and beyond, their many gods and goddesses, and their public and private worship practices, as you come to appreciate the foundational role religion played in their lives. Professor Hans-Friedrich Mueller, of Union College in Schenectady, New York, makes this ancient world come alive in 24 lectures with captivating stories of intrigue, artifacts, illustrations, and detailed descriptions from primary sources of intriguing personalities.
-
-
The Pagan World
- By arnold e andersen md Dr Andersen on 03-28-20
By: Hans-Friedrich Mueller, and others
-
Love Wins
- A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived
- By: Rob Bell
- Narrated by: Rob Bell
- Length: 3 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of Christians have struggled with how to reconcile God's love and God's judgment: Has God created billions of people over thousands of years only to select a few to go to heaven and everyone else to suffer forever in hell? Is this acceptable to God? How is this "good news"? Author, pastor, and innovative teacher Rob Bell presents a deeply biblical vision for rediscovering a richer, grander, truer, and more spiritually satisfying way of understanding heaven, hell, God, Jesus, salvation, and repentance.
-
-
Gosh! WHAT WAS all the fuss about??
- By Israel on 04-11-11
By: Rob Bell
-
The Blue Parakeet, 2nd Edition
- Rethinking How You Read the Bible
- By: Scot McKnight
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How are we to live out the Bible today? In this updated edition of The Blue Parakeet, you'll be challenged to see how Scripture transcends culture and time, and you'll learn how to come to God's Word with a fresh heart and mind.
-
-
Not a scholarly work...
- By Ken Bergdalia on 03-26-21
By: Scot McKnight
-
What We Talk About When We Talk About God
- By: Rob Bell
- Narrated by: Rob Bell
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How God is described today strikes many as mean, primitive, backwards, illogical, tribal, and at odds with the frontiers of science. At the same time, many intuitively feel a sense of reverence and awe in the world. Can we find a new way to talk about God? Pastor and New York Times best-selling author Rob Bell shows how traditional ideas have grown stale and dysfunctional and reveals a new path for how to return vitality and vibrancy to how we understand God.
-
-
Love this book!
- By Melinda Deffenbaugh on 04-20-17
By: Rob Bell
-
What Is the Bible?
- How an Ancient Library of Poems, Letters, and Stories Can Transform the Way You Think and Feel About Everything
- By: Rob Bell
- Narrated by: Rob Bell
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Love Wins, Rob Bell confronted the troubling questions that many people of faith are afraid to ask about heaven, hell, fate, and faith. Using the same inspired, inquisitive approach, he now turns to our most sacred book: the Bible. What Is the Bible? provides insights and answers that make clear why the Bible is so revered and what makes it truly inspiring and essential to our lives. Rob takes us deep into actual passages to reveal the humanity behind the Scriptures.
-
-
The rest of the story?
- By Denny Thompson on 05-20-17
By: Rob Bell
-
Curveball
- When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming (or How I Stumbled and Tripped My Way to Finding a Bigger God)
- By: Peter Enns
- Narrated by: Peter Enns
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Life throws us “curve balls”—from devastating personal losses to world tragedies. These events often leave us doubting God, the Bible, and our faith. But instead of pushing away our reservations, we should embrace them, Peter Enns argues. A leading biblical scholar and Christian mentor, Enns has never been afraid to question the Bible or Christian beliefs. Such thoughtful inquisitiveness, he argues, is part of God’s plan. He wants us to question, because doing so actually leads to a stronger, lasting faith.
-
-
A personal testimony
- By Jim H. on 03-03-23
By: Peter Enns
-
Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again
- By: Rachel Held Evans
- Narrated by: Rachel Held Evans
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If the Bible isn’t a science book or an instruction manual, then what is it? What do people mean when they say the Bible is inspired? When Rachel Held Evans found herself asking these questions, she began a quest to better understand what the Bible is and how it is meant to be read. What she discovered changed her—and it will change you too.
Drawing on the best in recent scholarship and using her well-honed literary expertise, Evans examines some of our favorite Bible stories and possible interpretations, retelling them through memoir, original poetry, short stories, soliloquies, and even a short screenplay. Undaunted by the Bible’s most difficult passages, Evans wrestles through the process of doubting, imagining, and debating Scripture’s mysteries. The Bible, she discovers, is not a static work but is a living, breathing, captivating, and confounding book that is able to equip us to join God’s loving and redemptive work in the world.
-
-
Hermeneutics for people that don't use the word
- By Adam Shields on 06-14-18
-
Everything is Spiritual
- Finding Your Way in a Turbulent World
- By: Rob Bell
- Narrated by: Rob Bell
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everything Is Spiritual is a brief history of how these ideas about creation, love, and connection shaped the author - and can shape every one of us. In this audiobook, Rob Bell explores the concept that what people really want, more than anything, is to understand their purpose here - so much so that it gives them an abiding sense of awe and wonder. And when you embrace where and who you come from and your wounds and pains and regrets, you will discover that there's an invitation lurking there in the mess of life.
-
-
Loved it!
- By D. Frazier on 08-12-21
By: Rob Bell
-
Love Matters More
- How Fighting to Be Right Keeps Us from Loving Like Jesus
- By: Jared Byas
- Narrated by: Jared Byas
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, Christians have argued, debated, and fought one another while "speaking the truth in love," yet we are no closer to the grace-filled life Jesus modeled. Biblical scholar and popular podcast host of The Bible for Normal People, Jared Byas casts a new vision for the Christian life that's built not on certainty, but on the risk of love.
-
-
Clinging to Jesus, while questioning modern religion
- By Amycp on 07-18-21
By: Jared Byas
What listeners say about The Orthodox Heretic
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 09-16-21
Peter Rollins masterfully sets alight the heart
From page 1 Peter Rollins masterfully articulates the fruit of his pyro-theology, quickly burning through intricately and beautifully organized straw structures of the Christian faith. In true poetic and prophetic form, he points a finger at our clubhouse called church in the west and demands its burning; while reaching out to those not deemed worthy to entire its gates to feel the warmth of love as the embers burn. I have never read a book that is so enraging, while my conscious screams "though art the man!" (2nd Sam 12:1-15)
A book of stories or parables, replete with the wealth of wisdom, a treasure house of illustrations for the preacher daring enough to play with fire; and a kick in the gut to any who have relegated belief to a matter of the mind. Worthy of your time, but dangerous...which i believe was the intent. I will be meditating on this one the rest of my life.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- lozer
- 01-02-17
challenging and intriguing
i love his stories and he challenges my traditional ideas of the Christian faith. some of the stories will speak to you deeply depending on where you are on your journey.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeff
- 11-24-17
I really appreciated this book.
I devoured this book quickly. I listened to it on Audible while driving, so I’m not sure stopping it after each chapter made sense for me. After finishing it, I immediately ordered two copies- one for me and one for someone for whom I care deeply. I will now read it a chapter at a time to consider what each has to offer.
There are many reasons to read a book like this. I am a person of the Christian faith and read this in hopes it would challenge, deepen, and take my faith to more meaningful places. It did. Rollins plays with stories we have heard, even Biblical stories, and adapts some of them in ways which help us see some deeper truths we may not have considered before.
I feel that for the stories to have the most effect on the reader, he/she will need to allow the story to affect them. At least that’s how it was for me. I read hoping to consider something new, and most of the time I was not let down.
So read, reflect, ponder, and most importantly ACT on what you read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Benjamin
- 08-08-20
incredible
best modern parables. so engaging and challenging and so true. read and be ready to see differently, if you let the lessons sink in
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Impact Kindle
- 01-02-20
Creativity can be thought provoking
As a logical Western thinker it challenged me with eastern story telling. For a mid West person who values efficiency and effectiveness I was challenged to sit with the story and let it speak to me. Not just to find the answer and move on. But find an answer, and think about it, letting it marinate.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ricky
- 12-12-16
Must Read
For any Christian that battles with themselves or others owe it to themselves to read this book. This is a deep book that gives you no choice but to observe yourself. Great book. Thank you Mr. Rollins!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jmcbray
- 08-20-19
So good to listen to Peter himself read and tell his stories.
So good to listen to Peter himself read and tell his stories. Provocative and wonderfully thoughtful stories. As the parable Jesus were so often heard and not read, this audiobook edition is excellent and helps the listener engage in different senses of meaning making and understanding.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Zack
- 03-02-22
These aren't the parables you're looking for
just not for me. I didn't like the premise of the book, but enough recommendations came my way that I wanted to check it out.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!