At least a month ago I got an idea for Lent. I had been thinking for sometime about a way to explore and express the Lenten journey in a creative way. I desired to find a way of walking through this time which wasn’t simply marked by giving up a basic desire. I wanted to make Lent something more meaningful than my second chance at successfully completing a new year’s resolution.
The desire came to make a book which would chronicle that Lenten exploration. The initial idea was to make a book of photos, photos as prayers, which followed the form of the daily office. I loved the idea—but was stuck on how to actually execute such a project. How could the photos correlate with Lent or with the readings of the daily office? I felt the project needed something, something to ground the photos, to give them context—without the kitsch of Thomas Kincaid.
At the same time, I wanted to participate in a great project which Peter Rollins began. The idea is to take the time of Lent which is normally used to give things up, to clear away that which has hindered our connection to God and our fellow wo/man and to instead give up god for Lent. He cleverly called this Atheism for Lent. The idea is to use the great critiques of the modern prophets; Marx, Nietzsche, & Freud to burn away the idols which have crept into our psyche, those distortions of God which have kept us from embracing the world as it is.
In Peter Rollins’ book Insurrection he talks about how the institution of church, its structure and practices, does much to insulate us from the trauma of the cross by comforting us with these false images of God and reality. Rollins wishes for churches to include within their liturgies the reality of our doubts and laments.
My project for Lent is to combine these two thoughts of atheism and creativity for Lent.
For inspiration and reflection during this period I will read the writings of the Trappist monk Thomas Merton and also the writings of philosophers and atheists Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche. These will be the interpretative a/theism lens through which I will read the liturgy of the daily office, found in The Book of Common Prayer.
My proposal is to make a prayer book, which includes as commentary my journey of rewriting the liturgy to reflect the prayers of one who doubts and laments. I will include photos of those 40 days which chronicle my eye of lament. It will also include the daily reflections on the words, phrases, & prayers which I will include, omit, or rewrite. After the period of time is completed, I will collect these resources together into a collected work, with the original and rewritten liturgy along with my reflective commentary.