CHRISTIANITY IN TRANSITION
Seminar Series this March and April 2025
What is the future of Christianity? “Christianity in Transition” is a two-month long investigation on contemporary Christianity informed by practitioners and thinkers wrestling with the real life challenge of that question. This investigation will aim to cover everything from the Emerging Church movement, to the work of Peter Rollins’ Pyrotheology, to cultural theory about postmodern deconstruction and metamodern reconstruction, to the possibility of “metagelicalism” as a metaparadigm for thinking about the interrelation of different Christian denominations in Western culture and society. This process as a whole is leading towards Philosophy Portal’s participation at Peter Rollins’ Wake Festival in Belfast to lead discussions and breakout groups inspired by the concept of Christian Atheism to think through the relation between religion and secularity today.
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Join Now
Join Now
Two ways to access: purchase the course on its own, or join The Portal as a monthly or yearly member and get access to much more (details below)
This is a two-month long seminar series exploring contemporary Christian life and culture.
Philosophy Portal is an online education platform opening space for the next generation of great thought, and cultivation of future philosophical mind. Philosophy Portal members get access to The Portal live event spaces, book clubs, either free or discounted access to courses, permanent early bird pricing on future courses, and priority to apply for retreats. Couples are encouraged get a 2 for 1 deal.
Meet Your Co-Leaders
Jim Palmer is a writer who focuses on post-religious spirituality. After a crisis of faith and walking away from my formler life as a megachurch superstar pastor, he rebuilt his life and cultivated an authentic and liberating non-religious spirituality. His blog “Deconstructionology” is a term focusing on “disassembling” something into its separate parts in order to understand it more deeply and meaningfully. The lived human experience is filled with all kinds of tensions, contradictions, nuances, lessons and complexities, which may not be apparent on the surface or through the lens through which we most familiarly see the world.
Jim Palmer
Brendan Graham Dempsey
Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer, poet, farmer, and the director of Sky Meadow Institute, an organization dedicated to promoting systems-based thinking about the things that matter most. He holds a BA in religious studies from the University of Vermont, and a Master’s in religion and art from Yale University, and his books include Metamodernism: Or The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics, and The Evolution of Meaning series. He is also the co-editor of the academic journal Metamodern Theory & Praxis. His primary interests include theorising developments in culture after postmodernism, productively bridging the divide between science and spirituality, and developing sustainable systems for life to flourish. All of these lead through the paradigms of emergence and complexity, which inform all his work.
Rob Zahn is a theologian, public speaker, teacher, creator, and author who is known for exposing and challenging the edges for what is ‘expected’ of the church. Rob earned his doctorate in Semiotics, Church, and Culture where he researched the connection of psychedelics to the birth of Contemporary Christian Music in the 1960’s and 1970’s. His work tells an interwoven, personal story of how the LSD fueled, hippie psychedelic subculture gave birth to Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), teaching the church of today that God is indeed incarnate in the least likely of places. In addition he is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and teaches in the Religion Department at Waldorf University.
Rob Zahn
Kevin Crouse
Kevin, a.k.a “Rev Kev,” has spent 25 years in ministry as an ordained minister within a fundamentalist, evangelical, and dispensational Christian tradition. His journey has taken him around the world as a missionary in Congo, Western Europe, and Australia. He and his wife founded Mars Hill Cafe, an Emerging Church-inspired “Third Space” cafe in Parramatta, a vibrant suburb in western Sydney. Kevin has also taught in a variety of contexts, including a Bible school and pastor’s school in East Africa, a theological college in Australia, and, for the past 15 years, as a visiting adjunct lecturer at a Christian university. His course, Ministry After Postmodernity, draws from his experiences, studies, and the unsettling yet transformative convictions that have shaped his path.
Christian Baxter is a YouTuber who focuses on “Conversation Craft” as the host of the “Yours Truly Podcast”.
Christian Baxter
Ross Byrd
Ross Byrd is a public writer through Patient Kingdom which focuses on the riddle-like nature of the kingdom of God and the unfolding mystery of divine and human agency. Patient Kingdom is about why God seems to hide and how we can learn to see and hear him, even in an increasingly noisy world. We are living in a very strange moment. Our civilization is wealthier, safer, more educated, and more comfortable than any civilization at any time in human history. And yet, something is happening to us: Mental health crises. Marital failures. Identity confusion. Mass shootings. Drug addictions. Online addictions. Suicide. All dramatically up and still rising. We are physically safe and comfortable, yes. And yet somehow we are not.
UPCOMING EVENTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
MARCH AND APRIL 2025
Online
830pm CET (Central European Time)
Sunday March 2nd / Session 1: (Emergent) Church as Contradiction
Sunday March 9th / Session 2: De/Reconstruction with Jim Palmer
Sunday March 16th / Session 3: Meta-God Concepts with Brendan Graham Dempsey
Sunday March 23rd / Session 4: What Is Church/Religion? with Rob Zahn and Kevin Crouse
Monday March 31st / Session 5: Metagelicalism
Monday April 7th / Session 6: A Parish Manifesto with Ross Byrd
Monday April 14th / Session 7: Metagelical Conversion
Monday April 21st / Session 8: TLC as Metagelical? with Christian Baxter
Join Now
Join Now
Two ways to access: purchase the mini-course as a stand-alone seminar, or join The Portal as a monthly or yearly member
This is a two-month long seminar series exploring contemporary Christian life and culture.
Philosophy Portal is an online education platform opening space for the next generation of great thought, and cultivation of future philosophical mind. Philosophy Portal members get access to The Portal live event spaces, book clubs, either free or discounted access to courses, permanent early bird pricing on future courses, and priority to apply for retreats. Couples are encouraged get a 2 for 1 deal.
UPCOMING EVENTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
APRIL 2025
Online / Open-Access
830pm CET (Central European Time)
Saturday April 12th / Christian Atheism Conference Day 1
Sunday April 13th / Christian Atheism Conference Day 2
Physical: Belfast, Ireland
All-Day / Ticketed Access
Saturday April 27th-Thursday May 1st / Wake Festival with Peter Rollins