Overview

What if God has always been showing up in the places the church swears God can't be? This is a story of Afghan prisons and border crossings, of hidden compartments in vans rattling down the Hippie Trail, and of a boy who grew up without a father--only to discover decades later that his dad had been an international smuggler entangled with psychedelics, rock stars, and the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. This isn't a memoir. This is theology--an unflinching exploration of where incarnation happens. In donkeys and diviners. In deserts and surfboards. In LSD-drenched counterculture and dangerous theological conversations. The trajectory is startling: the same 1960s psychedelic subculture that trafficked Orange Sunshine LSD also gave rise to the Jesus People and, eventually, Contemporary Christian Music. From acid evangelists to praise choruses, the Spirit was moving through unlikely vessels. God was present in the fringe--in drug culture, in music the church resisted--long before the church was ready to admit it. Rob Zahn argues that the line between sacred and secular is a lie--a piece of sanitized church furniture that never belonged in the first place. This is not safe theology. It is disruptive, dangerous, and relentlessly human.

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9798385246809

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Reviews

""In this fascinating exploration of the collision between psychedelia and Christianity, Rob Zahn traces how transcendence erupts where religion least expects it. Weaving together cultural reflection, theological insight, and an engaging personal story, the book offers a way for those within the church to read the ways in which transcendence appears in the world."" --Peter Rollins, author of How (Not) to Speak of God ""There are many great stories lost to most of the official accounts of the rise of the Jesus Movement, and this is surely one of them. Rob's story of his family and their complex relationship with God, psychedelics, and crime could read like a movie script. Instead, he mines it for some deep and radical theological reflection, exploring encounters with the divine in unexpected places and offering not only an alternative account of the early days of contemporary Christianity but an alternative and refreshing theological perspective that speaks to past events and to current times. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!"" --Barry Taylor, Director of Radical Theology, GCAS College Dublin

Author Information

Rob holds a doctorate in Semiotics, Church, and Culture and is ordained in the ELCA. His story arcs from a father who smuggled hash along the Hippie Trail to his work as Lead Pastor and teaching religion at Waldorf University. A musician who performed everywhere from the Kennedy Center to the House of Blues, Rob is married, a father of three, and traces God's signs in culture and the margins--provoking dangerous conversations and uncovering the divine where the church insists God cannot be.

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