Faith deconstruction, also known as deconstructing faith, evangelical deconstruction, the deconstruction movement, or simply deconstruction, is a phenomenon where people unpack, rethink and examine their belief systems. This may lead to dropping one's faith all together or may result in a stronger faith. There is no end goal for deconstruction.

David Hayward Dr. David Hayward is a fictional character from the ABC and The Online Network serial drama ''All My Children''. The role has been portrayed by Vincent Irizarry, off and on, from November 27, 1997, to September 2, 2013. The character has been a ...

coined the term for the process he was experiencing when leaving the church. The word is adapted from the writing of

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...

. It is closely related to the

exvangelical Exvangelical is a social movement of people who have left evangelicalism, especially white evangelical churches in the United States, for atheism, agnosticism, progressive Christianity, or any other religious belief, or lack thereof. The hashtag ' ...

movement.

Description

The term can have a range of meanings.

Alisa Childers Alisa Childers (born Alisa Noelle Girard; April 17, 1975) is an American singer and songwriter. She is known for being in the all female Christian music group ZOEgirl. She has had a string of top ten radio singles, four studio releases, and recei ...

defines deconstruction as "the process of systematically dissecting and often rejecting the beliefs you grew up with." Tyler Huckabee, writing for ''

Relevant Relevant is something directly related, connected or pertinent to a topic; it may also mean something that is current. Relevant may also refer to: * Relevant operator, a concept in physics, see renormalization group * Relevant, Ain, a commune ...

'' magazine, defines it as "a process of re-examining the faith you grew up with." John Stonestreet and Timothy Padgett note that it is used both descriptively (covering everything from the deconversion of Kevin Max, through the soul searching of

Derek Webb Derek Walsh Webb (born May 27, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter who first entered the music industry as a member of the band Caedmon's Call, and later embarked on a successful solo career. As a member of the Houston, Texas-based Caedmon's C ...

, to the theological revisions of

Jen Hatmaker Jennifer Lynn Hatmaker (née King; born 1974) is an American author, speaker, blogger, and television presenter. She has been featured in ''Christianity Today ''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 ...

and Rob Bell), or prescriptively ("recommended, especially to those questioning what they’ve grown up with, as a ''courageous'' thing to do"). There is broad agreement that the term is derived from

's philosophical concept of

deconstruction The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essences w ...

. Notable advocates of faith deconstruction include internet comedy duo Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal (who published multiple podcast episodes detailing their spiritual deconstruction),

John D. Caputo John David Caputo (born October 26, 1940) is an American philosopher who is the Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion Emeritus at Syracuse University and the David R. Cook Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Villanova University. Caputo is a ma ...

(who in 2007 wrote ''What Would Jesus Deconstruct?: The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church''), and Richard Rohr. Prominent former Christians who underwent deconstruction include Joshua Harris (who briefly offered a course on deconstruction),

Abraham Piper Abraham Piper is a serial entrepreneur and artist living in Minneapolis. He is the son of Reformed preacher and writer John Piper. At age 19 he was excommunicated from his father's church after he rejected the faith. He was restored to membersh ...

, and

Marty Sampson Martin W "Marty" Sampson (born 31 May 1979) is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician and former worship leader at the Hillsong Church in Sydney. From the late 1990s until 2019 he featured on the United Live albums and was one of the origina ...

. As of February 2022 there were 293,026 posts on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

utilizing the

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...

#deconstruction.

Responses

After preaching a sermon in which he equated deconstruction with leaving the faith, Matt Chandler clarified that it "doesn’t mean doubt or theological wrestle or struggling through church hurt." John Cooper has stated, "It is time that we declare war against this deconstruction Christian movement... There is nothing Christian about it. It is a false religion." On the other hand, Tyler Huckabee argues that it can result in "deconversion", or "in your faith looking more or less the same it always did" but "most often, it's somewhere in between—rethinking the things you’ve always believed and coming to a new, different understanding of parts of it." Huckabee goes on to suggest that

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

's own theological revolution "fits into the paradigm of what researchers would call deconstruction today."

Criticism of the term

Carl Trueman, argues that the "(mis)use of the Derridean d-word gives the whole a specious veneer of intellectualism and a certain superannuated postmodern chic."

Description

Responses

Criticism of the term

See also

References

Further reading