The Deconstruction of Christianity

In "The Deconstruction of Christianity," Tim Barnett and Alisa Childers present a helpful and thorough explanation of the concept of deconstruction within the context of Christianity. With clarity, compassion, and intellectual depth, the authors offer a thoughtful and honest approach toward the deconstruction movement that will resonate with readers seeking to navigate the movement as it impacts our churches, friends, and family members.

Overall, "The Deconstruction of Christianity" is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to know what deconstruction is (and isn’t) and how Christians should (and shouldn’t) respond. The book can even be a helpful resource to those who are grappling with doubts and questions about their own faith. The authors' thoughtful and gracious approach, combined with a compelling writing style, makes this book a must-read for those seeking to think biblically about the movement of deconstruction within Christianity.

The essential thesis of the book is that “deconstruction”, while being a popular term coined first in 2016 to describe a sizable exodus from what is loosely called “Evangelical Christianity”, is really a postmodern philosophical phenomenon. The authors do not by any means ultimately abide by this understanding throughout the book. When they refer to deconstruction, they really mean any deconversion from Christianity, not necessarily a gained adherence to postmodern philosophy. The term “deconstruction” is historically associated with the French philosopher Jacques Derrida and his work on phenomenology, a philosophical discussion of which is hardly even handled in this book. The author is named, but it is clear that the co-authors did very little digging into the works of Derrida. I understand this isn’t an academic level book, but if you are going to make a particular thinker’s ideas your target, you should have a grounded and solid understanding of their ideas and their impact on the intellectual landscape.

Overall, the book tries to be gracious to people who have been through this process, but some of the sympathy is a bit back-handed. Far from really diving into any one or two individual cases and showing how their leaving Evangelical Christianity is an example of Derrida’s deconstruction process at work in the individual, the authors rely on anachronistic use of narratives from the Bible. If, according to their own definition, deconstruction is a postmodern process of abandoning the Christian faith, then clearly no examples in the Biblical texts can serve as an example of this process at work.

Overall, very little is here for anyone to whom the book is addressed. Perhaps some will come away from reading this book genuinely sympathetic to those who abandon Burton and Childers’ brand of Christianity, especially if it is on deeply personal and intellectual grounds. But if postmodern deconstruction of Evangelical Protestant Christianity is not about finding truth, but about finding individual liberation, I find it strange that most deconstruction stories deal in truth and facts, not just emotional experiences. People who have deconstructed left the faith (or Burton and Childers’ understanding of the faith), at the very least, because they began to believe that Christianity was false. And to hold that a thing is false is the same as if to say: “It is the truth that this proposition x is false.” And that certainly sounds like an assertion that goes far beyond “my truth” or “your truth”. It sounds an awful lot like saying: “It is true that this religion is not true.”