11 Books to Read If You’re Deconstructing Your Faith
If you’re going through a time when you’re unsure of what you believe, welcome! You’re in good company here. This is a community of people from all faith backgrounds who are questioning their beliefs and perhaps even exploring new ones. You should know up front that it’s okay—really—that you have questions, doubts, and frustrations. No matter how it feels, you’re not somehow grieving God with your questions.
Deconstruction is a word that means many things to many people (check out our post on deconstruction for more on this), and in some circles it’s becoming a cardinal sin. But in essence, deconstruction is simply taking inventory of your beliefs, one by one, to see what’s worth keeping and what isn’t. It doesn’t have to mean the death of your faith (unless you want it to), but it can be the beginning of a broader, more loving, more transformative faith.
But the thing is, deconstruction starts with a lot of confusion and questions, and nowhere to go for comfort or any sort of answers because the places we used to go—church, pastors, parents, ministries, friends, mentors—often don’t understand (and may even condemn) what we’re going through. That doesn’t mean there aren’t resources out there, though!
So without further ado, here are 11 books (in no particular order) that we’ve found helpful in our deconstruction journeys. We’ve included brief descriptions from the publishers to help you get the gist of what the book is about.
11 Books to Read If You’re Deconstructing Your Faith
Leaving the Fold: A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving their Religion by Dr. Marlene Winell
“A self-help book that examines the effects of authoritarian religion (fundamentalist Christianity in particular) on individuals who leave the faith. The concrete steps for healing are useful for anyone in recovery from toxic religion.”
The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More Than Our Correct Beliefs by Pete Enns
“Combining Enns' reflections of his own spiritual journey with an examination of Scripture, The Sin of Certainty models an acceptance of mystery and paradox that all believers can follow and why God prefers this path because it is only this way by which we can become mature disciples who truly trust God. It gives Christians who have known only the demand for certainty permission to view faith on their own flawed, uncertain, yet heartfelt, terms.”
Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church by Rachel Held Evans
“Like millions of her millennial peers, Rachel Held Evans didn't want to go to church anymore. The hypocrisy, the politics, the gargantuan building budgets, the scandals--church culture seemed so far removed from Jesus. Yet, despite her cynicism and misgivings, something kept drawing her back to Church. And so she set out on a journey to understand Church and to find her place in it.”
Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Robin Meyers
“Christianity itself has to do more with compassion than condemnation. Saving Jesus from the Church shows us what it means to be a Christian in the twenty-first century.”
Christianity after Religion: The End of Church and the Beginning of a New Spiritual Awakening by Diana Butler Bass
“Using evidence from the latest national polls and from her own cutting-edge research, Bass, one of contemporary Christianity's leading trend-spotters, exposes how the failings of the church today are giving rise to a new ‘spiritual but not religious’ movement.”
Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith by Sarah Bessey
“In the process of gently helping us sort things out, Bessey teaches us how to be as comfortable with uncertainty as we are with solid answers. And as we learn to hold questions in one hand and answers in the other, we discover new depths of faith that will remain secure even through the storms of life.”
After Evangelicalism: The Path to a New Christianity by David P. Gushee
“Millions are getting lost in the evangelical maze: inerrancy, indifference to the environment, deterministic Calvinism, purity culture, racism, LGBTQ discrimination, male dominance, and Christian nationalism. They are now conscientious objectors, deconstructionists, perhaps even none and done. As one of America's leading academics speaking to the issues of religion today, David Gushee offers a clear assessment and a new way forward for disillusioned post-evangelicals.”
Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church by Chrissy Stroop and Lauren O’Neal
“Following the 2016 election of President Trump, Stroop coined the hashtag #EmptyThePews on Twitter as a call to take a moral stance against the kind of fundamentalist, authoritarian, or otherwise conservative churches that helped bring about the current political situation and all its cruelty, division, and hate. The hashtag continues to circulate with the eye-opening and often heartbreaking stories of those who found the resolve to leave evangelical, Mormon, Catholic, and other religious communities. Empty the Pews continues this campaign by sharing the unflinchingly honest stories of those who escaped hardline religious ideology—and how it failed to crush their spirits.”
The Shift: Surviving and Thriving after Moving from Conservative to Progressive Christianity by Colby Martin
“When Christians are kicked out of their conservative churches or leave because they no longer feel at home, they embark on a journey of freedom and fear, love and loneliness, empowerment and pain. The movement from conservative to progressive Christianity is a serious shift. Colby Martin has traversed this treacherous territory, survived its hardships, and is now turning around to share what he's learned.”
So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore: An Unexpected Journey by Wayne Jacobson and Dave Coleman
“Compelling and intensely personal, So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore relates a man's rebirth from performance-based Christianity to a loving friendship with Christ that affects all he does, thinks, and says.”
It's Ok That You're Not Ok: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand by Megan Devine
“Megan Devine offers a profound new approach to both the experience of grief and the way we try to help others who have endured tragedy. Having experienced grief from both sides—as both a therapist and as a woman who witnessed the accidental drowning of her beloved partner—Megan writes with deep insight about the unspoken truths of loss, love, and healing. She debunks the culturally prescribed goal of returning to a normal, happy life, replacing it with a far healthier middle path, one that invites us to build a life alongside grief rather than seeking to overcome it.” Note: This is particularly important for grieving the faith and systems you leave behind.
We hope you find these books helpful! We’d love to hear from you in the comments if you read any of them and found them helpful, as well as any books not listed here that you think fellow sojourners should know about. 💜
