For the last decade and a half, I’ve heard a great deal of hoopla over the concept of spiritual or religious deconstruction. When I hear the word, I first think of philosophers questioning power structures, assumptions, and narratives that grant authority to some over others. And in the history of thought, that project has its place.
But when I sit with someone who is deconstructing from faith, I tend to see something different.
Usually it’s someone raised in a particular tradition — or, more often, within a narrow version of that tradition. After gathering more experience, or encountering other ideas, they find themselves questioning everything, sometimes setting aside the faith of their childhood altogether. Some return to a faith that’s more reconstructed and nuanced. Others leave for good.
Here’s my confession: I’m surprised people talk about this as though it were new.
As far as I can tell, this is simply what happens when a person moves from a faith handed to them by someone else toward a faith they actually own — or when they go back to the drawing board entirely. In short, it’s part of growing up.
Still, people are genuinely troubled by the disorientation that comes with deconstructing — or reconfiguring — their faith. So the question comes: “Help, what do I do if I’m deconstructing?”
The question itself carries a fear underneath it — the fear of losing faith altogether. I understand that fear. Faith, whether religious or scientific, is a powerful thing to feel slipping.
But here’s a simple answer, and I think a profound one: Do. Not. Worry.
Perhaps this is simply a season — of searching, wrestling, and waiting. Why do we assume faith should be easy, or unchallenged? Why do we expect it to hand us certainty? Faith is not the opposite of doubt — it’s the opposite of that tempting certainty in the first place. Real faith asks us both to accept and to question. To scrap what we find unfaithful or false, and start over where we must.
Seen rightly, what we’re calling “deconstruction” might just be faith maturing. So: do not worry. And do not stop worshipping, and do not stop practicing. Carry your struggle with you into it.
Have you ever read the Psalms? Those poets brought their doubts, their accusations, their questionable thoughts about God right into the sanctuary with them.
Why can’t you?