Blessed are the Undone: Testimonies of the Quiet Deconstruction of Faith in Canada

by Angela Reitsma Bick, Peter Schuurman, Neal Deroo (foreword)

327 pages, Paperback

Published September 17, 2024

Reviews

[Frank Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a heavy book and one that I found mostly depressing. The book provides the results of a significant sociological survey of those who have deconstructed their Christian faith. This deconstruction sometimes led to full deconversion and sometimes led to a more profound experience of Christianity in a different church. The authors were very, very good at being precise in their language, which I greatly appreciated. They were very clear that the book was being descriptive regarding how those who deconstructed perceived their journey, and not proscriptive regarding how they (the authors) thought about each person's story. This meant that many (if not most) of the stories were painful at both ends. They were painful in that the stories typically started with some sort of physical, intellectual or emotional abuse in a church context. They were also painful in that the stories too often ended with the storyteller losing any confidence in the Bible as God’s word, and even in the person of Jesus. Then when I read that one of the authors (Angela) states that she doesn’t care about (“never been deeply invested in a certain position on”) “the historicity of Jesus”, it certainly made me concerned early on.

The authors describe what triggers people say cause them to deconstruct. Here are the main ones, where I believe the percentages came from a different (but related) publication of the authors: Christian Nationalism (29.4%), Legacy of Residential Schools (25.5%), Purity Culture (23.5%), Young Earth Creationism (9.8%), Treatment of LGBTQ+ (5.9%), Church Scandal/Clergy Sexual Abuse (3.9%), Rigid Biblicism (2%). The experience of abuse was terrible and needs to be called out (well done). The subsequent journeys often felt irrational to me, but since the authors were being descriptive of stories they received, my opinions are not relevant here. It seemed that there were two primary paths of deconstruction. First, there are those who follow the pattern of Brian McLaren or Rob Bell and ultimately give up their faith. Second, there are those who follow the pattern of Peter Enns and Greg Boyd in deciding that they cannot trust all of the bible, but only those parts that look like Jesus. This initially sounds reasonable, but in my opinion, this becomes an exercise in throwing away anything that you don’t like, without any objective foundation. Neither of these directions look healthy to me. There were only a very small number who ended up in a place of positive and stable Christianity. Thus, I started to question the title and premise of the book itself, which uses “undone” to describe those Jesus said were blessed in His beatitudes. Why would the authors claim that those who have abandoned Jesus are somehow blessed? I don’t understand.

Due to the heaviness and (intentional) ambiguity of the book, I would have given it a very low rating if it were not for the final chapters and Appendix. These provided a useful Christ centred commentary on the previous book. The authors continued to walk the tightrope of identifying areas that cause people to deconstruct without stating how to deal biblically with all those areas (I remain impressed). But in the final chapter some suggestions were made, which I thought were thoughtful and excellent. In addition, the authors provided the flip side of the deconstruction from the church, mentioning those who deconstruct from Atheism to Christianity (and referred to two good books, one by Justin Brierley, and the other “coming to faith through Dawkins”). They used the analogy of tides that go in and out. In addition, the authors acknowledged that the more bible believing churches do a much better job in retaining people and growing than do the progressive or liberal churches that attract those who are deconstructing. I loved a quotation from NT Wright describing the church that was provided right near the end of the final chapter: “Of course [it has] plenty of muddle and wickedness, but also far more than we normally imagine of love and creativity and beauty and justice and healing and education and hope”. This was a good ending.

This is the type of book that I wish I could recommend to many, but unfortunately, cannot. Too many of my friends in church leadership are hung up on some of the dogmatism (e.g. role of women in the church) that results in people deconstructing, so they would only be irritated by the book. And those who would appreciate the material in the book tend not to read books. As a final warning, the entire book needs to be read. Had I stopped part way through, my impression of the book would be much worse than it ended up being.

[Mar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book resonated with me. I appreciated how the authors clearly articulated many things that have been happening in certain Canadian Christian environments including my own. They conducted many conversations with "deconstructing/Undone" Christians, many of whom fall into the conservative evangelical camp, and so have personal stories to support their conclusions. I also appreciated their efforts not to descend into hopelessness.

[Colleen Jantzen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a helpful book. My Christmas wish is that every church leader in Canada, everyone who is or has friends and family who are in the process of deconstruction, would read this book. Let's set aside judgement and rather read and listen and learn and understand.