Deconstructing Christian faith is almost always emotional
What is the point of deconstructing something? Is it to dissect and segment its parts for separate evaluation? Who gets to set the criteria and why so? Or is it to question relentlessly and eventually find answers? Philosophical thought is varied on what it means to deconstruct. In short, it’s an intellectual exercise that seeks to analyze a text or a proposition and hopefully arrive at a meaningful interpretation.
Cultural ideas can transform a concept like deconstruction into a belief that it holds the key in any quest for the truth of a matter. When it comes to Christian faith, believers should not passively allow cultural thought to determine how our faith should be evaluated.
I believe that when critical thinking is fairly exercised, Christian faith remains legitimately relevant to the human experience; and that, the idea of deconstructing it is a circular hype. As T. S. Eliot once said, “We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
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Intellectual endeavors are usually incentivized by something. What drives one’s quest in an attempt to deconstruct Christian faith? What are the expectations? It almost always begins by honestly seeking to overcome doubts and satisfy cultural criticism. What comes into play, however, is not logic, reason or scientific knowledge. It’s subjectively emotional and not as objective as one might think. The accomplished psychologist, Jordan B. Peterson, comments similarly in his recent book, We Who Wrestle With God:
We weigh the facts we encounter in accordance with our values. We elevate some pathways forward, things in the world, and people to a higher place than others, consigning everything deemed lesser to the netherworld of impediment, obstacle, enemy, or foe, or to the invisible domain of irrelevance. Thus we order, simplify, and reduce the world, prior even to encountering it.[1]
So it seems that the tools of rationality can be utilized to justify whatever people may predetermine to like or dislike about something. A century ago, G. K. Chesterton also warned us that absurdity could become a “fact” based appeal in culture. He said, “Two and two make four is a fact. But two and two make five is also a fact.”
Indeed, we now live in a cultural context wherein reason is skewed towards any preferred narrative, and questioning the contrary is deemed smart. Unrelenting questioning does place a questioner in control and can be massaged towards concocting an unreasonable standard for the answers. That is why in a court of law the cross-examination can be challenged and a judge rules on whether the objection of a question should be sustained or overruled. Questioning is indeed necessary and should be encouraged. However, I notice that when it comes to Christian faith believers are badgered with questioning aimed not at discovering the truth but at stripping away its messaging.
The foundational belief of the Christian faith is the Resurrection. Can this historical event be deconstructed? Anything can be deconstructed. The question is again, does an inquirer have reasonable expectations that can be satisfied? It seems that questioning the Christian faith is establishing a firewall of imperviousness insomuch that nothing presented will suffice. Hugh Ross remarked to Peter Atkins that it seemed that no evidence would persuade him to believe in God. “To be honest,” Atkins answered, “that is probably the case” (YouTube 1:19).
If one begins with an impregnable threshold, any attempt at deconstructing a central belief like the resurrection can never produce a warranted Christian faith.
Nowadays social media personalities are influencing culture. The skeptic YouTube influencer, Alex O’Connor, has over 1M subscribers. He interviewed William Lane Craig on the resurrection. On this occasion, O’Connor seemed fair and genuine in his questioning. However, there was a point where he began referring to the resurrection as a “weird” event. He didn’t have to use this pejorative label. In my opinion, such describers reveal emotional dislikes. Craig referred to the resurrection as, “remarkable.” O’Connor could have also chosen, remarkable, or exceptional, singular, phenomenal, uncommon, but he chose “weird.” Words have become virally consequential and can gain cultural traction whereby people begin to believe that the resurrection is “weird.” It’s thus a “fact” that cultural thought can influence people to begin believing that, “two plus two make five.”
The great message of the Good News is that in a very real way, a sinner can be reconciled to God by grace. If the Gospel were devoid of truth, it would not cause such weighty emotional experiences within one’s heart and mind. Emotionally, upon hearing the message of the Christian faith, people immediately evaluate it by the personal demands implied for their lifestyles. This experience is very real and often pushes back emotionally in order to undermine the powerful message that grace produces “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). The undermining plays out by insisting on tangible points of satisfaction. Christian faith is being fooled into deconstructing until its progressive version cannot be justified by faith. It’s time for believers to exercise critical thinking and boldly deconstruct the obstinacy of cultural thought.
The point of departure into an honest and open-minded exploration of the Christian faith often arrives where it began, and the light goes on “for the first time” to realize how wonderful is the provision of God’s grace. The transition is defined by the new birth. Somehow, we no longer emphasize this defining directive of Jesus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
That “seeing” does not refer specifically to when you die. Regeneration provides a very real new set of eyes in the here and now. Believers become new persons and discover that peace with God is what they have been searching for all along.
[1] (Penguin Books: New York, 2024), xxvi.
Marlon De Blasio is a cultural apologist, Christian writer and author of Discerning Culture. He lives in Toronto with his family. Follow him at MarlonDeBlasio@Twitter
