Walking Through Deconstruction, Ian Harber, foreword by Gavin Ortlund. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514008560) 2025.

Summary: What it is, why it happens, the phases of deconstruction and walking with someone through this process.

I was both surprised by a statistic in the Introduction to Walking Through Deconstruction and found it confirming of something I’ve witnessed anecdotally. While we think of large numbers of youth walking away from Christian faith, the average age of the person deconstructing their faith is 54. And, having passed that age, I’ve seen it happen. All the beliefs and practices and ways of living one’s faith that worked in their twenties and thirties aren’t working so well at mid-life. It is as if they have hit a proverbial wall. Some give up and embrace a post-Christian life. Others go through a process of questioning and struggling with their faith, and for some, they end up with a reconstructed faith that is deeper and more resilient than when they started.

Of course, deconstructing faith occurs at different ages and for a variety of reasons ranging from intellectual questioning to some sort of abuse from a figure in power. It can be scary if you are a believer and watching this happen to a friend. You don’t want to see a friend walk away from Christ. And you want to support them while not making it worse.

Ian Harber has been there. First of all, he went through his own process of deconstructing faith, and nearly a decade later came to a deeper, reconstructed faith. Friends who cared and a different church that took him deeply into scripture, theology, church history, and a life of discipleship all helped. Second, he has ministered with many going through the same thing. His book explains what deconstruction is, why it happens, and the phases one goes through. Then he explains how a person may reconstruct with the help of Christian community.

He begins by defining deconstruction: “Deconstruction is a crisis of faith that leads to the questioning of core doctrines and untangling of cultural ideologies that settles in a faith that is different from before. For some, the issues are more cultural. And for others, they are more doctrinal.

Deconstruction is an experience of hitting the Wall. He cites Janet O. Hagberg’s The Critical Journey and the season when God seems absent and the old answers don’t work. One grieves the loss of God. It is a crisis on par with losing a loved one and we may observe the same stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

For many, their Christian faith is in an imaginative gridlock. We try harder, look for answers rather than ask questions, and engage in either-or thinking. For others, it is church that needs deconstructing. Churches are performative rather than formative. Biblical teaching is thin, they veer either into legalism or license. Some cover up abuse. Others have fallen into the captive embrace of politics.

Perhaps the most challenging chapter is on the deconstruction of self. The culture emphasizes our self-fulfillment and our digital devices help us curate our own lives, albeit, disembodied ones. This stands in contrast to the idea that we are not our own and made for community. Harber follows with a chapter on possible ends for deconstruction. Inevitably, we will reconstruct in some way, either into a secular intellectualism, or some form of ideology or idolatry, or into a renewed faith.

The second part of the book, then, envisions the process of reconstruction into a renewed faith. One key component is non-anxious friendships. These are people who are present, who pray, on are patient with questions, and who persist but don’t push anxiously. Suffering may be a real issue, whether physical or emotional. To walk alongside someone in suffering is to walk the path of the cross from the grief of Mary to her dawning hope in the resurrection, allowing suffering to form character.

Belief needs to be reconstructed as well. Instead of just propositions, doctrine may be understood as the story in which we live. Harber also encourages distinguishing essential, doctrines from those that are urgent, then important, and finally indifferent. In place of performative church, Harber discusses a discipleship that focuses on devotion, formation, and mission before God’s face.

This requires reconstructed churches. They are devoted to scripture, sacrament, and a social life of hospitality. Finally, instead of taking the route of some who deconstruct in saying God is unknowable and defies our attempts to capture him in our theologies, Harber speaks of what we may know of God. He is united, crucified, and alive.

I hear Harber saying that deconstruction is both a crisis to take seriously and an opportunity for God to deepen a reconstructed faith. We should not write it off as the decision to pursue a sinful lifestyle. Real deconstruction, as messy as it looks, is a process in which one seeks God amid the clutter of an inadequately formed faith. Instead, Harber invites us to be the non-anxious presence through which God works. And he invites churches to move from being performative institutions to formative communities, offering substantive models of faith and discipleship. This book is full of wisdom and hope.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.