There has recently been a wave of “ex-vangelicals” who are publicly “deconstructing” their former faith and coming to new understandings of things. They are learning in real time that firm conviction does not always signal a perception of the truth. But I think the notion of “deconstruction” and its relation to faith has been very badly misunderstood, and in many places the discussion is dissatisfying. In this video, I am going to discuss the relation between deconstruction and faith. The “ex-vangelicals” and those riding the wave of “faith-deconstruction” misunderstand things in at least two ways. On the one hand, the situation is actually far worse than they take it to be. Not only is their former faith deconstructible, but in principle everything they believe is, too. On the other hand, this fact is not incompatible with Christian faith. Christian faith can be understood as a way in which living beings such as ourselves assert themselves and mold the world to a certain shape.
Dr. Steven Nemes received his PhD in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. His dissertation, titled “A constructive-theological phenomenology of Scripture,” was passed with distinction by Profs. Oliver Crisp, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, and Fr. John Behr. He has published a number of articles on a diversity of subjects in peer reviewed academic journals such as Journal of Analytic Theology, Journal for Continental Philosophy of Religion, Heythrop Journal, and Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie.