Deconstruction as Intellectual Test-Engineering

I believe you're the fire that can burn me clean

Deconstruction is the process of critically questioning your systems of belief, especially the ones you tend to adopt by default.

I have deconstructed young-earth Creationism as well as the Trinity. I ended up discarding young-earth Creationism but keeping the Trinity. Both were important to deconstruct. My grasp of the Trinity was strengthened, as was my understanding of Genesis 1-11 and my general wonder toward the created world. I have likewise deconstructed complementarianism and conservatism and hell, with various results.

In this way, deconstruction functions as intellectual test-engineering. Doctrine after doctrine, ideology after ideology - deconstruction is the process of submitting them to the testing hammers to see if they break. If they break - great. You have avoided building your life on a shaky foundation. If not - also great. You can be more confident that you have a solid foundation.

When I started working on my PhD in New Testament, I was worried that I would struggle with my faith. I would be reading smart scholars with critical perspectives toward Christianity and the Bible. I asked a wise old friend who has been in scholarship for most of his life: “Have you ever struggled with your faith since you have been in academics?”

His answer has resonated with me. He told me that yes, he has had moments of crises. He had many professors that were smarter than him who questioned the basic historical claims of the Gospels, for instance. But, he said that he realized that when it comes to the Truth you could hit it, throw it on the ground, stomp on it, pick it up, throw it across the room, stomp on it again, and pick it up… and it’s fine!

How have we become so afraid of breaking the Truth?

I have found that deconstruction’s test-engineering helps me sift the counterfeit coins. It gives me the freedom to exchange stagnant theology for an actual encounter with the Truth. If those systems break, so be it.

Ironically, however, I have found that quite a number of systems have held fast in spite of the deconstruction hammering. I am still a calvinist, for instance. Maybe even a stronger calvinist than I was in my early 20s. I am still a trinitarian. I still believe in the unique authority and perspicuity of the Bible. I am no longer a complementarian. I still hold to a traditional sexual ethic. Some systems hold fast. Others crumble. The ones that last are stronger and more confident. The ones that crumble ought to crumble. Confidence is a benefit of deconstruction.

On the other hand, humility is a benefit of deconstruction. Having experienced an existential passion for an intellectual system that has crumbled forces you to have some intellectual humility, knowing that your opinions and perspective are just that: your opinions.

When I was in high school, another wise man pointed to a large lake and asked us kids, “If that lake represents all the knowledge in the universe, then how much of the lake represents the knowledge of our brain? A bucket?” Then he looked at us and said, “Not even a drop.”

We are tiny in this universe. We are foolish to demonish and strawman the perspectives that scare us.

We are wise to be “slow to speak, quick to listen” (James 1:19).