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Reviews of Beyond Deconstruction (and an Easter Excerpt)

Reviews of Beyond Deconstruction (and an Easter Excerpt)

Last updated on: April 4, 2026 at 10:36 am by James F. McGrath

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Reviews of Beyond Deconstruction (and an Easter Excerpt) 2026-04-04T10:36:27-04:00 James F. McGrath

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There are several new reviews of Beyond Deconstruction as well as several new podcasts. I will share those below. But first, here’s a brief excerpt from the book (pp.17-19, going just a bit further than the Google Books preview does) that is relevant to Easter.

I will never forget (and still use in my own teaching) a thought experiment that an atheist commenter on my blog presented to me. They said I could have a machine that could take me anywhere in time or space. (Basically the TARDIS from Doctor Who. You can see why I loved this.) I should use it with a question in mind: What would it take to make me lose my faith? The atheist’s expectation was that I would realize that my beliefs were unfalsifiable, and so I’d abandon them…It is easy to say that your religious worldview is rational and open to revision in light of new evidence, but a time machine might really put that to the test, depending on where and when you were willing to go with it. As I explored the thought experiment, I was surprised by what it revealed about my faith.

My first instinct was to witness the burial of Jesus, after which I could sit outside the tomb and watch to see if anything interesting happened. It soon struck me that the question of whether God vindicated Jesus beyond death was not the same as the question of what happened to his corpse. After all, couldn’t God raise martyrs who were burned at the stake? If Jesus had been thrown to the dogs, would that prevent God from vindicating him? Any such affirmation was and should be a theological claim, and could not be a historical one. I had an inkling of this already from my study of the Bible, but it crystallized, thanks to this thought experiment. I found that to be a positive thing rather than something negative. On one level, yes, any beliefs that one holds about what God did or did not do in the past are going to be unfalsifiable, incapable of being proven or disproven, and so should be held lightly if at all. On another level, being freed from trying desperately to prove that which simply cannot be proven is a weight off one’s shoulders. Historical investigation deals in probability and normal cause and effect. It cannot pronounce on whether God acted, and at best it might declare it probable that Jesus’s body was not in the tomb early on the first Sunday morning after the crucifixion. “Jesus probably rose from the dead” is not what most believers are looking for, nor is it a message many would consider compelling to proclaim. History cannot answer these crucial questions, and merely choosing to believe certain things happened in the past is not a valid alternative. One can do that in relation to any religious claims. As I pondered this, my faith became unmoored from where I had tried to anchor it. The result, as it turned out, was not drifting into tumultuous waters that caused my faith to capsize and sink but sailing into open waters of exploration that promised to take me to exciting new destinations.

The next stop for the time and space machine was a few years earlier, in Galilee, to see what Jesus was like. If he turned out to be a real jerk, I felt that would impact my Christian faith even more directly than anything I saw regarding the resurrection…

Now for the reviews. Beau Underwood writes:

If HGTV decided to cast a show about fixing up your old religion, few could compete with James McGrath to be the star who transforms outdated edifices into contemporary spiritual structures. His new book Beyond Deconstruction: Building a More Expansive Faith is an expert’s guide to rehabbing religion in life-giving ways.

Recognizing that we live in a time where taking apart your belief system is a rite of passage, McGrath encourages his readers not to be satisfied just by what can be torn down. Deconstruction leaves you with a pile of rubble. The real value is found in creating a worldview that orients your life in rich and meaningful ways…Overall, Beyond Deconstruction reads like a love letter for intelligent and passionate people not to give up on faith but to reimagine it for themselves.

Click through to read the rest on his A Public Witness Substack or in Word & Way. He is also giving away a copy of the book!

Chris Criminger shared this on Amazon:

James McGrath’s stimulating Book, Beyond Deconstruction is probably the best primer for beginners who are deconstructing their faith. He tries to keep issues positive without being reactive or taking sides. His inclusive approach recognizes differences while following a both/and approach to issues rather than an either/or approach.

Rebuilding and faith reconstruction is something we all should be doing and will do whether we admit it or not. McGrath opts for a more durable faith than permanent one.

Many people start deconstructing their faith by seeing theories of the Bible like inerrancy is not the same thing as the inspiration of Scripture. McGrath wisely shares his own deconstruction story in building a deeper and stronger faith than simply what we have been taught or have not closely examined.

Revising our faith is not the same thing as losing one’s faith although that can happen. Trusting in Jesus is a better foundation than certainty of beliefs and doctrines. One neither needs to tear down the beliefs of others or prop up one own beliefs over and against others. It’s easy to trade one kind of fundamentalism for another one.

Exploration is better than dogmatism and mystery and beauty is better than certainty. I like McGrath more expansive inclusive faith yet we will always run into people who act like their views are infallible or they never cherry pick the Bible or claim they are not selective in how they understand or interpret Scripture.

McGrath holds in tension issues like individual and communal interpretations; retrieval and renewal; honoring the past and looking towards the future are just some of the tensions we find. He says, “be the change you want to see in the world.”

Practicing love, humility, mercy and justice is what following Jesus is all about. We need to value oneself as we value other people. Science and faith, even music can enhance one’s faith as we discover and experience new truths.

If we as humans are multilayered, paradoxical and awestruck beings, why would we think the Scriptures would be different? We need as people of faith to keep listening, keep growing, and keep learning. McGrath is rightly calling people to a never-stopping but expanding evolving faith.

I love that sentence, “Exploration is better than dogmatism and mystery and beauty is better than certainty.”

I have been appearing on many podcasts to talk about the book, including The Whole Church Podcast.

I also appeared on the podcasts It Means What It Means and This Is Not Church, and got the most amazing shout out from The Nerdy Priest.

Bob Cornwall has also reviewed the book including in Word & Way and on Goodreads. Here is a quotation from Beyond Deconstruction that he highlighted.

Those are the more recent reviews of Beyond Deconstruction that I am aware of. I also just happened to find out that someone recommended it on Reddit. When you read it, please do add your review on Amazon or Goodreads. Doing that means so much to me, as well as for potential readers of the book. And come meet me in person at Lakeside Chautauqua in June or Theology Beer Camp in October!

Here are some more of my past posts related to Easter.

Resurrection and Hope

Progressive Christian Easter

In case you missed it, here is a link to the blog post that provided the first hint of what would become this book.

What Lies Beneath

book review

Beyond Deconstruction

deconstruction

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