{"id":5937,"date":"2024-01-13T10:31:53","date_gmt":"2024-01-13T17:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/?p=5937"},"modified":"2024-01-13T10:31:53","modified_gmt":"2024-01-13T17:31:53","slug":"deconstruct-or-retrieve-your-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2024\/01\/deconstruct-or-retrieve-your-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Deconstruct or Retrieve Your Faith?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Over the years the people I have met who \u201cdeconstruct\u201d their faith have lived under the sway of \u201cfundagelicalism\u201d.\u00a0 Fundagelicalism is that expression of the Christian faith which weds an emphasis on a personal relationship with Christ to rigid legalism and an inerrantist approach to Scripture.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

The correlation between fundagelicalism and the deconstruction movement is not surprising.\u00a0 Fundamentalism presents itself as the one and only faithful and orthodox expression of the Christian faith.\u00a0 Churches associated with it impose a strict code of belief, practice, and behavior on their members, and those who dissent from those norms are often sanctioned and exiled from their communities.\u00a0 This inevitably leaves dissenters with little choice but to deconstruct the only theological and experiential set of categories that they know.<\/p>\n

In historical terms, however, fundagelicalism is a relatively new approach to the Christian faith, when measured against the larger history of the church.\u00a0 And because it diverges from older forms of American evangelism and from English evangelicalism in general, it occupies relatively few minds and hearts of Christians around the world.\u00a0 It is only its knack for populist promotion and some of its missionary efforts that might leave the impression that it is more important globally and historically than it really is.\u00a0 Evangelicals of a completely different stripe are undoubtedly frustrated by the way in which the knack for self-promotion and populist appeal has led observers who know that world to color the whole of evangelicalism with a fundagelical brush.<\/p>\n

That said, the sectarian nature of fundagelicalism has cut itself off from the sacramental, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral depth of the larger Christian experience and, in particular, the Orthodox, Catholic, and Anglican traditions.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 It is impossible to describe all that the fundagelical experience is missing.\u00a0 But even a brief audit of what is invisible to those who grow up as fundagelicals includes:<\/p>\n