I’ve been asked this many times. Usually by people who are deconstructing and are afraid it means they are going to lose their faith and deconvert from Christianity altogether.
They are not the same. This, in my opinion, is the difference:
Deconstruction vs Deconversion
Deconstruction is an open-ended process of taking apart beliefs, structures, and belonging with no predetermined destination. You could end up anywhere on the belief/non-belief spectrum. I shouldn’t say “end up”, because I think deconstruction is a way of life that manifests itself in our perpetual evolution. While there are stages of deconstruction, there’s no fixed path through them, and no guarantee of where they’ll lead you.
Deconversion is just one possible outcome of that process where you lose both the belief and the religious identity. To insist that this is the only logical goal of deconstruction is just the old demand for certainty in new clothes. But many people do end up here and are content to be here. And that’s fine.
What Deconstruction Is Really About
As I’ve said many times, “There’s only one way to deconstruct, and that’s your way!”
I claim that deconstruction is a way of life. It’s not only a phase on the way to a more progressive theology. It’s not just a questioning of beliefs, but belief itself. Of course, because this is such a radical orientation, few assume it. Instead, many simply settle on a tweaked version of their previous belief system and miss out on the true benefit of deconstruction: liberation!
