Resources on Critical Theory, Deconstruction & Doubt
Resources on Critical Theory, Deconstruction & Doubt
Critical Theory
Intermediate
Carl Trueman. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (2020); Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution (2022).
Carl Trueman. To Change All Worlds: Critical Theory from Marx to Marcuse (2024).
Shenvi and Sawyer. Critical Dilemma: The Rise of Critical Theories and Social Justice Ideology―Implications for the Church and Society (2023).
Thaddeus Williams. Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth (2020).
Voddie Baucham. Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism's Looming Catastrophe (2021); It's Not Like Being Black: How Sexual Activists Hijacked the Civil Rights Movement (2024).
Advanced
Christopher Watkin. Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture (2022).
James K. A. Smith. Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church (2006).
Deconstruction
Intro
Alisa Childers. The Deconstruction of Christianity (2024).
Rosaria Butterfield. Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age (2023).
Ian Harber. Walking Through Deconstruction (2025).
Christian Smith. Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (2009); Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults (2009); Handing Down the Faith: How Parents Pass Their Religion on to the Next Generation (2021);Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America (2025).
Melissa Dougherty. Happy Lies: How a Movement You (Probably) Never Heard Of Shaped Our Self-Obsessed World (2025).
Kevin Deyoung. Impossible Christianity (2023).
Michael L. Brown. Why So Many Christians Have Left the Faith (2023).
McDowell & Marriott. Set Adrift (2023).
Davis, Graham, Burge, Hansen. The Great Dechurching (2023).
Ryan Burge. The Nones (2023).
Allison Beth Stuckey. Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion (2024).
Joe Rigney. The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits (2025).
Doubt
Intro
Os Guinness. God in the Dark (1996).
Leslie Newbigin. Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship (1995).
Paul Maxwell. When Your Twenties Are Darker Than You Expected (2017).
Joshua Chatraw. Surprised by Doubt: How Disillusionment Can Invite Us into a Deeper Faith (2023).
Daniel Taylor. The Skeptical Believer: Telling Stories to Your Inner Atheist (2013).
Alister McGrath. Doubting: Growing Through the Uncertainties of Faith (2006).
Dane Ortlund. The Heart of Jesus: How He Really Feels about You (2024).
Martyn Lloyd Jones. Assurance of Our Salvation: Exploring the Depth of Jesus' Prayer for His Own (2013).
Francis Spufford. Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense (2013).
Advanced
Alec Ryrie. Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt (2019).