Books on
Deconversion
A Recipe For Disaster
Four Ways Churches and Parents Prepare Individuals to Lose Their Faith and How They Can Instill a Faith That Endures.
By John Marriott
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
Category: Sociology of Religion
The statistics speak for themselves; record numbers of individuals who at one time identified as Christians are deconverting from the faith and identifying as unbelievers. Why is this happening and what can be done to prevent it? A Recipe for Disaster seeks to answer those questions by focusing on the four ways churches and parents unwittingly contribute to the deconversion process. By over-preparing, under-preparing, ill-preparing, and painfully preparing those they are responsible to disciple into mature believers, churches and parents instead set them up for a crisis of faith that all too often leads to the loss of faith. In response to each of the four methods of poor preparation, A Recipe for Disaster offers A Recipe for Success, four alternative methods of preparation designed to instill lifelong faith.
The Anatomy of Deconversion
Keys to a Lifelong Faith in a Culture Abandoning Christianity
By John Marriott
Imprint: Abilene Christian University Press
Category: Sociology of Religion
Believers are abandoning the faith. But why? Atheism is on the rise. What, if anything, can be done to prevent this trend? The Anatomy of Deconversion goes to the source of these issues and gives readers a broad picture of the deconversion process. Learn why believers lose their faith, and, perhaps more importantly, discover why so many former Christians claim to be happier, freer, and more fulfilled as unbelievers than they were as Christians. No one fully escapes the pitfalls in life that create a faith crisis. However, learning to navigate these times of crisis is the key to developing a grounded, flourishing faith.
Based on data gleaned from first-person interviews and written narratives, The Anatomy of Deconversion uncovers the reasons, processes, and impacts of deconverting from Christianity. Unlike other books that address the topic of deconversion from a purely theological perspective, The Anatomy of Deconversion takes a multidisciplinary approach. In doing so, it provides the only comprehensive account of deconversion available today.
Going...Going...Gone..!
Why Believers Lose Their Faith and What Can be Done to Guard Against It
By John Marriott
Imprint: Renaissance Publishers
Category: Sociology of Religion
Studies repeatedly report that Christians are losing their faith in ever-increasing numbers. At the same time, the numbers of those identifying as non-religious are growing at rapid rates. Surprisingly, those abandoning the Faith are not confined to immature believers. Pastors, missionaries, seminary students, along with informed Bible students identify as deconverts.. Having a loved one walk away from a faith they once embraced can be troubling and raises important questions that need answers.
Going...Going...Gone..! Seeks to provide insights as to why individuals leave the Faith. Based on interviews with deconverts and hundreds of written narratives, Going...Going...Gone..! offers practical advice on how parents and church leaders can avoid the common pitfalls that stumble and ultimately cause believers to fall away from their faith.
Before You Go
Uncovering the Hidden Factors in Faith Loss
By John Marriott & Shawn Wicks
Imprint: Leafwood Publishers
Category: Christian Living
There are a number of nonrational factors operating “off our radar”, as it were, that can cause us to have serious reservations about the truth of Christianity. Likewise, there are common assumptions and expectations that appear in deconversion narratives that also function as catalysts for unbelief. These factors operating under the hood of our conscious awareness can serve as the source of surface-level objections and doubts. Responding to the surface-level objections is important, but addressing their source is essential to dealing with the doubts that lead to deconversion.
To that end, we’ve identified four common nonrational sources of doubt that are often the cause of common objections to the faith that deconverts found persuasive. In addition, we also look at four common assumptions and expectations that generate doubts that undermine faith. In each of the eight chapters we provide an analysis of the issues and offer constructive ways to meet the challenges head on.
Set Adrift
Deconstructing What You Believe Without Sinking Your Faith
By John Marriott & Sean McDowell
Imprint: Zondervan
Category: Christian Living
Set Adrift helps believers navigate the jarring questions and cultural challenges that lead many to feel like they are adrift on the sea of faith and lost in the fog of doubt. McDowell and Marriott provide much-needed guidance to help you understand why many people drift from the faith and how to find your way back to the shore of Christian commitment without sinking. Stripping away the nonessential aspects of Christianity, they show how to set boundaries for belief within which struggling believers can continue to seek a faith that is historic and authentic.
Not What You Expected?
How Wrong Assumptions About the Bible Undermine Your Faith
By John Marriott & Shawn Wicks
Imprint: TBD
Category: Christian Living
Former Christians often say that their deconversion began when they picked up the Bible and read it. Raised in the church but unfamiliar with the content of the Bible, they were shocked when they discovered what they took to be scientific, historic, and geographical errors, misogynistic teachings, the legislation of slavery, homophobic doctrines, the annihilation of the Canaanites, harsh laws and eternal punishment. Deeply disturbed they concluded that the Bible couldn't be the word of God and renounced their faith. While it's true that the Bible does contain many difficult passages, the bigger problem may not be what the Bible teaches but wrong assumptions that former Christians brought to it and which it couldn't live up to. Not What You Expected? highlights how we all come to the Bible with wrong assumptions about what it is and what we can expect from it and recalibrates them to line up with what the Bible actually is and what it does.