Beyond Deconstruction: Building a More Expansive Faith, by James F. McGrath

 Beyond Deconstruction by James F. McGrath


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Deconstructing religion is the process of critically examining, questioning, and dismantling the religious beliefs, traditions, and authority structures with which a person was raised. This book is addressed to readers who are in the process of deconstruction or have already done so, and the book's intention is to provide suggested directions other than being the polar opposite of what they used to be (i.e. Atheist fundamentalist instead of Christian fundamentalist). 

I've read other books of this genre and my motive to reading this book was to see what sort of approach he took. I'm not the intended audience for this book because I've been exploring the ragged edge of heresy for so many years that this author appears to me to be quite orthodox. 

Some excerpts:
Rhetoric about a stark either/or is just one more example of the idolatrous search for the illusion of certainty. Conservative Christians are prone to make the Bible, the work of human hands, stand in for God, and to ascribe to it attributes of divinity such as infallibility and perfection. 
The following bit of humor follows recognition of the now known vastness of space.
In Jesus' ascension to heaven, if taken literally, still hasn't gotten him there even if he's moving at warp speed.

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