Out of the Embers

Faith After the Great Deconstruction

By: Bradley Jersak

Narrated by: Boyd Barrett

Deconstruction: Trendy brand name for falling away from belief in God? Or a process essential to authentic faith?

Liberation or trauma? Prison break or exile?

It’s complicated. Just like you.

Christian history records a Great Reformation and a Great Awakening. But today’s “Great Deconstruction” will surely leave an equally profound impact.

In Out of the Embers, Bradley Jersak explores the necessity, perils, and possibilities of the Great Deconstruction—how it has the potential to either sabotage our communion with God or infuse it with the breath of life, the light and life of Christ himself.

In this collection of vulnerable memoirs, philosophical memos, and candid provocations, Jersak resists both the hand-wringing urge to corral stray sheep and the exultant desire to play the happy-clappy Ex-vangelical cheerleader. He employs the wisdom and expertise of the great deconstructionists—Christianity’s ancient influences (Moses, Plato, Paul, and the Patristics), “beloved frenemies” (from Voltaire to Nietzsche), and the masters of deconstruction (Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, and Weil)—to double down and deconstruct deconstruction itself.

Where is faith after deconstruction? The author’s heart is to engage and empathize with the bereft and disoriented, stoking the brittle ashes for live embers. In this quest for the resilient gospel of the martyrs, the marginal, and those outside the threshold...inexplicably, in this liminal space, life stirs. A Light shines through the ashes. We find, often for the first time, that living connection Jersak calls “presence in communion.”

There is a sea change occurring across the Western church and civilization. Whether we’re watching a radical course correction or a complete collapse remains to be seen, and how it pans out will likely depend on how we see what’s happening, who we are becoming, how we live in response—and, most important, where we find Christ situated in this storm.

©2022 Bradley Jersak (P)2022 Bradley Jersak

Powerful book on recovering from deconstruction

A must listen to book on recovering from deconstruction. Masterful historical analysis of different philosophers, and how they have dealt with the construction. Heartfelt, authentic and challenging.

Wonderful journey

So grateful for the work of Bradley Jersak and the way he takes us to find word for what is what I call Hidden Truth within our spirit. Especially when we have begun our deconstruction and not sure what is ahead. Well thank you for including me in your journey so I can understand mine. Manny

Really important book!

I love this book, it showed so many different sides and helped me see there is a long tradition of deconstruction in the human race and Christianity. I enjoyed how Brad went into voice is good or not commonly heard.
The narrator was especially slow, I can listen to it on 1.7 times and have no trouble understanding.

Humble, brilliant, beautiful and profound

I found my heart and experiences expressed on these pages in so many moments of this reading. Bradley’s intellectual honesty and tender humility come together so beautifully in this work. So helpful to see deconstruction framed in the wider context of biblical and social history. I found this book to be comforting, clarifying, and challenging in all the best ways. I would recommend it for anyone who is in the throes of deconstruction themselves, or feeling baffled or concerned about a loved one who is on that journey. It will both comfort and enlarge your heart and ground you in hope. Thank you so much Brad for giving us this gift.

Trigger warning

I am a huge fan of Bradley Jersak and was listening to some of his other books, narrated by Boyd Barrett, at night. I find his theology and Bible / early church father scholarship compelling, and this narrator is fantastic.
That is why I gave this title a try. HOWEVER. I am slugging through the last chapters and honestly wish I had never bought this. The philosophy chapters summarizing Nietzche, Dofskoefsky, Simone Weil and others were interesting, but about 90% of this book seemed to me like disconnected fragments of various people's mental breakdowns. It even gets quite "woke" and whiny.
Also, he gives a trigger warning before certain sections, but this book is chock full of references to trauma, torture, cruelty towards children, and other horrible content that has not been good bed time material.
Maybe this book would serve someone in an active dark night of the soul, but to me it was unnecessarily HEAVY.

It's okay, not great

Bradley Jersak attempts to explain the modern culture war through the lens of religion. His theory is that through victimization and oppression, the Christian church has forced people away, creating "exvangelicals," which are those who actively fight against the church to pull people away. Jersak believes that the church is presently burning, and out of the embers will arise a purified church, that is superior to the present one. I think Jersak is correct on a very limited scale, but as a whole, I don't think he is correct. Carl Trueman does a much better job of analyzing history and proving out the modern Expressive Individualist movement, yes based in a hatred for Christianity, but not in a single factor analysis-type way that Jersak does. Trueman is far more thorough and in my opinion, far more accurate about the cause of the modern culture war. Jersak says things that will offend both liberals and conservatives at different times, but he seems to be more toward the left in his social beliefs. He also seems to lack a thorough understanding of the modern culture war, and the tools that Ideological Subversionists use to wage war on conservatives and western traditions. It seems Jersak has only a surface level understanding of things like climate change, systemic racism, social justice and equity, and although his random comments on the topics are small throughout the book, it provides insight into his ignorance of what's happening in society. Everyone has areas where their understanding is strong, and areas where it is weak. I would trust him in his understanding of Biblical wisdom, but don't trust him in his understanding of culture. I think the book is worth a read, but certainly compare it with Carl Trueman's, "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self," if you want a much deeper understanding of what's happening in American, and spreading throughout western society today.