In this episode we discuss doubt and deconstructing faith with Dr. A. J. Swoboda, who is Assistant Professor of Bible, Theology, and World Christianity at Bushnell University (Eugene, Oregon), and the author of After Doubt: How to Question Your Faith without Losing It (published by Brazos). Over the course of our conversation we talk about what doubt and deconstruction are, and what healthy and unhealthy versions of each can look like. Dr. Swoboda understands doubt as something precipitated by what happens to us, whereas deconstruction is an active undertaking. Along the way we talk about the role of professors and pastors in the work of disorientation and reorientation, and how faith leaders need to begin by displaying to others how they themselves wrestle with the difficult questions of the faith. Dr. Swoboda tells us about how all of his personal heroes of the faith, including C.S. Lewis, Flannery O’Connor, and Henri Nouwen, etc., all had serious challenges in their life of faith. Swoboda describes his own doubts as sacred thorns that he gets to share with his students who also wrestle with tough issues. We need to practice the ministry of the ear, as Dr. Swoboda says, and we need to give “spiritual consent” before we respond to someone’s doubts and deconstruction, asking someone confiding to us how they’re inviting us to respond. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. Amber Bowen and Dr. John Anthony Dunne.
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