Religious “conversion” represents a profound change in practice and belief in relation to what a person conceives of as ultimate reality. The same is true for religious “deconversion.” This course examines the phenomenon and process of religious deconversion and its surprising results. In readings, discussion and fieldwork in the community, students will explore the social and theological implications - and opportunities - of this somewhat cohesive movement. In the United States, the religiously unaffiliated now represent 20% of the population (Catholics are 23%. Baptists are 17%). Young adults are at the forefront of this movement and complicate both the traditional assumption that it is “bad” to leave religion and whether the “spiritual but not religious” distinction is adequate to describe reality.

The Latin root of conversion indicates a radical transformation, a “turn around.” In a very real sense, both the turning from and turning toward are alternative perspectives on the same process. De-conversion from is always also a conversion toward something. Leaving religion does not necessarily result in a non-religious identity.

This course will explore this phenomenon across religious traditions and denominations in the United States and attempt to determine common reasons for de-conversion, common practices and the theologies that undergird them. To analyze these new religious identities, the course will utilize autobiography (others’ and our own), existing scholarship and fieldwork to identify the sources de-converts draw from and how these practices and beliefs are continuous or discontinuous with inherited religious traditions. Students will critically analyze and discuss existing literature and fieldwork in seminars and write brief weekly reviews to ultimately answer the question: what might we be missing by not widening the meaning of the word ‘religious?’