This panel brings together new scholarship exploring the nature of deconversion with particular attention to institutional power dynamics within Christian churches across a diverse spectrum. Sandie Cornish explores how the Catholic Church in Australia is responding to criticisms of gender injustice by disaffected and disaffiliated women through the Synod on Synodality. Meanwhile, Olli Sauko explores how disaffected millennials within the Finnish evangelical “Fifth revival” movement have been influenced by exvangelical millennials in the US. Preston Hill presents the “religious residues” which remain in the worldviews and behaviors of individuals who have deconverted, shaping their strategies for finding meaning and belonging within and beyond institutions. Finally, Oakley Hill shows how the experiences of ex-Mormons and ex-Latter Day Saints support a general theory of deconversion according to which value misalignment exacerbates conflict within institutions, such that institutional exit appears as a less costly alternative than remaining a discontented member.
The International Survey of Catholic Women (McEwan, McPhillips, Pepper, 2023) reported that 29% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that without reform there was no place for them in the Catholic Church. What reforms are women seeking? Do they correlate with the outcomes of the Final Document of the Synod on Synodality? In Australia Catholic Church efforts to listen to women have a long history, yet little has changed. Are there reasons to hope that synodality can deliver these long called for reforms? If the practice of synodality listens without responding with demarginalizing action, will it become a trigger for an escalation in disaffiliation and deconversion of women from the Catholic Church?
In this presentation, I analyze whether it is possible to trace a similar phenomenon among Finnish Millennial Christians as the Exvangelical movement has been in the United States in the past decade. There are Christian groups in Finland that have historically been influenced by Anglo-American Evangelicalism, the most important of them being the so called “Fifth revival movement”. In the presentation, I analyze how comparable is the situation of the Finnish Millennial ex-members of the Fifth in the 21st century with the situation of American Millennial Evangelicals who deconstructed or left their Evangelical background behind in the United States. To support the findings, I present more general insights about the American influences on topical discussions within and around the Fifth revival movement in Finland.
Religious affiliation in the United States is undergoing a seismic transformation, with the number of religiously unaffiliated individuals—often termed “nones”—rising significantly. However, this demographic is not homogeneously irreligious. Many continue to engage in spiritual practices, pray, and even report experiences of divine communication. This paper examines the psychological and theological dimensions of religious deconstruction, particularly among those who de-identify from traditional religion but retain a sense of spiritual yearning. Drawing on empirical findings from a Templeton-funded study, this research explores the phenomenon of "religious residue," wherein individuals retain quasi-religious behaviors and worldviews post-disaffiliation. It further investigates how religious trauma and spiritual abuse contribute to mental health challenges among deconstructing individuals. Proposing a framework for post-religious spiritual flourishing, this paper highlights novel therapeutic interventions that prioritize ritual, belonging, and meaning-making beyond institutional religious structures. These findings offer new pathways for understanding and supporting individuals navigating religious transitions.
Religious deconversion studies are currently attempting to identify deconversion’s psycho-social determinants (Streib, 2021). One of the stronger contenders appears to be value misalignment, which occurs when the individual and their religious community’s values are misaligned, which predates the loss of faith and appears to serve as fertile ground for a believer’s discontent and eventual departure (see Hui, et al., 2018; Saroglou, et al., 2020). However, value alignment theory is also underdeveloped, relies on an impoverished conception of values, and leaves us with several pertinent questions. This paper uses original data from a case study of North American Latter-day Saints and Ex-Mormons to engage with these questions and argue for the deconversion as conflict hypothesis. It brings value misalignment theory into conversation with ‘conflict analysis and resolution studies’ to theorize social-ideological mechanisms which can push believers from value misalignment to religious deconversion, and push believers from value alignment to deeper conversion.