What’s the connection between evangelicalism and conspiracy theories? According to Jared Stacy, it’s fundamentally about language and story—and it goes back to Colonial...

Honored to have this engagement with Reality in Ruins from @amarpeterman.bsky.social for the Christian Century.

Reality in Ruins by Jared Stacy

It’s here! It’s finally here! @jaredstacy.bsky.social

He was my external reader for my PhD, and studied under some of the members of the Confessing Church (and Bonhoeffer’s contemporaries) in post-War Germany. If you haven’t read his work, I can’t recommend it enough.

Hans passed away this week; he was a brilliant theologian, and a kind man. He belongs to the church across the ages. I quote his work all throughout my own, especially “Transfigured Not Conformed”—I owe him an incalculable debt.

“Christians are to follow the logic of reconciliation…they are not to assimilate into a Christianity that accommodates itself to the present time.”

Hans Ulrich

Nonfiction Views: This week's notable new nonfiction Over 4 million books were published�in 2025, an increase of over 32% over the previous year! Most of that is due to the increasing boom in self-publishing, and I imagine that with AI-generated ...

From Mike Rothschild who was an early endorser…

Theology supercharges conspiracy theory A Q&A with Rev. Dr. Jared Stacey, author of Reality in Ruins

Linking a few notable interviews and reviews:

My book “Reality In Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an American Evangelical Crisis” is available now, wherever books are sold!

I owe a massive debt to the Aberdeen community. This is a book forged from that very special culture.

'New Orleans wrecked me': How a young pastor’s time in Louisiana reshaped his faith “New Orleans wrecked me in the best way possible.” Jared Stacy arrived in Louisiana as a young evangelical pastor certain of what he believed. His years in New Orleans — including a moment outside LS...

If you're interested in some of the personal backstory that led to my book, "Reality In Ruins" - here is a great profile from the Times-Picayune in New Orleans

Reality in Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an American Evangelical Crisis Reality in Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an American Evangelical Crisis [Stacy PhD, Jared] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Reality in Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an American Evangelical Crisis

If your local bookstore price matches, my book is at its lowest price yet—releasing March 17

Friends, “Reality In Ruins” makes its way into the world next week. Thank you to everyone who has preordered and shared so far; I can’t wait to share the whole of these words with you.

“Reality in Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an American Evangelical Crisis” is the #1 New Release in Religion & Sociology—preorder link below.

Jared Stacy Public theology for a fracturing age

That’d be great! Send me a message over at my site, realityinruins.com

Cover and first page.

“Beneath the social and political fractures—and the real danger those pose to communities and bodies—there is a theological underbelly: a false, paranoid vision of Jesus caught between visions of American empire and the Kingdom of God. We cannot make peace with this contradiction.”

Evangelicalism in an Age of Conspiracy: PW Talks with Jared Stacy In Reality in Ruins, the post-evangelical theologian and former preacher traces how paranoia and threats to power—stretching from the Roman Empire to the 2020 presidential election—have distorted evan...

A really concise interview with Publisher’s Weekly that captures the heart of my book…

A few come to mind from different angles too: from the NT scholarship side, Drew Strait’s Strange Worship is excellent. From the religious studies side, Matthew Taylor’s “The Violent Take It By Force.” I think it’s important to note Black theology in America has been accounting for it.

That’s a great question. For the theological, honestly, “The Christian Imagination” and “Acts” by Willie Jennings I think give the theological treatment (historically informed) even if it doesn’t necessarily name “Christian Nationalism.” And for an intro, “The Fascist Masquerade” by Thurman, 1946.

Conspiracy theory is a caricatured, reductionist way to analyze and narrate power exercised in the material world. Rejecting conspiracy theory does not mean denying the complex, the veiled, or the existence of evil itself.

The Myths of January 6 Plus, Livestream Tonight

If conspiracy theory is a storytelling act, then Trump’s “Big Lie” is not consigned to the past. It remains a window into an ongoing story not just about America, but also about good and evil and—for evangelicals—about God.

The first major review of my book “Reality in Ruins” dropped this week

Really grateful for this endorsement of my book Reality In Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an American Evangelical Crisis, from @iamfujimura.bsky.social

For friends at #AARSBL I’ll be delivering a paper on late fascism and evangelical rhetorics of freedom at the Evangelical Studies Unit this morning in Boston—via video. Hope to make it in person next year!

Toward Reality in a Time of MAGA “Disreality” Doing Theology Against Conspiracy Theories

Disreality is not pathological. It is more existential. Less a clinical condition marked by a departure from facts, more an eruption of epistemological anxiety in which new facts are created or realities constructed towards the production of an unstable certainty

"The strange #history."

Today's forthcoming-book pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to author @jaredstacy.bsky.social & @harperonebooks.bsky.social!

Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Revealed: Pentagon orders states’ national guards to form ‘quick reaction forces’ for ‘crowd control’ Pentagon memo details plan to train over 20,000 national guard members across the US to carry out Trump’s order on subduing civil unrest

The (obvious) analysis: these directives give more plausibility to scenarios where free US elections are suspended or subverted in the name of "national security"

In 3 years, will an American public too familiar with the military in our streets be able to recognize that scenario for what it is?

God Does Not Need Saving Resisting MAGA Christianity with Karl Barth

Deliver us from our Christianity