Embodying a Different Posture
A Review of
Reality in Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an American Evangelical Crisis
Jared Stacy
Hardcover: HarperOne, 2026
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Reviewed by Pete Ford
What is reality? Why are conspiracy theories so attractive? How do we live a better alternative? These are the important questions Jared Stacy wrestles with in Reality in Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an American Evangelical Crisis.
The fruit of Stacy’s PhD work, Reality in Ruins condemns how evangelicals have tied conspiracy theories with orthodox Christian belief, yet it graciously gives reasons why people are drawn to them. Though conspiracy theories dehumanize the “Other,” Stacy is careful not to dehumanize those who buy into them. His most helpful contributions are explaining the “plot devices” of conspiracy theories and hinting toward a hopeful ecclesial posture.
Through the book, Stacy shares a few glimpses into his own faith journey, particularly learning to stop defending the term “evangelical.” He claims that totalities can only be named from inside, but although he has been an insider, he doesn’t grasp at his own insider status as an evangelical. He shows how the fluid term “evangelical” has been used both to unite and to distance. He calls this “a no-true-Scotsman in constant flux” and is careful not to claim the label “evangelical” for himself in such a way as to say, “Those evangelicals are not real evangelicals.”
Part of his background in evangelicalism centers on the Falwell legacy of Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church. I found particularly interesting the Virginia-based histories he shared. For example, the tavern where Jefferson wrote Virginia’s slave codes became the site of the Woolworth’s later famous for the sit-ins protesting racial injustice. In a story of evangelical syncretism, Eberhard Bethge (friend of Dietrich Bonhoeffer) once visited Jerry Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church and was given two pins, an American flag and a “Jesus First!” pin.
Early in the book, Stacy explains how story is always stronger than facts. In a world of accelerating information overload, we grasp for explanations—he calls them “totalities.” “Totality” promises to explain all of reality by “enclosure” of a single perspective (for example, when a “biblical worldview” requires you to hold a sanitized view of American history). This “hidden knowledge” leads to a feeling of superiority. Because we fear change, totality is “truth established by violence”— of our own effort.
Not only do we seek the promise of certainty, which leads to pride, but we also desire belonging, which makes us suspicious of outsiders. “Conspiracism appeals in this moment of change precisely because it offers certainty bound up in community,” Stacy points out. This certainty in the objectivity of our perspective leads to suspicion toward the external threat of “them.” We might visualize these dual pathways as totality > certainty > pride and totality > belonging > suspicion.
Since all facts are couched in story, this means we can’t argue a family member out of a conspiracy theory with better facts. “Telling the truth is never less than the facts, but always more,” Stacy says. As followers of Jesus, we have a better story to tell and a better belonging to receive—he sketches out such an ecclesiology near the end of the book.
I found the fourth chapter particularly helpful, listing ingredients in conspiracy thinking; I almost wish he had organized the next few chapters into these four categories. These common “plot devices” are apocalyptic (revealed) knowledge that feels exclusive, individualism that assumes a single mastermind with an agenda, a moral call to resist, and fear of losing political freedom.
In response to these four aspects of conspiracy theory, Stacy argues that God’s public revelation invites us into caring for the common good of the whole world through solidarity. The Christian story is not gnostic, hidden knowledge, meant for the select few, but good news for the whole world. Stacy calls for good suspicion of ourselves (particularly asking, “Why do I want this to be true?”). Good suspicion is “the courage to say ‘I don’t know’ in a time when what is taken to be true is established through violence.”
Ironically, in fearing the loss of political freedom, Stacy points out that we voluntarily give up freedom for authoritarian certainty. Instead, we can find true freedom only in Christ. Rather than Scripture prescribing a particular political arrangement (our modern idea of “nationhood” is arbitrary), “When the Scriptures speak of proper Christian respect for governing powers, they do so with a truly dizzying array of possible political arrangements in view, recognizing the acts of God taking place in any sort of political arrangement.” No matter how political structures change, God is always at work, so we don’t have to fear.
Stacy’s grassroots ecclesiology is clearly influenced by Stanley Hauerwas. Rather than a posture of grasping to control the state with “technique,” we are invited into a posture of receiving how God is already working. The beauty of Stacy’s book is this marked difference in posture. Instead of grasping at totalities, Christians receive Jesus the Truth as reality. “So the difference lies in whether we become a people who claim to possess the truth, or people claimed by the truth.”
Jesus does not promise us certainty but instead relational communion. In fact, Christian conversion is an ongoing process promising change and uncertainty. “Encounter means altering the shape of your life.”
Most powerfully, Stacy lays out his fresh understanding of Psalm 119:105. In contrast to how the term “biblical” is used to support totalities, the Bible does not promise to reveal everything all at once. “A ‘lamp to our feet’ is the smallest sort of light source imaginable. It casts light for our next step, and that’s enough.”
Pete Ford
Pete Ford is a stay-at-home dad as well as a digital marketer for Christian publishers and nonprofits. By night, he is a reader, focusing on topics including nonviolence, time, the built environment, and spiritual practices like Sabbath.
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