Welcome to the resources page of Words for Wayfarers. Here, you’ll find lists of support groups, books, YouTube channels, podcasts, movies, and music albums for people deconstructing or leaving their religious faith. The items on these lists were immensely helpful during my own deconversion journey, and I hope they will encourage you as well. Happy hunting!
Therapy and Community Support for Ex-Religious People
Recovering From Religion: https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/
Secular Therapy Project: https://www.seculartherapy.org/
Deconstruction and Deconversion Experiences
Books:
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
Leaving the Fold: A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving Their Religion by Marlene Winell
Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation by Jonathan Lear
Stories We Tell Ourselves: Making Meaning in a Meaningless Universe by Richard Holloway
Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church by Megan Phelps Roeper
Why I Believed: Reflections of a Former Missionary by Kenneth W. Daniels
Movies:
Apostasy
Boy Erased
Letting Go of God
The Truman Show
Yes, God, Yes
Music Albums:
Fingers Crossed by Derek Webb
In Defense of My Own Happiness by Joy Oladokun
The Jesus Hypothesis by Derek Webb
Recover EP by Forrest Clay
YouTube Videos and Podcasts:
Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal’s deconstruction testimonies (Ear Biscuits podcast): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLxmqs8vQskUbE_KnXQhA2gXmEg5dVMp3
Biblical Studies and the Historical Jesus
Books:
Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife by Bart Ehrman
Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet by Dale C. Allison, Jr.
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart Ehrman
Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things by Dale C. Allison, Jr.
The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, and History by Dale C. Allison, Jr.
YouTube Channels and Podcasts:
Data Over Dogma podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/data-over-dogma/id1681418502
Matthew Hartke – Christian origins for a post-Christian world: https://www.youtube.com/@MatthewHartke/featured
Atheist and Agnostic Philosophy
Books:
Figuring by Maria Popova
God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought by Susan Jacoby
This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom by Martin Hagglünd
What I Believe by Bertrand Russell
YouTube Channels and Podcasts
Alex O’Connor (Cosmic Skeptic / Within Reason podcast): https://www.youtube.com/@CosmicSkeptic/videos
Genetically Modified Skeptic: https://www.youtube.com/@GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic
Evolutionary Science and Environmentalism
Books:
Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
YouTube Channels and Podcasts:
Stated Clearly – Genetics, Evolution, and Chemistry: https://www.statedclearly.com/
Spirituality and Religious Experiences
Books:
Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age by Dale C. Allison, Jr.
When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship With God by Tanya Luhrmann
Words for Wayfarers 