Reality in Ruins

By: Jared Stacy, Jared Stacy Phd

Published by HarperOne, 2026-03-17

For concerned citizens and anyone who's lost relationships because of conspiracy theories, a historian and theologian explores why paranoia happens, its unique entanglement with evangelicalism, and how to cope in today's culture of "fake news" and "alternative facts." Conspiracy theories are at the root of the most pressing political problems of our time, yet their influence cuts just as personal. Suspicion has fractured families, communities, churches, and our very social fabric, as one person's fact is another's fake news. Conspiracism curates a functional reality for millions today, and those who love them are often felt reeling in the "living loss" of losing them down the rabbit hole of "doing their own research." How did we get here? And how can we possibly live here--as concerned citizens who want more for our relationships, our faith traditions, our country, our world? In Reality in Ruins, Dr. Jared Stacy braves the untold history of conspiracism in American evangelicalism, reporting from the inside as someone raised and even once ordained in one of the most conservative denominations in the U.S. Now, as a historian and theologian who's left evangelicalism, Dr. Stacy excavates the root causes of conspiracy theory and the evangelical anxiety at the heart of this movement. Tracing the currents of pain, panic, and power, he reframes conspiracy theory as acts of storytelling, and in the evangelical church, this story then becomes a theological crisis. For those grieving ruptured relationships and those with heavy hearts about the public witness of the church in the world today, Reality in Ruins validates your pain, empowers you to become the truth-tellers the world needs, and deepens you capacity to understand the problem as you confront it.