Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions

by Rachel Held Evans

Eighty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial made a spectacle of Christian fundamentalism and brought national attention to her hometown, Rachel Held Evans faced a trial of her own when she began to have doubts about her faith.

In Faith Unraveled, Rachel recounts growing up in a culture obsessed with apologetics, struggling as her own faith unraveled one unexpected question at a time.

In order for her faith to survive, Rachel realizes, it must adapt to change and evolve. Using as an illustration her own spiritual journey from certainty to doubt to faith, Evans challenges you to disentangle your faith from false fundamentals and to trust in a God who is big enough to handle your tough questions.

In a changing cultural environment where new ideas seem to threaten the safety and security of the faith, Faith Unraveled is a fearlessly honest story of survival.

This book is also available, with this same ISBN entitled "Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions"...with a published date of 2010 by Zondervan...it has the reddish cover, not this cover.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Memoir, Christian, Faith, Christianity, Spirituality

232 pages, Paperback

First published June 4, 2010

About the author

Rachel Held Evans was a New York Times best-selling author whose books include Faith Unraveled (2010), A Year of Biblical Womanhood (2012), and Searching for Sunday (2015). Hailing from Dayton, Tennessee—home of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925—she wrote about faith, doubt and life in the Bible Belt.

Rachel was featured in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Christianity Today, Slate, The Huffington Post, The CNN Belief Blog, and on NPR, The BBC, The Today Show, and The View. She kept a busy schedule speaking at churches, conferences, and colleges and universities around the country.

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps I am just reading this book at the exact right time in my life, but I think this is one of the best spiritual memoirs I have ever read. Rachel Held Evans is funny, brilliant, and brutally honest, but in a gracious, loving way. This is a book all about questioning our beliefs in God, and that it is okay to do so. This book has given me the courage to ask those questions I have been putting pins in, questions that I thought might destroy my faith if I asked, questions that might get me dirty looks, questions that might never be answered. After reading her book, I am even firmer in the belief that questions are part of the journey and I must embrace them, even love them, if I have a hope of growing in my spiritual walk.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I went into this book with an open mind. "How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions" might stand in as the tag line for my own faith journey. I too attended Bryan College, drank coffee at Harmony House, and had a minor crisis of faith in college. I even took the Christian Worldview class under Professor Held, Rachel Held Evans' Dad. I too grew up in a Christian home, won the awards, and knew all the answers. Then I moved 12 hours away to attend a private, Christian college and found myself personally confronted with the problem of pain and the hypocrisy within the Bible Belt. My freshman year I struggled in the face of personal tragedy to believe that the God I loved could be good if He allowed evil in the world. All my academic answers fled and my emotions wreaked havoc. Yet the Millennial Christians around me used words like community and doing life together and emphasized that we were a chosen, unique generation. They dismissed my confusion.
So yes, I get the crisis of faith.
And I get coming back to the answers you originally dismissed and holding them lightly.
Yet Evans stops there. She praises evolution of faith and tells us how she left fundamentalism to find her own fundamentals. But what fundamentals? Apparently some hidden truths discovered through community. (Presumably because we advance in our knowledge or goodness as time passes. After all, Christians no longer believe in a geocentric universe.)
She dismisses the reason and arguments of "fundamentalist" by ignoring many of the real arguments and focusing on the fringe groups. And yes, I agree Dayton, Tennessee may have an inordinate number of fringe Christians, but that does not mean the articulated beliefs and hopes of countless Christians can be so easily dismissed. My greatest problem with this book is that Evans dismisses fundamentalism and replaces with...nothing. She pushes her emotions and personal stories and then hides behind them. This book offers mockery but not reason. And because she focuses more on how she feels about things, I finished this book and realized I felt less annoyed and more disappointed. I went in hoping to reason and talk together. I walked away told to respect her feelings and hold my beliefs loosely because after all...the Bible endorses multiple wives. Or something.


(Also, this review is excellent. I recommend it.)

[CS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

I am really glad the name changed from "Evolving in Monkey Town" to "Faith Unraveled" because the correlation between the actual subject matter of the book and the Scopes Trial is tenuous, at best. Reading the various attempts to intertwine the two were kinda painful, such as the mostly frivolous Chapter 3 on the history of Dayton, as really the only relation is that Evans became less fundamental (or as she calls, "evolved her Christianity") in the town where teaching evolution in science class was challenged.

I've read Evans' A Year of Biblical Womanhood, and I really enjoyed that. I thought it really challenged many Christians perception of biblical womanhood - that there was ONE and ONLY ONE way to be a woman and the Bible spoke very clearly on that matter. (The quick and dirty answers are: No and nope. And don't bother commenting on this review how I'm wrong, because this is NOT the place for a debate. You wanna debate, write your own review. Thank you, Goodbye.)

This? Not so much. Not only because of the aforementioned desperate attempt to tie in living in Dayton with her "evolution" of faith. It's a memoir, not a really in-depth look into Christians accepting scientific principles (which the old title, "Evolving in Monkey Town", somewhat hints at). This is just one woman having a crisis of faith - a very thoughtful topic, to be sure, but completely different from the one expected.

Also, I find it strange how the author has this crisis of faith but never chose to look outside the Christian box for answers (or if she did research outside Christian circles, she never mentioned it). Did she investigate the historicity of Jesus by reading Bart Ehrman or Richard Carrier? Did she pick up "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins or "God Is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens? What about other non-theistic religions? Did she research Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, and many other tribal religions as well and how they answered her myriad of questions about heaven and hell and if homosexuality was a sin?

I do completely understand her journey because many Christians can be very resistant to the "hard questions": Evil, heaven and hell, abortion, being gay, etc. And I think her book could be the path to move away from hardcore fundamentalism, which seeks to "conquer and destroy" and a more encompassing form of Christianity. I just wish that I had seen (if it happened) some form of Evans reaching to non-Christian sources for answers to her question.

Also, I found the writing pretty choppy; it was odd how every other chapter (after the first section) focused on a different person and Evans' interpretation of that person and some facet she could morph into talking about her "evolution".

My personal opinion is this: If you want high academic, this is not your book. If you are looking for some insight into Christians adopting scientific principles, this is also not your book. If you are a Christian asking questions or seeking comfort, you may enjoy this book. And if you are the type of person that loves the smooshy reads like Sarah Bessey's Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women or Chicken Soup for the "Fill in the Blank" soul, this is pretty much up your alley.

[J.L. Neyhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read this book for the first time in 2012, I was still fairly early in my own deconstruction process. So Rachel's book challenged me and encouraged me in so many ways. I identified with so much of her own background. I've read it three more times since then. The most recent time I listened to Rachel read the audio book version as I drove to her funeral. This was both devastating and comforting at the same time.

The bottom line is, I would recommend this book to anyone who was raised in a conservative evangelical way, especially if they have ever had questions or doubts along the way.

We need to learn to ask questions and we need to know we are not alone in this.

I am so thankful for this book and the rest of the writing Rachel shared with us.

[HG · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow. this was amazing. I love Rachel Held Evans!! She was so open and honest about her faith and the questions she had. Her books are so helpful to my reconstruction faith journey.

[Rod Horncastle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m not sure where to start with this Bimbo? She has no foundation for any of her liberal Christianity- so she spends the whole book attacking and mocking and criticizing everything she failed to understand in her lame attempt at apologetics And being a Saint in community. Mostly so she can justify her applauding of GLBTQ values and Democratic political views. There’s just gotta be a cherry picking way to make the god she hates more progressive on her pet social issues (even if she has to ignore 98% of the Bible to do it. Her god didn’t mean most of that stuff anyway).
I’m pretty used to dealing with folks who attempt to bludgeon us with their 2% of Biblical references. From charismatics to Mormons to militant fundies to socialist tree huggers And Atheists. Seriously, if you want to scholarly test your point: run it through 100% of the Bible first. Then go to mass media and start bashing. She argues like a teen atheist while in the comfort of her religious Mommy’s basement.

She has a huge crisis of faith when she learns that Muslim’s are murdering muslims... and her social deity isn’t doing what she thinks should be done for these poor innocent faith searchers. Why doesn’t Jesus love people who hate everything He stands for? What kind of ALL INCLUSIVE King is this? If Rachel has a feeling: then god had better damn well agree with every SINGLE one of them. And that is why she writes blogs. Yawnnn!

For some reason she assumes that God has failed to reach out to non-Christians. Those poor people born into foreign faiths have no idea or even choice about this Trinitarian Jesus (or their geographically insisted Worldview.) Even though the Islamic Quran is all about the Abrahamic promise and is made up of snippets of warped Bible accounts and denying the Atoning death of the Jesus there-in: how could they possibly know? She assumes the Holy Spirit and 2000 years of missionaries can’t possibly get through foreign Christian hating governments. He’s only a god after all. A person can’t be blamed for being a Buddhist or Hindu or Muslim or Democrat or... its God’s fault - He needs better PR.

She gets one star for asking great questions. But then she has no interest in God’s answers.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because I love Rachel Held Evans' blog. I think she might be one of my kindred spirits, theologically speaking. She was raised in a family and church steeped in conservative fundamentalist/evangelical American thought. She was a good student. She knew all the rules of who was saved and who was damned and how she was going to convert everyone to Christianity. She could win "sword" drills (remember those? finding a passage in the Bible faster than any other kid in the Sunday school class). She held onto her beliefs with a death grip. But slowly she started to lose that grip. She grew tired of easy answers and started to ask the really hard questions. And the really hard questions rocked her world view.

This book documents her journey from certainty through doubt to faith...but a different faith. A faith that "isn't about being right, or settling down, or refusing to change. Faith is a journey, and every generation contributes its own sketches to the map." This journey feels familiar to me as a "good Christian girl" who repeatedly has had to re-examine what I believe and make room for growth and evolution. Over the Rhine, my favorite band, said it best, "I'm not letting go of God, I'm just loosening my grip."

As a "memoir" that Evans wrote at the tender age of 27, it's a bit choppy in places and underdeveloped. But there are moments of brilliance expressed with compassion, pop culture references and self-deprecating humor that catch my attention, that leave me underlining and starring passages in the margins. As I've seen her thought process and writing style develop on her blog, I have hopes she might be in the same lineage as Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Madeleine L'Engle, Anne Lamott...Women writers who inspire me to think harder, love bigger, question fearlessly.

"Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day." --Rainer Rilke

[Melle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate the author honestly sharing her doubts and her interpretations of her personal faith and her reconciliation of how she was taught to perceive the world and her faith and how she actually perceives the world and her faith, but this book felt light in its explorations of how literal biblical interpretations of Christianity disenfranchise women and create an unequal power balance in relationships (her male friend's faith-mansplaining email (pp. 115-118) raised my hackles), it felt dismissive of legitimate theological and historical questions raised by the scholarship of serious biblical and church history scholars like Bart Ehrman, and the book felt like let the character or being of a biblical, specifically Christian, God off the hook: "[Doubting God] has the potential to destroy faith; [doubting what we believe about God] has the power to enrich and refine it." (219) The author did a good job of demonstrating the closed-mindedness, dismissiveness, ostracization, and lack of place in faith communities for people who question and who doubt, and her narrative was strongest when talking about what caused her to question ideas like exclusive salvation. I was disappointed this book didn't explore more of how she reconciles those (what to me are huge and significant) gaps of understanding between what she was taught to believe and what she understands and believes. Unfortunately, I don't think the ideas of evolution and adaptation as they were presented relate as strongly to the author's faith journey, and, indeed, with the title and limited blurb, I was actually hoping for more of an intellectual delving into how people who identify as Christian, especially evangelical Christians, reconcile such literal bible-based religious worldviews with a world that is being understood differently with advancing scientific knowledge. This is the kind of book to make Christian apologists and doubters feel less alone but wouldn't push them toward any serious intellectual or emotional crisis of faith. Not a bad read, very sympathetic but also maybe not as serious and impactful as it could be.

[Jenn LeBow · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many wonderful bloggers I follow have books coming out. BooMama, BigMama, Annie Downs, Sarah Bessey, Elizabeth Esther, Ed Cyzewski, and on and on. Plus the marvelous and very funny Lisa McKay released her memoir, Love At The Speed Of E-Mail, in May, which I promptly devoured on my Kindle and tweeted to her in real time exactly where I was in the book so she could permanently classify me as a potential stalker enjoy my reading experience by proxy. Then I bought a hard copy. I know the Kindle is supposed to make our book load lighter as we move all over the world, Honey, really, but sometimes a gal needs two copies of one book. Like Ann Voskamp’s 1000 Gifts, for example.

So, in the spirit of all things blogger, 3-Book 3rd Thursday today features three great books by bloggers that I have read recently. I could have done 6-Book 3rd Thursday today, but that’s not nearly as catchy, so I’ve narrowed it down. Reluctantly. I left in two Texans, one from (of course) Perfect Austin. Because of the self-imposed rule of 3, I have cut out some of the snark. I hate cutting out snark. I won’t let it cross the lips of my kiddos without giving them the arched-brow Mommy Manners Meltdown glare, but I’ll read it, laugh until I snort, and dream of being able to snark it up out there in this crazy world. Oh, and read it to Honey even after he’s fallen asleep. He loves it when I do that.

Let’s start with the snark that stayed. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir, by Jenny Lawson, who many know as the Bloggess, is hilarious. Foulmouthed, yes, and snarky, and certain to leave you truly thankful that she’s too old to be in your kid’s class at school, but hilarious. Her arguments with her husband, Victor, had me laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. Then her account of her daughter’s birth brought out the Bloggess’ tender side. Throughout it all, I simultaneously felt A) sympathy for Jenny due to the wild oddity that characterized her childhood, and B) aversion to the wacky (and numerous) zoo of taxidermy she collects. Here’s my advice about Let’s Pretend: read it one chapter at a time, no matter how tempted you are to read more. You’ll draw the hilarity out longer, reduce the factor of profanity shock by a small margin, and maintain more of a fascination than an aversion to her taxidermic triumphs, and her life.

Some people may also feel an aversion to the sentiments expressed in the title of Rachel Held Evans’ Evolving in Monkeytown: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions. I hope that readers will look past the title and think about some of the questions Rachel poses here; many of the issues she grappled with are ones that we all face at some point in our spiritual journeys. Reading her account with the intention only of debunking her points, one would miss the valuable exercise of opening up to the relationship one of our fellow humans has forged with God. Monkeytown is a jewel of a book because Rachel is gifted at seeing what is precious in people, then passing that sight on to us. I did not agree with every conclusion Rachel draws, but I support firmly her freedom in letting her faith grow and change. I want that freedom, too. Reading through her memoir brought me the chance to laugh at things I might not have otherwise, and think more deeply about questions I might have dismissed had I encountered them in college. I follow Rachel’s blog and her Twitter feed; not a week goes by that I haven’t read and tried to process her insightful posts.

Another writer I found on Twitter is Elora Ramirez, whose new book is Come Alive. I stayed up way too late two nights in a row on our road trip reading Come Alive, and found myself compelled to finish it, encouraged by people and organizations working on behalf of the powerless, and sickened by the atrocities people inflict on each other. Stephanie, a high-school girl narrating the story, commits the common teenage hyperbole of seeing the people in her life as completely good or absolutely evil. Given Stephanie’s family life, such hyperbole seems well-founded at first, and only deeper into the book did I wish that her perspective permitted a deeper understanding of the other characters’ internal lives. However, her absolutism feels familiar; I tended to think in those terms in high school, and have witnessed our son Cartwheel’s progression in this area over the years. All in all, Elora has crafted a book that I hope will persuade many others to do our own individual part in rescuing the “least of these,” wherever we find them.

Thanks to all the bloggers I’ve mentioned, and particularly to the three whose books we explored today. I look forward to many more lovely opportunities to read and share books written by my online friends. A special thanks to Elora, also, for giving me a copy of her book. She did so generously, with no strings attached. I usually post on 3-Book 3rd Thursday about books I’ve purchased or borrowed for my own reading pleasure, and yet I liked Come Alive so much, I included it here despite the fact that it was given to me.

[Rachel Rosenthal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish there was an option for half-stars. I liked this book much more than three-out-of-five stars would suggest. While I'm not convinced that I subscribe to everything Rachel (her, not me) believes or suggests in the book, I'm coming away from it feeling like I really *get* her. Or like she really *gets* me; I'm not sure which. Maybe it's because I have a natural affinity for other strong-willed women who love Jesus, love reading, and who have got wind of the idea that they can be or do anything a man can be or do (and bonus points if her name is also Rachel!). Anyway, the best way I could possibly put it is that it's like those people with the stickers on their Wranglers or Rubicons that say, "It's a Jeep thing; you wouldn't understand". The best way I could synopsize my "amen" for this book would be: "It's a raised-in-church-kid thing; you wouldn't understand."

I too grew up with sword drills, apologetics classes, and scare-the-hell-out-of-you (literally) alternatives to Halloween. Not everyone who grows up in that kind of environment chooses to spend the rest of their life afterward following Jesus. I have. The adjustment to the adult, independent thinking version of this requires some self-confrontation. This book is a pretty brave confession of the good, the bad, and the ugly details of what that journey looked at for one girl (it's different for all of us), and how different life and faith look when you've come out on the other side. It's comforting. It's a great reminder that you can have a great "testimony" even if yours doesn't involve the big SDA (you know--sex, drugs, and alcohol!). It's a relief to say, "yeah, me too" that many times in less than 250 pages.

I have a copy of Ken Wilson's book "Jesus Brand Spirituality" on my shelf. One day in June of 2008 after hearing him speak, I had him sign it for me after a brief but impactful conversation on this very topic: letting one's faith adjust and become more real in spite of/because of the idiosyncrasies of church culture. On the inside, he wrote, "Rachel, Without a church it's just words. Thanks for your patience with her." While at times patience has been required in working out the stuff of faith and life, I remember that God offers us His own character, which is never subject to change or adjustment, in response and in invitation. He's way more patient with me than I deserve, and He just keeps holding His hand out and beckoning me in closer. I'm grateful for the reminder. Thanks, Rach. :)

[Ginny Messina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was only vaguely aware of Rachel Held Evans and her books until she died, tragically and suddenly, just two weeks ago. She was 37 but had already had (and I know will continue to have) a sizeable impact on building a more inclusive Christian church.

She grew up in Dayton, TN, which was the home of the Scopes Monkey Trial. The original title of this book before it was reissued, was “Evolving in Monkey Town.” I think that was a better title, because it seemed to me that her faith didn’t so much unravel as evolve. Raised in a fundamentalist Baptist church, she was taught to believe in young earth creationism, that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, that only born-again Christians could escape hell, and that you couldn’t be Christian and gay. Rachel found herself questioning these and other beliefs as her faith grew into something much more loving, inclusive and Christ-like.

She was a talented writer with a good sense of humor, and this book is a quick read. The impact of her work has been felt mostly (and apparently greatly) by those who have long been marginalized by the church and by those who had been trapped in a fundamentalist Christian culture. That’s not me, as a white, straight, cis-gender, Lutheran-raised, Lutheran-practicing woman, attending an inclusive church. But it doesn’t mean that her questions and crises about faith are foreign to me, even if her life experiences were different. Her voice in this book is encouraging and hopeful –she was still in her twenties when she wrote it –and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of her work.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has left Christianity behind, but who is interested in what others draw from it, this was a fascinating read. I'm a sucker for a good memoir, and one in which there is a major break in a person's trajectory - real upheaval through which they have to work - is exactly my jam. So this was satisfying on a number of levels. I understood the Christian context, and indeed, my upbringing was very similar in some ways. I really understood all of Evans' questions, and how disarming it is to query everything you thought was solid and unchanging. And although she and I went in different directions after that - she always kept some connection to Christianity, and her faith grew; I let go of Christianity after realizing I didn't believe in hell, Jesus as the messiah, or sin - I could see why she chose to go the direction she did, and understand it.

It was really good to know there are people within Christianity dedicated to social justice - who pay it more than lip service, and who grasp the pain of LGBTQIA Christians who are rejected by their faith communities. I'm glad to have read this book to have Evans' example before me, to balance the fundamentalist view of Christianity that runs through our contemporary political situation.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rachel Held Evans and her two sisters grew up in a fundamentalist family in Dayton, Tennessee, a place best known for the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial that H.L. Mencken so deliciously sent up. Equal parts memoir, Christian philosophy, and explication of modern fundamentalism, Evolving in Monkey Town provides something for Christians and agnostics alike. I found myself really invested in Evans’ spiritual evolution, if you’ll pardon the pun.

Despite living in Kentucky, home of snake handling, the Church of Christ (non-instrumental), and crackpots like Governor Matt Bevin and Senator Rand Paul (an Aqua Buddhist), I learned quite a bit from this slim volume. I was completely unfamiliar with both Bryan College (located in Dayton) and “Christian worldview” (a sort of scientific fundamentalism and quite an oxymoron), and Evans explains both its origins and its finer points. And I really appreciated Evans reminding me that an open mind, loving respect, and constant questioning is the best way to build a relationship with God — and each other

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

A touching and proud account of Rachel's struggle with fundamentalism and her journey away from and back to faith. I love her honesty and her subtle sense of humor. She's also a wonderful writer. What a tragedy that she died so young. I will miss her voice.

[Jaran]

Rachel Held Evans has written an engaging memoir. Her style is pleasant, her humor funny, and her wit present. This book would be suitable for many interested in a thoughtful look at faith, but it was particularly relevant to me since she offers abundant commentary on her time at the local college that I didn't go to and on religion and politics in the town two stops down the road from my city of origin. My Goodreads friends from Tennessee would enjoy this book.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent some of my early post-college years hearing about the dangers of Rachel Held Evans, who was marketed to me as a radical feminist with a loosey-goosey approach to biblical interpretation. But then I changed a lot, and I grew more familiar with Evans and her ilk as thought leaders of the Christian movement in which I now find myself. If I had just let myself read her work back in, say, 2011, I would have seen that she was a wonderfully thoughtful, intelligent, funny, compassionate writer whose experiences mirror many of my own and whose way of thinking about God and the world is very much akin to where I am now.

This is her first book, and it’s a bit dated. I know that her faith and thinking continued to grow and change in the years leading up to her untimely death, so I’m very grateful I have more, later books to read. All the same, it serves as a great entree into Evans’s bibliography, especially for people just beginning to question some of the false fundamentals they’ve grown up with. I have a hard time understanding people who read this and walk away with anything but respect for Evans’s compassionate logic and generosity and wisdom. Those readers, I suspect, are seeing something that isn’t there and are determined to do exactly the opposite of what she models: they want to hold beliefs tightly and force the Bible and the world around them to uphold those beliefs, despite all contradiction or moral uneasiness.

I get it. It’s scary to peer into doubt and not know what waits for you there. But Rachel Held Evans gives us a really good example of the peace (and intellectual honesty!) that can be found on the other side.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm sad that I'm so late coming round to read Rachel Held Evans. This book and the spirit it conveys are a blessing, and I look forward to reading the rest of her work. But now, with her untimely death, I'm left to say what so many have already now said. Rachel Held Evans writes with grace and compassion of what a teacher of mine might call "a lover's quarrel with the church" -- or at least with a slice of the fundamentalist branch of the church. And that's in part, ironically, why I delayed in reading her. As I read this book, it echoed some of my experiences too -- ones that are painful -- I mean, Halloween Hell-Houses, that is some real sh-- stuff. I've experienced it, and it is religion as terrorism. Plain and simple. But RHE climbs out of the abyss that is fundamentalist oppression, and offers a hand to pull the reader up too -- and what we find is a clear, broad expanse of God's grace and love -- an expanse that allows that God's love is big enough to embrace us all -- that we might think differently and that's OK -- that we might (every now and again) even be wrong -- and that's OK too. Here's a quote I love -- and I'll end here, so that RHE has the last, lovely word: "Being a Christian, it seemed, isn’t about agreeing to a certain way; it is about embodying a certain way. It is about living as an incarnation of Jesus, as Jesus lived as an incarnation of God. It is about being Jesus . . . in tennis shoes."

[Joe Terrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this one hit a little too close to home. If you ever grew up in a world of AWANA, Bible drills, apologetics, Left Behind and other hallmarks of '90s Christianity, and you don't quite know how to make sense of it all anymore, then Faith Unraveled is for you.

Author Rachel Held Evans walks through her fundamentalist childhood and explores the unwelcome questions that eventually drove her to step away from her faith community and rediscover her beliefs on her own. Evans is a great writer and some of her insights and questions were incredibly jarring (even for this skeptic), but she never slides into self-pity or mean-spirited criticality.

Faith Unraveled is a great book for those wrestling with their own deconstruction or who are parting ways with the traditions of their upbringing to pursue something better. Highly recommended.

[Naomi Shores · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't grow up in the church so maybe if I had I would question more. In my opinion if you are a Christian you believe God's word to be true. If God's word says it's wrong, then it's wrong. You either believe or you don't. We all struggle because of issues that we are personally experiencing or others around us are and it's okay to question but ultimately God's word is God's word. You don't add to it and you don't take away from it.

[Dichotomy Girl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, so I confess, my 5 Star rating of this is highly biased, because so many parts of it were like getting inside my own head of several years ago. This is a great read for anyone who ever struggled with trying to hold onto their faith, while having unorthodox views on evolution, homosexuality, politics, salvation and certain parts of the Bible.

[Linda Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved, loved this book. It resonated with me on every page. I'm so glad there are other Christians like me in the world, other Christians who are going through the same questions and situations.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to read this book based on a blog post I saw in a couple of places on my social media feeds. The title of that post is "Everyone's a Biblical Literalist Until You Bring Up Gluttony." That post, and this book, hit on very personal issues for me. In essence, this book rails against:

1)The idea that Christians should have blind faith, ignoring their intellect
2) The idea that Christians/saved people have the right/ability to judge other people, especially gay people
3) The idea that the best example of a Christian is someone who has all the answers, and a good Christian would never say "I don't know," or "I don't like that Bible verse, I don't know what to make of it."

These three concepts are a huge part of the reason why I've personally struggled with where to place religion and faith in my life. Like many who have read and reviewed this book here, I was raised believing that once you were "saved" you could go to heaven. Very early on, I got a horrible taste in my mouth when I was told by well-meaning Christian friends/family to eliminate various significant others from my life because we wouldn't be "equally yoked." Right then I thought to myself, "if God exists and agrees with this judgemental/one-dimensional idiot, then I want nothing to do with him." As I got older I only found more and more occasions to have this same thought. "Hmmmm," I'd think... "why would anyone go into that country where people have such a rich tradition of their own beliefs, and presume to tell them what the REAL faith is and 'convert' them?? Isn't there room for more than one possibility? Wouldn't God want us to be more humble than that??"

Reading this book, and Rachel Held Evans' blog, has been like a breath of fresh air. It's good to know that there are people like Rachel-- thinking people-- that still align themselves with the church. I still don't know where all of it falls for me but I enjoyed reading this, and if you have ever felt in a similar place you'd probably enjoy it too.

[Drew Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a crescendo.

When this book began it was much like any other Christian memoir of late. It was kind of edgy, talked all bad about fundamentalism, and told a whole lot of stories. (After writing that sentence, I realize how much it sounds like a description of Jesus.) As I read the beginning, I found myself agreeing with a lot of the things she wrote, but not being at all impressed by any of it. "Yeah," I thought to myself, "I've been there before too. I've heard all this before. I'm kind of bored with it." It's kind of like I was reading Blue Like Jazz again, except this time it was written by a girl.

Once I made it to the second section of this book, I was hooked on reading it all. Her stories of protest became stories of progress. She began to contribute rather than complain. You see, I like construction and the first portion hardly had anything to offer. But, I guess that's the point because when you begin to see problems with your roots, you only focus on uprooting for awhile before you look for new soil to dig into.

As the book progressed it got louder and had more to offer. I was drawn in to the stories and began to feel like I knew Rachel. (It may help that I met her about 3/4 of the way through my reading of it). Ultimately, I'll say that this book is wonderful. It's probably not for everyone, but I know a lot of people who have walked down a similar road to Rachel Evans, and I think this book is a wonderful and honest contribution to the stories of Christians who wade into the waters of postmodernity.

I've given it five stars, because I believe Rachel's stories have the power to transform a generation.

[Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've struggled in my review of this book. From a literary perspective, it's not amazing. Yet it is an honest and thought-provoking account of a woman questioning the unquestionable truths of faith she was taught as a child.

Evans grew up in Dayton, TN where the Scopes Monkey trail was held - hence the title. She tries to illustrate her faith struggles with the parallels of the Creation vs. Evolution debate. I found this to be the weakest part of the book, as her questions and struggles with the Christian faith are profound enough to stand on their own.

For me, true faith only emerges after a series of soul searching, painful, scary questions. It's hard to want certainty in matters of faith and find that to be elusive. I'm realizing I have to let go of preconceived notions and enter a world of uncertainty in the hopes of finding confidence in my own beliefs - even if they must change. Evans went through a similar process, which is encouraging to me. While I might not agree with all of her conclusions, I admire her courage to ask hard questions about her Christian faith.

[Henry Haney · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Most of the people I’ve encountered are looking not for a religion to answer all their questions but for a community of faith in which they can feel safe asking them.”

This was my first experience reading Rachel Held Evans. What did i think? Brave, humble, honest and thought-provoking.

Rachel spends more time sharing her questions and doubts about faith than giving answers. Perhaps it’s because of where I’m at currently on my journey but I found that incredibly comforting and refreshing. This is a brilliant spiritual memoir.

[Chastidy Parks · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite quote “Doubt is a difficult animal to master because it requires that we learn the difference between doubting God and doubting what we believe about God. The former has the potential to destroy faith, the latter has the power to enrich and refine it. The former is a vice, the latter a virtue.”

[Esther Nevener · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! This book resonated with me to my core. I related so deeply with this author that when she tells her stories I wince on the inside because I have experiences so many of these excruciating situations. I loved this book and intend to read it again soon.

[Derek Driggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel Held Evans is my favorite religious writer. Her questions about Christianity and God and scripture are so relatable to me, and the answers and new questions she lands on feel familiar to me in deep ways. I love that her conclusions lead her to be less sure of herself and what she knows, and more sure of God and his mercy and love. I feel more enabled by her to be a Christian who doesn’t fit the mold, a Christian who models my faith on Christian behavior instead of religious tradition, and a Christian who believes that God is involved with every human life.

[Erin Odom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to read this after Rachel's recent sudden and tragic passing. I had known of Rachel for years but had only read less than a handful of her blog posts. I knew that we differed theologically, although I believed--and believe even more after reading this book--that we have a shared Christian faith. After being a Christian for nearly 30 years myself, I have come to believe that people can share a faith in Jesus and still differ in some areas, theologically.

This book especially intrigued me because Rachel and I both grew up in the 1980s "simply ask Jesus into your heart and you will be saved from hell" and the 1990s "purity" culture. In fact, Rachel and I are/were the exact same age. Our church cultures and upbringings seemed very similar. I could relate to many of her stories.

Rachel was an engaging writer. This book never once bored me. She asked hard questions and answered them with Scripture and even more hard questions. This book was her transparent and often-vulnerable account of her faith crisis and how she came to believe that it's ok to question one's beliefs without questioning God Himself.

Ultimately, Rachel seemed to believe that Jesus didn't come to save us from hell as much as to save us from being trapped in our sin. She seemed to believe that we all have a sin nature, and that we can find freedom from our sin in Christ.

This book didn't change my beliefs about God or Jesus or the Bible, but it definitely made me think and appreciate Rachel and her work--despite our differences. I will say that I came into this book very grounded in my faith. Every believer needs to filter every single thing we read through the lens of Scripture. If someone is a brand new believer or if they grew up in church but never really have had a personal relationship with Jesus, I would encourage them to stick with the Bible before diving into works like this.

I look forward to eventually reading Rachel's other books. I am absolutely heartbroken for her family, dear friends, and the world that she is gone, but after reading this book I feel even more confident that Rachel is enjoying her eternity right now in the presence of Jesus.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite simply, a fantastic book. I have traveled a very similar faith journey as Rachel has (or I should say "am traveling" since I think we both believe faith is more of a journey than a destination). Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from her book:


But Jesus rarely framed discipleship in terms of intellectual assent to a set of propositional statements. He didn’t walk new converts down the Romans Road or ask Peter to draft a doctrinal statement before giving him the keys to the kingdom. His method of evangelism varied from person to person and generally involved a dramatic change of lifestyle rather than a simple change of mind. To Jesus, “by faith alone” did not mean “by belief alone.” To Jesus, faith was invariably linked to obedience.


After I’d thought for so many years that good Christians are always ready with an answer, it was a question that eventually drew me back to belief. In the end, it was doubt that saved my faith.


When we require that all people must say the same words or subscribe to the same creeds in order to experience God, we underestimate the scope and power of God’s activity in the world.


I could add a few dozen more but I would rather that you just get this book and read it for yourself. I highly recommend it to anyone - whether you struggle with your faith or not.