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. Growing up in a culture obsessed with apologetics, Evans asks questions she never thought she would ask. She learns that in order for her faith to survive in a postmodern context, it must adapt to change and evolve. Using as an illustration her own spiritual journey from certainty, through doubt, to faith, Evans adds a unique perspective to the ongoing dialogue about postmodernism and the church that has so captivated the Christian community in recent years. In a changing cultural environment where new ideas threaten the safety and security of the faith, Evolving in Monkey Town is a fearlessly honest story of survival.
Evolving in Monkey Town
How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 4, 2010 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780310773719
- File size: 128723 KB
- Duration: 04:28:10
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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June 15, 2010
Who are Laxmi, the Widow, Nathan the Soldier, and June the Ten Commandments Lady? They are some of the real-life examples journalist Evans uses to flesh out her memoir and her questions about hell, hypocrisy, and human suffering. Growing up in Dayton, TN, where the notorious Scopes monkey trial played out to enormous attention in 1925, Evans thought she had all the answers, a rock solid faith, and a planned life (go to a good Christian college, marry a good Christian man, etc.). Yet for her, it was not enough; she became an "evolutionist," no longer satisfied with cultural or folklorist Christianity, which meant "letting go of false fundamentals so that God [could] get into those shadowy places we're not sure we want Him to be." It bothers her that more people of faith are not troubled by the hard questions. Christianity, she writes, should not be about believing a certain way but living a certain way--"It's about being Jesus in tennis shoes." VERDICT This excellent book challenges readers to reassess their approach to Christianity by not being afraid to doubt and ask hard questions, to evolve then freely move from doubt to tempered faith.--Nancy Richey, Western Kentucky Univ. Lib., Bowling Green
Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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