First published 2014
Rachel Held Evans grew up surrounded by Christian apologetics in the same Tennessee town where the Scopes Monkey Trial once put fundamentalism on public display. Her childhood faith seemed solid until doubts began creeping in through unexpected questions. Each challenge to her beliefs threatened to tear apart everything she had been taught to accept without question. Rachel discovered that her faith would need to change and grow if it was going to survive her intellectual journey. She moved from absolute certainty through periods of deep doubt toward a different kind of belief. Her story shows how faith can become stronger when it learns to wrestle with difficult questions rather than avoiding them. Rachel argues that God can handle our toughest doubts and that authentic spirituality requires separating true faith from rigid fundamentalism.
Genres: christian, memoir, non-fiction, faith
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, personal-journey
Setting: Tennessee
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
240 pages · Paperback · Zondervan