Rachel Held Evans

Evolving in Monkey Town

Buy it now in stores and online through

or

and many others.

From the back cover: 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.

***

Reviews, Press and Articles

***

Endorsements

“Rachel Held Evans is brilliant, gutsy, real, and hilarious, and Evolving in Monkey Town impacted my spiritual journey in ways I never imagined. I can’t remember a book that I enjoyed reading more, partly because Rachel is a great writer, and partly because she so fearlessly examines the conflict between her inherited beliefs about God and the truth of her own spiritual experience. There’s a certain weight to Evolving in Monkey Town that distinguishes it from the other spiritual memoir books out there.”

—Jim Palmer, author of Divine Nobodies and Wide Open Spaces

“I love to read stories that ask questions, that live in the tension, that allow me to bring my doubt and uncertainty and join the conversation. Rachel Held Evans’ Evolving in Monkey Town is one of those stories.”

—Shauna Niequist, author of Cold Tangerines and Bittersweet

“With Evolving in Monkey Town, Rachel Held Evans steps onto the stage as a gifted writer, an honest storyteller, and a compelling voice in the Christian community. She represents what is most hopeful and promising in a new generation of articulate, intelligent, and faithful young leaders.”

—Brian McLaren, author/speaker

“Can I tell you how much I admire Rachel Held Evans? She is smart, compassionate, funny, and relentlessly inquisitive. It is the questions she asks, not the answers she uncovers, that make Evolving in Monkey Town such a compelling read. There are many good books worth reading, but a truly remarkable book will leave you pondering matters long after the cover is closed. I loved this book.”

—Karen Spears Zacharias, author of Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide?: ('Cause I Need More Room for My Plasma TV)

“Evolving in Monkey Town is the kind of book I’ll pass along. Rachel Held Evans so accurately highlights her struggles to have a genuine, life-changing, world-beautifying faith. I love her heart, her journey, her questions, and her tentative understanding of Jesus. I’ll be thinking about this book and its message for months and years to come. An important read.”

—Mary DeMuth, author of Thin Places: A Memoir

“It’s not every day that a book with the word ‘monkey’ in the title challenges and encourages me like Rachel Held Evans’ debut. She adds a fresh, courageous voice to the faith-and-doubt discussion, and it’s a voice all of us need to hear.”

—Jason Boyett, author of O Me of Little Faith: True Confessions of a Spiritual Weakling

“When we find ourselves asking tough questions, sometimes we want answers, but many times we just want a friend who is asking the same questions we are. Written with refreshing honesty, Rachel Held Evans’ new book Evolving in Monkey Town is going to be that friend for many people.”

—Chad Gibbs, author of God and Football: Faith and Fanaticism in the SEC

“This book is an argument—Rachel argues with herself, God, the Bible, and Southern fundamentalism. Somehow, though, we are the winners in this argument because we learn and watch as a young woman emerges into a maturing faith that lets the kingdom vision of Jesus reshape her life. I found myself cheering her on.”

—Scot McKnight, author of The Jesus Creed, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University

“Rachel’s humorous yet humble memoir of growing up in the evangelical world serves as an encouraging guide for anyone looking to navigate through that particular subculture. As I saw my own journey reflected in its pages, I appreciated Rachel’s honesty in revealing the doubts and questions that arose when she confronted the cracks in the evangelical facade. The story told here is both faith and doubt affirming, a beautiful reflection of a heart earnestly seeking to follow God fully.”

—Julie Clawson, author of Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices

“A whole generation of evangelicalism’s brightest young people, based upon a common misunderstanding of 1 Peter 3:15, was taught that vital, living faith is established by a ‘worldview’ that one can explain and defend. Rachel Held Evans, a bright and talented young writer with obvious courage, challenges this ‘sacred cow.’ Her discovery is surely right—we need a faith that obeys, not a worldview rooted in absolute certainty. She will help you embrace the questions without losing the reality of faith.”

—John H. Armstrong, president of ACT 3 and author of Your Church Is Too Small