Fundamentalist and evangelical preachers often try to enforce a “literal” interpretation on the Christian Scriptures. That perspective often removes the affective, emotional, and wonder-filled components – precisely the original authors’ main points. The late Rachel Held Evans was raised an evangelical but became an outspoken mainline Protestant before her untimely death. Here, she tells her story alongside the Bible’s story. She tries to recapture some of the amazement that drew many to read the Christian Scriptures in the first place.
Held Evans has the evangelical bona fides down. She grew up in Dayton, Tennessee, home of the famous Scopes Trial about evolution. She was raised in a conservative evangelical family and attended an evangelical college, majoring in English. However, as she grew up, she slowly became aware of a great insecurity among her evangelical leaders about the modern world. She eventually left evangelical circles, wandered a while, and became an Episcopalian. As she tells in this book’s beginning, she came to appreciate the Bible again by avoiding the pitfall of the defensiveness so prevalent in American conservative churches today.
After finishing her story, she spends the bulk of the book retelling the Bible story all over again. With a descriptiveness that only an English major could bring, she tells of the wrestling that she has done in subsequent years. She tells of her troubles with the wars and the rapes in Scripture. She tells of the lessons that she’s learned from each Biblical segment. She tells of wonder, struggles with St. Paul’s writings, and how all this brought her to appreciate the main point more.
Mainline Protestant Christians are this book’s main audience. Evangelicals often malign this group for straying from the Bible, but Held Evans argues otherwise. Her interpretation is utterly Biblical but open-minded towards learning and our common humanity. Evangelicals would do well to read this book, too, to learn how moderns can and do struggle with Scripture by “wrestling with God.” Held Evans’ writing possesses an earthiness shared by excellent Christian authors like CS Lewis and Madeline L’Engle that brings the faith to life. It’s worth one’s time to peruse this book.
Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again
By Rachel Held Evans
Narrated by Rachel Held Evans
Copyright (c) 2018
Thomas Nelson
ASIN B07CL4F6CC
Length: 6:45
Genre: Religion, Christianity
Sponsored link to www.amazon.com