Evolving in Monkey Town : how a girl who knew all the answers learned to ask the questions

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. Front Cover......Page 1 Praises for book......Page 3 Half-Title......Page 7 Title......Page 9 Copyright......Page 10 Dedication......Page 11 Contents......Page 12 Preface......Page 15 Introduction: Why I Am an Evolutionist......Page 17 Part 1: Habitat......Page 27 1. The Best Christian Attitude Award......Page 29 2. June the Ten Commandments Lady......Page 47 3. Monkey Town......Page 53 4. Greg the Apologist......Page 67 5. When Skeptics Ask......Page 71 Part 2: Challenge......Page 83 6. Nathan the Soldier......Page 85 7. When Believers Ask......Page 91 8. Jesus, God in Sandals......Page 103 9. Survivor's Guilt......Page 111 10. John the Revelator......Page 123 11. Higher Ways......Page 129 12. Laxmi the Widow......Page 141 13. God Things......Page 147 14. Mark the Evangelist......Page 159 15. Judgment Day......Page 163 16. Adele the Oxymoron......Page 179 17. Sword Drills......Page 183 Part 3: Change......Page 199 18. Sam the Feminist......Page 201 19. Adaptation......Page 205 20. Dan the Fixer......Page 215 21. Living the Questions......Page 219 Acknowledgments......Page 231 Notes......Page 233 Publisher & Author contact......Page 236 Back Cover......Page 238 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. In Evolving in Monkey Town, Rachel Held Evans recounts her experiences growing up in Dayton, Tennessee, a town that epitomized Christian fundamentalism during the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. With fearless honesty, Evans describes how her faith survived her doubts and challenges readers to re-imagine Christianity in a postmodern context, where knowing all the answers isn't as important as asking the questions