Wholehearted faith

Long admired (and vilified) for her openness to question the Bible, God, and the practice of white evangelical Christianity, Evans' sudden death at the age of 37 in 2019 stunned large swaths of the Christian community. In the midst of working on a book when she died, close friend Chu agreed to bring the mostly-written text to fruition. Here, Evans takes issue with assertions that "a bulletproof belief system" is a hallmark of Christianity, positing that humility and openheartedness allow believers to gather in love and "ask the hard questions" together. Never cynical, the author admits that wrestling with Christianity would, for her, be lifelong, but she chose to remain a believer in spite of her doubts. She found freedom in not having to be a know-it-all. Christianity ought not be a debate one needs to win, but a way of life. Later chapters are especially fine as she grapples with how to pray for one's enemies, turning her hate mail into origami. Even readers unfamiliar with Evans' previous work will find much to appreciate.

This is a collection of new essays and other previously unpublished writings from Christian author and blogger Evans. Evans, who died in 2019 at the age of 37, penned several best-sellers from the point of view of a progressive Christian woman and is best known for A Year of Biblical Womanhood. Evans's writing ruffled feathers in the conservative Evangelical world where she grew up, but her quest to liberate her faith from fundamentalism garnered her a wide following of devoted fans. An introduction by friend and collaborator Jeff Chu looks at his relationship with Evans and at her untimely death. Evans's examination of the evolution of her belief--and her struggle to always believe--will be familiar to those who have read her work, but her musings are given particular poignancy by the reader's knowledge that her death was imminent and that her personal hopes for the future, for the wider Christian community, and for her own family, would not come to fruition. VERDICT Evans's honest questioning of Christian teachings and a God she mostly (but doesn't always) believe in will strike a chord with believers and agnostics alike.--Gail Eubanks, Univ. of Missouri, Springfield