Evolving In Monkey Town (Rachel Held Evans) – A Wonderful Picture of Evolutionary Discipleship

September 23, 2010 By Kurt Willems 5 Comments

About a month ago, I had the opportunity to read Rachel Held Evans’ first book – Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions.  It was truly a delightful and refreshingly honest book that had many resonances with my own spiritual journey.  Some of the main questions that we share are those that involve culture wars and also the nature and scope of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.  Not only so, but we have both had an “evolution” towards embracing theistic evolution.  But what is truly wonderful about this particular book is that it is not primarily about evolutionary biology, but about the nature of the evolution of the church and its disciples.  One of my favorite quotes (ok, in all honesty, her poetic use of language relinquishes several quotations that are worthy of being highlighted) explores the use of evolution as a metaphor rather than simply a biological perspective. She says:

Just as living organisms are said to evolve over time, so faith evolves, on both a personal and a collective level.  Spiritual evolution explains why Christianity has thrived while other ancient religions have perished.  It explains why our brothers and sisters in rural Zimbabwe and those in the Greek Orthodox Church can worship the same God but in much different ways.  Christianity never could have survived the ebb and flow of time, much less its own worldwide expansion, had God not created it with the innate ability to adapt to changing environments.  The same versatility that allowed Paul to become all things to all people applies to the church collectively.  The ability of the body of Christ to change—to grow fins when it needs to swim and wings when it needs to fly—has preserved it for over two thousand years, despite countless predictions of its imminent demise.  (Evolving In Monkey Town, 21)

After reading this book, one thing is clear: it is difficult to put down!  I read it in two sittings.  Rachel has given us an insider’s look on how an authentic follower of Jesus always has room to evolve.  Her personal evolution is a wonderful picture of the discipleship journey; an evolution of the soul so to speak.  I recommend it.  I may read it a second time.  I hope to buy some copies as stocking stuffers for my family and friends!

Below is a chance for you to hear from Rachel directly.  This video will give you a glimpse into her life and the passion she brings to her book.

Filed Under: Books, Evolution Tagged With: , , 5 Comments
  • http://www.spoonfulofdreams.co.uk Chris Price

    My foremost reservation concerning the embracing of evolution, what I am picking up from this post and my brief look at the Biologos website is that we may be allowing science to colour our view of the Bible rather than examining scripture in the light of scientific discoveries and and asking it to respond. In the past the church has been guilty of defending dogma to the point of holding its hands up to its ears. It has constrained the Bible to its own culture and tradition and, like the Jews that Jesus challenged, has assimilated scripture into its man made religious framework so that one is indistinguishable from the other. The evangelical church is largely creationist and has rightly rejected Darwin. Unfortunately it has been generally ignorant of why, specifically, Darwinianism is anti Christian.

    We live in a post modern age but while the evangelical church is anti-rational, like atheistic science its approach to the debate is ‘modern’ and so, like to equals, they do battle with no one having the edge. The absolutes of 6 day creation and inerrancy simply cancel out the absolutes of reason and evolution fact. The approach I am seeking is to see the ultimate truth of the Bible as absolute but our received wisdom as somewhat relative so removing our justification of standing on the Book like it was a rock. I therefore see science and religion as fluid but my faith as immutable and my ultimate authority being the Spirit of Jesus on whom I believed without reason or fact.

    This kind of leaves me in a place where I’m not absolutely sure what I believe but knowing that the spirit of truth will guide me into all wisdom. There is a tension whereby reason and empirical evidence won’t allow me to be carried away with silly theologies but, at the same time, my ultimate authority is God and his written word. My bias is always to his word because it never changes unlike science and my beliefs which do seem to evolve.

  • http://www.taintedcanvas.com Jonathan Sigmon

    I LOVED this book! I agree that it was so well written and thought out. My new wife and I are reading it together and are having really fruitful conversations from it (and we are people who have been Christians since we came out of the womb). We are taking a long time to read because it is SO good. We’re digesting every sentence together.

    Kurt – I love the topics you cover and your take on a lot of these issues (KoG, politics, non-violence, etc).

    Blessings to you brother.

    • http://groansfromwithin.com Kurt Willems

      Jonathan, I am obviously with you on the book. Rachel is speaking in many ways (from her own context and experience) for a whole generation of us. Our journeys have been quite a bit different and some of our questions differ, but there is no doubt that her book is a gift to us. Great discussion starter that is for sure.

      Also, thanks for your graciousness regarding my blog. I have been at this for about two years and it has been incredible to see how many people I have met in the blogosphere… just hope that I will be able to meet them in an incarnated sense as well. Blessings to you bro and please feel free to visit the site and add your thoughtful comments any time!

  • http://openmindedconversations.blogspot.com/ Josh Mueller

    Rachel’s journey very much mirrors my own. And I can totally relate to the desire that others would not only understand it and stop judging it as something anti-Christian but also be willing to at least allow the possibility that a very different interpretation of biblical texts in their relation to scientific facts is indeed possible and in no way detrimental to our faith in the creator and redeemer. The fracturing in the church over these issues is much more troublesome to me than the incompatibility of different conclusions themselves Christians arrive at in their investigation of the questions and issues. The “slippery slope” argument in particular and the fears generated by it have been a big hindrance in my own past to engage in this debate in an open and honest fashion. I was led to believe that certain things simply could not be true if I wanted to rescue my own faith – and I bought into it hook, line and sinker. If only an organization like biologos had been around when I was struggling with these tensions in High School, it could have spared me a lot of unnecessary heartache and crusader mentality, trying to save the world from Darwinism armed with Henry Morris and Dr. Wilder-Smith – with arguments that no YEC proponent today dares to even mention anymore because they altogether have been debunked.