Book review: "Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions"

I've been following the blog of Rachel Held Evans (LINK) for some time.  I cannot recall how I came across the site but have appreciated her honesty and insight in relation to her faith journey.  She, like me, has found herself on the 'wrong side'of orthodoxy in a number of debates that rage within evangelical circles - e.g. women and ministry, evolution/creation - and her blog gives expression to that struggle and the need to (a) be faithful to the scriptures, and (b) be Christlike in her responses and attitude to those who think differently,



I'm not intending to write a detailed review of EMT - you can find some excellent ones HERE, HERE and HERE. 



Some brief comments/observations from me:

• I read the book in just 48 hours - for me that makes it a real 'page-turner'! I have this bad habit of not finishing books because I lose interest or find another one that gets my attention ('bright shiny lights' as my friend Lamond says).  I could not wait to get to the end of this one and it did not disappoint.
• I am amazed that someone who is only about 30 years old can write with such depth of insight, piercing honesty and self-awareness. 
• I appreciate Rachel's ability to maintain her faith despite an ability to see the glaring inconsistencies in doctrine and practice that she identifies in the evangelical church - reminds of Peter's response to Jesus along the lines of, "To whom shall we go Lord?"  She seemed to have a real understanding of what was 'baby' and what was 'bathwater'.
• The writing itself is just beautiful - there are so many sentences and paragraphs that capture the thought perfectly and I found myself saying, 'yes, yes, yes" (or even 'Amen').

This is a book I would love to pass around but I think I would have to be very careful - people open to questions and shades or grey would find great comfort and resonance.  Folks who want/need a more black and white faith may find it too challenging, too edgy, too unsettling.



Here are a few quotable quotes to give a bit of the flavour of the book:

• "We are not saved by information. We are saved by restored relationship with God, which might look a little different from person to person, culture to culture, time to time...When we require that all people must say the same words or subscribe to the same creeds in order to experience God, we underestimate the scope and power of God's activity in the world." (p. 132)
• "The more committed we are to certain theological absolutes, the more likely we are to discount the work of the Spirit when it doesn't conform to our presuppositions." (p. 155)
• "I would tell them that the idea of a single, comprehensive biblical worldview to which all Christians can agree is a myth and that it's okay to ask questions about people's interpretations. I would tell them that this doesn't diminish the beauty and power of the Bible but rather enhances it and gives Christians something to talk about." (p. 185)
• "The Bible is perfection crammed into imperfect language, the otherworldly expressed in worldly ways, holiness written down by unholy hands, read by unholy eyes, and processed by unholy brains...In truth, the Bible represents a cacophony of voices. It is a text teeming with conflict and contrast, brimming with paradox, held together with creative tension." (p. 189)
• "The Bible doesn't exist in a vacuum but must always be interpreted by a predisposed reader. Our interpretations are colored by our culture, our community, our presuppositions, our experience, our language, our education, our emotions, our intellect, our desires, and our biases." (p. 192)
• "Perhaps our love for the Bible should be measured not by how valiantly we fight to convince others of our interpretations but by how diligently we work to preserve a diversity of opinion." (p. 194)
• "My interpretation can only be as inerrant as I am, and that's good to keep in mind." (p. 195)
• "But it seems to me that if evangelical Christians were the only ones to have God all figured out, then they would be the kindest, most generous people around...Most Christians I know are only interested in winning arguments, converts, and elections." (p. 201)
• "...But most rejected Christianity because they thought it means becoming judgmental, narrow-minded, intolerant, and unkind...Most weren't looking for a faith that provided all the answers; they were looking for one in which they were free to ask the questions." (pp. 203-204)
• "In fact, I am convinced that what drives most people away from Christianity is not the cost of discipleship but rather the cost of false fundamentals. False fundamentals make it impossible for faith to adapt to change." (p. 207)
• "In a way, we're all fundamentalists. We all have pet theological systems, political positions and standards of morality that are not essential to the gospel but that we cling to so tightly that we leave fingernail marks on the palms of our hands." (pp. 208-209)

Book Review: "How I Changed My Mind About Women in Leadership"

Personally, I am not sure that I have ever changed my mind about women in leadership.  I was raised in a conservative rural Baptist church and my Dad came from a brethren background so it was a given that women did not have leadership roles within our church and there was never any mention of women pastors etc.

I left these safe environs in 1972 and headed to DDIAE (now USQ) where with three other (female) friends we started a small Christian fellowship group.  They were exciting times as we shared together how best to witness for Christ on campus.  It never occurred to me that there might be a hierarchy in our leadership - we laboured together.  Much of my spiritual growth and development in the following years took place with the para-church setting of Scripture Union where, thank God, women exercised leadership and had a heavy influence on me - women like Betty Benn, Ruth Armstrong, Glenys Palmer and many others.

So for many years, while I understood that I was in a minority with my 'liberal' views on women in leadership, the issue did not bite until recently when at the church I attend, we decided to invite Greg and Ruth Peckman to out church as pastors.  Without going into a blow-by-blow description, suffice to say that a number of folk left the fellowship over this issue.  Suddenly it became real and not academic - suddenly I knew people with strong feelings on both sides of the debate!

I loved reading this book - it is not a theological book (though it does deal with the theological issues very well); it is not vitriolic book (though there is much passion and emotion in many of the stories - Tony Campalo does state his views with typical robustness!) - it is a book filled with 'eyewitness' accounts of what it has been like over the past 50 or so years to deal with this issue; to be branded as rebellious, liberal or unbiblical to hold a more inclusive view.  I felt sometimes saddened and mostly heartened as I read the stories.

Here is a taste of the various stories of how different leading evangelicals changed their mind on this topic

In the introduction (page 13), editor Alan Johnson writes:

"I was struck a few years back by a statement from the distinguished News Testament scholar, Dick France [who wrote that] ... 'he knows many evangelicals like himself who have changed their minds about women in leadership and pastoral ministries from a more restrictive view to an inclusive view. but he has never met an evangelical who has changed their mind in the opposite direction.'"

Chapter 2 was very moving.  Ruth Haley Barton describes her journey from a brethren style background and in a few short pages she describes both the journey and gives a succinct overview of the relevant biblical teaching.  While she did not directly deal with the 'difficult' passages relating to women in ministry, I appreciated her explanation of why not:

"One of the hermeneutical principles that I allowed to guide me ... was the idea that we are to look at the broad themes of Scripture and look at difficult passages in light of those great themes [such as] ... freedom for all who are oppressed ... when we require women to pay over and over again for Eve's transgression with their silence and submission, we negate the full redemptive power of the gospel.  Rather than becoming an example of relationships that have been redeemed, we model the curse ... I learned that an examination of Scripture's themes reveals that 'more than a hundred passages in the Bible affirm women in roles of leadership, and fewer than half a dozen appear in opposition,' and I was shocked to realise that we as Christians have built an elaborate system of belief and practice on only a few difficult passages.  These passages have loomed so large that we have allowed them to colour everything else we read."

I was particularly struck by her gracious approach.  I loved her concluding comment:

"By God's grace, I rarely find myself in settings these days where women are not received as equals in ministry, and this is a great blessing.  I have chosen not to speak on these issues anymore, nor do I even argue the point.  I have become convinced that it is much better for me to just do it - ministry that is - as God leads, and to do it to the best of my ability." (Page46)

A number of the authors, no doubt due to the fact that most come from an American background, draw a comparison with abolition of the slave trade.  Stanley N. Gundry (Chapter 7) explains how, during his doctoral research on American church history, he noticed that many church leaders opposed abolition stating that, "The defenders of slavery within churches all claimed the Bible as their starting point, and all developed their defense by appealing to Scripture ... With one voice Southern churchmen defending slavery charged that to reject slavery as sinful was to reject the Word of God."

He goes in to say that, "I had heard this reasoning before ... I was appalled and embarrassed that such an evil practice had been defended in the name of God and under the guise of biblical authority ... it slowly began to dawn on me that I heard every one of these arguments before ... to defend heirarchialism and argue against egalitarianism ... it hit me like a flash.  Some day Christians will be as embarrassed by the church's biblical defense of  patriarchal hierarchialism as it is now of the nineteenth century biblical defense of slavery."


The strength of Cornelius Plantinga's chapter (15) is his defense of the hermenuetic used by egalitarians to develop their position.  His explanation is based on a comparison with the hermeneutic used to defend the abolition of slavery.  Two relevant quotes will suffice, the first from FF Bruce:


"In general, where there are divided opinions about the interpretation of a Pauline passage, that interpretation which runs along the line of liberty is much more likely to be true to Paul's intention than one which smacks of bondage or legalism." (p194)

"Alongside the pain and humiliation it visits on women, besides the dminishments it brings to churches that drain or dam half their talent pool, the policy of exclusing women has become deeply embarrassing.  Males discuss somberly whether we ought to 'allow' women into church offices.  The discussion sounds so much like that of parents trying to decide whether their adolescents are ready to assume adult responsibilities.  It sounds so much like the majorities dithering over whether they ought to invite minorities into their club. It sounds like the church belongs to males." (p195)


All in all, an excellent read and one I would commend to those on both 'sides' of the debate.  Frankly, I found the theological arguments presented compelling (but then again, you would some would say!).  But more than that, I found the overall graciousness and humility of the various stories humbling and very encouraging.  For those who use this issue as some sort of test of Christian orthodoxy, please read and listen carefully!