Wholehearted Faith

by Rachel Held Evans, Jeff Chu

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Rachel Held Evans was a Christian author whose books recorded her journey from religious certainty to a more questioning faith. Her death in 2019, at the heartbreaking age of 37, ignited an outpouring of grief. There were just a few projects left unpublished at her death, and Wholehearted Faith is the last.

New York Times Bestseller

“A touching series of essays in which Held Evans, with Chu’s invisible pen, explores how one might find a path forward in Christianity beyond conservative evangelicalism” -Eliza Griswold, The New Yorker

“Evans died at 37, but a beautiful new book captures her brave outlook. . . . I could not help but notice the poetry in Evans’s prose. . . . What readers will find in these pages was someone deeply human: funny, irreverent, curious, wise, forgiving, nonjudgmental.” -The Washington Post

A new collection of original writings by Rachel Held Evans, whose reflections on faith and life continue to encourage, challenge, and influence. 

Rachel Held Evans is widely recognized for her theologically astute, profoundly honest, and beautifully personal books, which have guided, instructed, edified, and shaped Christians as they seek to live out a just and loving faith.

At the time of her tragic death in 2019, Rachel was working on a new book about wholeheartedness. With the help of her close friend and author Jeff Chu, that work-in-progress has been woven together with some of her other unpublished writings into a rich collection of essays that ask candid questions about the stories we’ve been told—and the stories we tell—about our faith, our selves, and our world.

This book is for the doubter and the dreamer, the seeker and the sojourner, those who long for a sense of spiritual wholeness as well as those who have been hurt by the Church but can’t seem to let go of the story of Jesus. Through theological reflection and personal recollection, Rachel wrestles with God’s grace and love, looks unsparingly at what the Church is and does, and explores universal human questions about becoming and belonging. An unforgettable, moving, and intimate book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062894472
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	11/02/2021
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	9,867
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Rachel Held Evans (1981–2019) was the New York Times bestselling author of Inspired, Searching for Sunday, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, and Faith Unraveled. Rachel’s words about faith, doubt, and life were featured not only on her own blog but also in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, The Guardian, and the Huffington Post. She appeared on NPR, BBC, the Today show, and The View. She served on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She lived with her husband and two children in Dayton, Tennessee.

Jeff Chu is co-curator of Evolving Faith, alongside Sarah Bessey, who founded the gathering with Rachel Held Evans. He is also the author of Does Jesus Really Love Me? and an editor-at-large at Travel+Leisure. He, his husband, Tristan, and their dog, Fozzie, make their home in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Table of Contents

Foreword Daniel Jonce Evans ix

Introduction Jeff Chu xiv

Prologue: Because They Said Yes 1

Part 1 Wholehearted Faith

1 On the Days When I Believe 17

2 My Wicked Little Heart 25

3 Where Stone Becomes Flesh 41

4 The Liberation of the Know-It-All 49

5 Thick Skin, Tender Heart 57

6 Jonathan Edwards Is Not My Homeboy 64

Part 2 Essays on the Christian Life

7 Beginning Again with Love 79

8 From Death to Life 88

9 The Steady Work of Living Water 104

10 Many Voices, Many Masks 117

11 Wilderness 127

12 God Has Made a Home with Us 136

13 Loving Our Enemies 152

14 Dwelling in Sabbath 167

Epilogue: Telos 176

Afterword by the Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber 183

Notes 189

Editorial Reviews

12/01/2021

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

Library Journal

“A touching series of essays in which Held Evans, with Chu’s invisible pen, explores how one might find a path forward in Christianity beyond conservative evangelicalism”  — The New Yorker

"What readers will find in these pages — what I found — was someone deeply human: funny, irreverent, curious, wise, forgiving, nonjudgmental. She admits that a person of faith has doubts, carries anger and sometimes cannot reconcile, or carte blanche accept, certain aspects of Christianity. She shows us ourselves." — The Washington Post

“Tackles topics like grace, doubt and sacrifice while somehow embodying the advice of its first author to its second: ‘Thick skin, tender heart.’” — New York Times

“I love everything Rachel Held Evans wrote, and I love her profound, warm-hearted, brilliant storytelling. Her books have always thrown the theological lights on for me, charmed the pants off me, entertained and enlightened me.” — Anne Lamott, author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Help, Thanks, Wow

"This beautiful book is a bittersweet sanctuary. I'm grateful to Jeff Chu for coming alongside her words with such faithfulness to ensure that her voice rings true in every line. For those of us who find ourselves wandering in the wilderness, this is a respite from our most trusted leader." — Sarah Bessey, New York Times bestselling author of A Rhythm of Prayer and Jesus Feminist

“Gorgeous, heartfelt and bittersweet. Rachel Held Evans spent her beautiful life trying to convince us that, all along, God’s love was for absolutely everyone. At last, we must believe her.”  — Kate Bowler, author of No Cure for Being Human and Everything Happens for a Reason

“A voice like Rachel’s endures in the time machine of her writing. All who love the sound of it owe Jeff Chu a deep bow. A vision like hers outlives a single lifetime. What she discovered, she made available to us; now it’s our turn to carry on.”   — Barbara Brown Taylor, author of An Altar in the World and Learning to Walk in the Dark 

If you feel even a shred of internal division, Wholehearted Faith will help you put the pieces back together. This book is a special gift—I've already gone back for a second and third read. Each page invites you toward an honest and humane wholeness.  — Brian D. McLaren, author of Faith After Doubt

“Like all of her work, [Wholehearted Faith] is warm, wise, and intimate. . . . Evans doesn’t shame the ignorant. She delights us into knowledge on the way to wisdom. . . . One can see why Evans’s critics pounce. She likes to draw out their poison to bring healing.” — The Christian Century

"A lifeline for disenchanted Christians. We are fortunate to have it as her last word." — Spirituality and Practice

“Her quest to liberate her faith from fundamentalism garnered her a wide following of devoted fans. . . . 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.” — Library Journal

“Wholehearted Faith speaks equally well to all; book groups will find rich fodder for discussions, parents will find support for raising tender-hearted Christian children and pastors will find that perfect illustration for Sunday’s sermon." — The Presbyterian Outlook 

From the Publisher

Wholehearted Faith speaks equally well to all; book groups will find rich fodder for discussions, parents will find support for raising tender-hearted Christian children and pastors will find that perfect illustration for Sunday’s sermon."

The Presbyterian Outlook 

Like all of her work, [Wholehearted Faith] is warm, wise, and intimate. . . . Evans doesn’t shame the ignorant. She delights us into knowledge on the way to wisdom. . . . One can see why Evans’s critics pounce. She likes to draw out their poison to bring healing.

The Christian Century

If you feel even a shred of internal division, Wholehearted Faith will help you put the pieces back together. This book is a special gift—I've already gone back for a second and third read. Each page invites you toward an honest and humane wholeness. 

Brian D. McLaren

Gorgeous, heartfelt and bittersweet. Rachel Held Evans spent her beautiful life trying to convince us that, all along, God’s love was for absolutely everyone. At last, we must believe her.” 

Kate Bowler

Wholehearted Faith…feels nothing short of radical.”

The Washington Post

A voice like Rachel’s endures in the time machine of her writing. All who love the sound of it owe Jeff Chu a deep bow. A vision like hers outlives a single lifetime. What she discovered, she made available to us; now it’s our turn to carry on.”  

Barbara Brown Taylor

A touching series of essays in which Held Evans, with Chu’s invisible pen, explores how one might find a path forward in Christianity beyond conservative evangelicalism” 

The New Yorker

"This beautiful book is a bittersweet sanctuary. I'm grateful to Jeff Chu for coming alongside her words with such faithfulness to ensure that her voice rings true in every line. For those of us who find ourselves wandering in the wilderness, this is a respite from our most trusted leader."

Sarah Bessey

I love everything Rachel Held Evans wrote, and I love her profound, warm-hearted, brilliant storytelling. Her books have always thrown the theological lights on for me, charmed the pants off me, entertained and enlightened me.

Anne Lamott

A touching series of essays in which Held Evans, with Chu’s invisible pen, explores how one might find a path forward in Christianity beyond conservative evangelicalism” 

The New Yorker