Christian Living
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Wholehearted Faith
"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the help of her close friend and author Jeff Chu, that work-in-progress has been woven together with some of her other unpublished writings into a rich collection of essays that ask candid questions about the stories we've been told-and the stories we tell-about our faith, our selves, and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.
"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.
Editorial Reviews
"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
"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
"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
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
"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
"Wholehearted Faith…feels nothing short of radical."
-- The Washington Post
"Long admired (and vilified) for her openness to question the Bible, God, and the practice of white evangelical Christianity, Evans takes issue with assertions that ‘a bulletproof belief system' is a hallmark of Christianity. . . . Even readers unfamiliar with Evans' previous work will find much to appreciate." -- Library Journal
"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
"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
"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
"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
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
"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
"Wholehearted Faith…feels nothing short of radical."
-- The Washington Post
"Long admired (and vilified) for her openness to question the Bible, God, and the practice of white evangelical Christianity, Evans takes issue with assertions that ‘a bulletproof belief system' is a hallmark of Christianity. . . . Even readers unfamiliar with Evans' previous work will find much to appreciate." -- Library Journal
"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
"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
Readers Top Reviews
Traci Rhoades
I laughed and cried through all of these essays. Rachel is all-loving, and willing to be fully honest about her Christian faith. Her approach emulates Christ and invites others to seek him. Very great commission kind of stuff. History, tradition, personal narrative. It made me miss her.
Jeff and Tonya
This is one of the harder reviews I've ever written. Not because the book wasn't amazing - this was easily Evans' strongest book since Searching for Sunday, and thus the book that I'd always hoped she would be able to write again. But because of how it came about, and, perhaps, how it came to be in such strong form. Evans' sudden illness and then death in the Spring of 2019 shocked any who had ever heard of her, and in fact on the day of her funeral I read Faith Unraveled as my own private funeral for this woman that had given voice to so many of my own thoughts in Searching For Sunday, thus gaining a fan, and yet who in subsequent books had strayed so far afield that even as a member of her "street team" for the last book she published before her death, Inspired, I couldn't give it the glowing review expected of such members, and so felt I had to leave the group. This was something I actually discussed with both Evans and the PA that was leading the team, and neither one of them in any way suggested it - yet my own honor had demanded it. With this book, finished from an unfinished manuscript by her friend Jeff Chu and clearly still in the research and pondering phases when Evans was suddenly cut from this reality, the commitments to her progressive ideals that ultimately derailed so much of Inspired still shine through, but the more humble, the more questioning nature of Searching For Sunday form much more of the substance of the book. Thus, for me, this book is truly both the best and the fullest representation of the Evans that I knew only through reading her books and occasionally speaking with her as a member of that street team. I've never read anything from Chu, so I don't know his voice as an author, but there is truly nothing here that doesn't sound as though Held herself wrote it - which actually speaks to just how much care Chu put into his own contributions, as there is truly no way to pull such seamlessness off without intense concentration and care. I was tortured in writing my review of Inspired because Evans *was* someone I looked up to after Searching For Sunday. She was a contemporary, along with Jonathan Merritt, who grew up in a similar region and culture as I did and thus with whom I was able to identify so many similar experiences in similar times and places. (To be clear, if any of the three of us were ever in the same place - even the same evangelical Christian teen megaconference - at the same time growing up, I never knew of it.) And I am tortured now both because I of what I had to write in that review to maintain my sought-after as-close-to-objective-as-I-can-be standard of reviewing and because of what this particular book means in the face of her death over two years ago. But I do find solace in that even knowing all of this is going on in my head writing this review, there was truly nothing here that ...
MWABoothLori Loop
The last words of Rachel Held Evans are beautifully preserved and presented in this volume. Hers is a poetic and prophetic voice of truth, humility, and love. Jeff Chu did an excellent job.
