It was this description that caught my attention. In Evolving in Monkey Town, Rachel Held Evans recounts her experiences growing up in Dayton, Tennessee, a town that epitomized Christian fundamentalism during the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. With fearless honesty, Evans describes how her faith survived her doubts and challenges readers to re-imagine Christianity in a postmodern context, where knowing all the answers isn't as important as asking the questions.
I was drawn to the book since my daughter had just finished playing Melinda Loomis in Inherit the Wind and I the role of a scientist. I expected the book to have more about the trial but that was mainly limited to chapter 3 - Monkey Town. But within the fourteen pages, I did learn the play took many creative licenses to create a much more dramatic story.
Although the author and I do not share the same Christian background and disagree about some things such as the number of inspired books of the Bible and the relationship of the apostle James to Jesus we both went through doubts, questions and searching for Faith. I questioned teachings in high school religion class, I tried out other churches during college, even as a young wife/mother I attended Protestant Bible study. My searching and questioning lead me right back to the Catholic Church.
I do agree with Rachel Evans that doubt is the mechanism by which faith evolves." Evolving in Monkey Town will not provide answers to your questions; if anything it will make you ask questions and see God in the answers.
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Evolving in Monkey Town was provided to me as part of the Blog Spot Tour. I received no other compensation for my honest review.
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