Wholehearted Faith by Rachel Held Evans
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Web ID: 17686784A must-read for your faith journey
I love this book! Reading Rachel Held Evans is like a cozy Saturday morning coffee chat with a very best friend. She digs deep, advises well, and loves beautifully. “Wholehearted Faith” deepened my faith journey, wrapped me in God’s love and left me sad and lonely knowing that Mrs. Evans no longer walks among us. Thankfully, though, through this book, her memory and faithfulness can go on living. A wonderful reminder of God’s never ending love.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Everything We Loved About Rachel Held Evans
It's fair to say that when Rachel Held Evans passed away in 2019 at the age of 37, those of us who embrace a more progressive theology and those of us who'd wrestled with contemporary Christianity and the Church as a whole were devastated at the loss of such an intelligent, talented, and passionate soul at far too early an age. Held Evans, well, "held" space for those of us who'd been wounded by Christianity and offered safe and sacred spaces for questions, doubts, searching, and wondering. Yet, she also believed. "Wholehearted Faith" is, as we're told, the book that Rachel Held Evans was moving toward when she passed away in 2019. To call it a perfect book would be somewhat inaccurate. After all, it wasn't finished and it's clear in some of the writings that Held Evans herself was still wrestling with ideas, thoughts, essays, and sorting out her wonderings like she always encouraged us to do. Her close friend and author Jeff Chu has helped bring like to these writings while also adding her other unpublished writings into this collection called "Wholehearted Faith." Life is weird. We're given some seemingly random period of time in these physical bodies of ours. It will always seem weird to me that someone like Held Evans, a 37-year-old respected and and profound Christian author with a husband and children and a myriad of friends and followers, could be so seemingly healthy yet pass away at 37-years-old while someone like myself, a double-amputee/paraplegic with spina bifida who's lived with the label of "terminally ill" for 50+ years could unimaginably survive and thrive multiple life-threatening illnesses. It doesn't make sense. I'm not sure I want it to. I'd met Held Evans briefly at a conference I attended and, like most people, I was struck by her at-ease personality and naturalness. It was a brief yet memorable meeting that helped me give personality to her books (which I'd not yet read when I met her). This same feeling added a sense of melancholy to "Wholehearted Faith," an otherwise life-giving work filled with theological reflections and personal recollections. This was always the approach Held Evans took to her writings - immersion in both Scripture and in her own experience with it. There's an underlying power in "Wholehearted Faith" precisely because it's apparent that Held Evans wasn't yet done searching through her heart and mind with this material. It's an unfinished work and it feels unfinished. Chu has, of course, masterfully facilitated its presentation here. I in no way mean that it feels unsatisfying. It's incredibly satisfying. You can just feel Held Evans wrestling with this material as you read it and there are times you can't help but feel like there's an unfinished thought or idea. To Chu's massive credit, he doesn't try to finish it for her. While Chu's presence is undeniable here, "Wholehearted Faith" is undeniably the voice of Rachel Held Evans in all its power, glory, simplicity, and honesty. I loved every moment of "Wholehearted Faith." It's a book that makes you want Rachel Held Evans back. It's a book that reminds you of the preciousness of her voice and it's a book that holds space for those of us who long for spiritual wholeness and safety amidst a Church that often feels broken and leaves us feeling insecure. I can't even imagine what it's like for those who were truly close to Held Evans. For people like her husband, Dan, and her children and those peers, like Nadia Bolz Weber, who called her "friend," this book has to smack of incredible warm and fuzzies dipped in immense grief and even more wonderings. I loved "Wholehearted Faith," a modestly disjointed and occasionally incomplete spiritual exploration about living a wholehearted faith that is perfectly imperfect and gloriously intimate and also universal. It's Rachel Held Evans and everything we loved about her.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
An encouraging read for the weary believer
Rachel Held Evans is a voice that will be so missed. I appreciate her skilled writing, her willingness to ask questions, and her masterful storytelling. If you want to integrate your faith into your life in a more wholistic way, this is a book worth your time.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Wonderful final word from RHE
I was a latecomer to Rachel Held Evans' work. When she tragically died in 2019, I was aware of her but had yet to familiarize myself with her. I'm sad to say that it was the attention her death received that gave me the nudge I needed. I read Searching for Sunday within the year and it had a deep impact on me. I've since taken a deep dive into the Evolving Faith world and found so much truth, beauty, and connection in that space. Picking up Wholehearted Faith was a bittersweet experience, for obvious reasons, but I once again found myself deeply drawn to Rachel's openheartedness, her grace, her self-deprecating humor, and her deep love for Jesus. Rachel and I had similar upbringings, so I chuckled along with her stories about earning her Best Christian award, attending Awana, and immersion in Christian books and music. But I also resonated strongly with her reminder to not throw out the baby with the bathwater as we question and doubt everything we were taught to believe. "Wholeheartedness means that we can be doubtful and still find rest in the tender embrace of a God who isn't threatened by human inconsistency. Wholeheartedness means that we can ask bold questions, knowing that God loves us not just in spite of them but also because of them -- and because of the searching, seeking spirits that inspire us to want to know God more deeply. Wholeheartedness means that we can approach the throne of grace in the confidence of the God who made us, the God who redeemed us, and the God who accompanies us." The essays contained in Wholehearted Faith feel slightly disconnected, through no fault of its own since this was finished by Jeff Chu posthumously. I am thankful to have it for what it is and simultaneously saddened that we won't hear anymore from the incomparable RHE, echet chayil. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
An honor to read
What a gift we have been given in this posthumous release. Good luck not crying near the end when Rachel writes of their new home and their kids playing in the yard… progressive Christianity lost a strong voice and leader when RHE left us. It was an honor to read her final work.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Good Overview of Her Work
I was so happy to find this book, after hearing about Rachel Held Evans for a few years. In the introduction, her friend, Jeff Chu, explained that the book was a collection of Ms. Evans' talks, blog posts, and other writings, so I felt I got a good overview of her beliefs. As with most inspirational books, the parts I found most interesting were the parts where she found a way to make a biblical point by talking about her own life. This book would be best enjoyed by readers who love (and miss) Ms. Evans' writing and by anyone who believes we are beloved by God (and are worthy of that). Thank-you to HarperOne and Netgalley for the ARC of this title.
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5 wholehearted and enthusiastic stars
I am a newcomer to Rachel Held Evans’ writing. On my tablet I use colors to highlight important parts, emotional parts, this rings true parts and WOW this is very important, bright yellow – come back here. Wholehearted Faith became a rainbow of lovely as I digested new meanings and reflected on old truths in my faith with the help of Jeff Chu who sorted out Rachel’s poignant writings. Rachel writes honestly, from her heart, reaching out to touch the familiar. “On the days when I believe, I feel enfolded in a story so much greater than my own. It’s a story that knits together a thousand generations of saints – which is to say, folks like you and me, who wrestle with their questions and their doubts… who wonder whether they belong and whether they’re loved. It’s a story that makes audacious claims about a man-god named Jesus and calls us into his outstretched arms. “ “Many of us have found a renewed sense of possibility when we’ve realized how much of God’s beauty remains to be explored – and that the life of faith is also a life of holy curiosity.” The Christian faith leaves room for honest questioning, but too many people forget that, or that God yearns for our wholehearted ‘realationship.’ At various points she points out that God is strong enough and tender enough for our questions. I learned new things about the Genesis story of Adam and Eve. Besides those understandings, I learned, “It’s not a story about how God turned away from creation but rather a story about how God, in God’s relentless way, moved toward creation while giving people the freedom to make choices, to test boundaries, to rebel, to wreak havoc, to grow up.” How refreshing. She speaks of community and Jell-O molds and love that is deeper, wider, more secure than our imaginations. Wholehearted faith is a book I will buy both for myself and for loved ones for the times we need to be reminded we live in “a world that has so much beauty and goodness and vibrancy to offer because it was created out of love.” Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A beautiful gift to us
What a gift Jeff Chu, along with Rachel Held Evans’ family—Dan, Amanda, and more— have given to us by taking the rough draft of Rachel’s final, unfinished book and lovingly shaping it into Wholehearted Faith. As Jeff says at the beginning, this is of course not the book that Rachel would have written had she lived to be able to shape it into its final form herself, but these are indeed her words and her voice and it feels like such grace to be able to have them. I first read the book on Kindle but then immediately turned around upon finishing and listened to it on audio, too. I was worried that the audiobook, not being read by Rachel herself, was going to feel too sad, but instead, hearing Rachel’s friend and colleagues read her words felt comforting and right. This book was challenging, insightful, beautifully written, humorous, and insightful. It is a book that speaks to this very moment in the life of the church and the world. If you have found yourself wondering what faith and the church can possibly look like going forward in the face of *gestures broadly* all of this, Wholehearted Faith is for you. It’s a book I know I’ll continue to re-read and savor many more times. Thank you so much to Jeff Chu and HarperOne for an advanced copy of this book for review. I am forever grateful that this book exists.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com