These words are from the first book I picked up by Rachel Held Evans, which I delved into shortly after reading American journalist and best-selling author A. J. Jacobs' The Year of Living Biblically. Jacobs chronicled his experiment to live for one year according to all the moral codes expressed in the Bible, including stoning adulterers, blowing a shofar at the beginning of every month, and refraining from trimming the corners of his facial hair (which he followed by not trimming his facial hair at all). According to her book description, Rachel was intrigued by the traditionalist resurgence that led many of her friends to abandon their careers to assume traditional gender roles in the home, and like Jacobs, she decided to try it for herself, vowing to take all of the Bible's instructions for women as literally as possible for a year.
At the time I was reading A Year of Biblical Womanhood, I was in the throes of surviving the early life of our beautiful twin babies, and I was trying to make the most of short weeks and long days. After I opened the first few pages, I didn't put it down until I was finished laughing, crying, and contemplating my own faith life. As author and public theologian Phyllis Tickle wrote of the book: "A bittersweet cocktail of wisdom and absurdity that will charm you, entertain you, seduce you and, finally, instruct you!" At that point I had been following Rachel's blog since 2010, and I decided to go back to her first book, Evolving in Monkey Town—later published as Faith Unraveled—which did not disappoint with its compelling and honest storytelling. It simply resonated so much for me. More than that, here was a young woman asking hard questions about church and faith.
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