{"id":6645,"date":"2010-08-10T12:25:03","date_gmt":"2010-08-10T12:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html"},"modified":"2010-08-10T12:25:03","modified_gmt":"2010-08-10T12:25:03","slug":"evolving-in-monkey-town-justin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html","title":{"rendered":"Evolving in Monkey Town: Justin Topp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em> by Rachel Held Evans<\/p>\n

Zondervan<\/p>\n

ISBN 978-0310293996<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Justin Topp, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology, North Park University<\/p>\n

Blog: http:\/\/scienceandtheology.wordpress.com\/<\/a>  and Twitter: JustinTopp<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The biggest complaint my students have about me is that my tests are too hard.  <\/span>I use a variety of different types of questions, but the majority are either multiple-choice or essay questions.  <\/span>Students have a clear preference between the two.  <\/span>“Why can’t you make all the questions multiple-choice?” they often ask.  <\/span>Evidently, these types of questions are easier to answer, perhaps because they think that they can better prepare for them and because they only have to choose one correct solution amongst a bunch of otherwise obviously wrong ones.  <\/span>I tell them that when they graduate and start their first day at their first job they will be shocked to find out that their supervisor doesn’t give them a list of multiple-choice questions to be answered before clocking out for the day.  <\/span>They chuckle… and then go back to complaining.<\/p>\n

Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions<\/u> is a memoir of Rachel Held Evans and her journey to answer the essay questions of life and Christianity.  <\/span>Rachel grew up in Dayton, Tennessee, known as the home of the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial featuring science (evolution) vs. religion (Christianity), with Clarence Darrow vs. William Jennings Bryan as the undercard.  <\/span>This geography and history provides the setting for Rachel’s spiritual journey, which she describes as an evolution of her faith via adaptation.  <\/span>Biologists like me dig the metaphor, but the reader will see that it is apt, accurate, and foundational as her story unfolds.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

 First off, Rachel is a great writer.  <\/span>I read her book twice.  <\/span>In two settings.  <\/span>I would caution and encourage readers
\nto not take the readability of the book for granted though as there is profound
\ntruth within these pages that demands some digesting. While I am young, I can
\ncount on one or two hands the number of books that I feel are so important that
\nthey need to be read multiple times throughout one’s life.  <\/span>Yes, this is one of them. <\/span><\/p>\n

Rachel’s story is one of coming out of a “having all the
\nanswers” Evangelical Christianity into an “it’s okay to live in the questions” evangelical
\nChristianity.  <\/span>Moving from seeing
\nthe world as black and white to shades of gray.  <\/span>Us and them to us only.  <\/span>From assent to particular beliefs to a vibrant faith.  <\/span>It is a great story that is shared with
\nwisdom, compassion, honesty, sarcasm, intelligence, and wit.<\/p>\n

While Rachel’s journey is one of soul-searching and
\nquestioning of her authorities, it is important to note that it is not one of
\nrebellion.  <\/span>She was not trying to
\nescape or run away from the upbringing of her “horrible” and “fundamentalist”
\nparents and community.  <\/span>The people
\nthat surround her are presented with sincerity, humility, and kindness.  <\/span>Rachel is also not out to prove anyone
\nwrong.  <\/span>She is simply sharing her
\nfaith story.  <\/span>And in her story, the
\napologetics and argument-based belief system version of Christianity that she
\nherself built (with the help of others, of course) couldn’t survive the cracks
\nof evolution, religious pluralism, homosexuality etc. that were often
\nillustrated to her by specific people in her life.  <\/span>Ideas and statistics became people with faces and because of
\nher compassionate spirit Rachel couldn’t allow herself to ignore them. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since Rachel’s prose is so great, I feel it would do her and
\nthe book a disservice if I didn’t include a couple of snippets that I found to
\nbe most engaging.  <\/span>The first is
\nRachel describing her reaction after graduating from college armed to “fight
\nthe fight” for Christ and entering the real world, only to realize the fight
\nwas nonexistent, or at least very <\/i>different
\nfrom what she had expected (p. 203-4):<\/p>\n

It’s always a little embarrassing
\nwhen you come out swinging and there’s nobody there to fight with you.  <\/span>I think that’s how a lot of us felt
\nwhen we realized that the world wasn’t asking the questions we had learned to
\nanswer.  <\/span>Many of us who grew up in
\nthe church or received Christian educations were under the impression that the
\nworld was full of atheists and agnostics and that the greatest threat against
\nChristianity was the rise of secular humanism.  <\/span>But what we found upon entering the real world was that most
\nof our peers were receptive to spiritual things.  <\/span>Most believed in God, were open to the supernatural, and
\nrespected ideas so long as they were not forced upon them… They weren’t
\nsearching for historical evidence in support of the bodily resurrection of
\nJesus.  <\/span>They were searching for
\nsome signs of life among his followers.<\/p>\n

Not once after graduating from
\nBryan was I asked to make a case for the scientific feasibility of miracles,
\nbut often I was asked why Christians aren’t more like Jesus.  <\/span>I have met one or two people who
\nrejected Christianity because they had difficulties with the deity of Christ,
\nbut most rejected because they thought it means becoming judgmental,
\nnarrow-minded, intolerant, and unkind. 
\n<\/span>People didn’t argue with me about the problem of evil; they argued about
\nwhy Christians aren’t doing more to alleviate human suffering, support the
\npoor, and oppose violence and war. 
\n<\/span>Most weren’t looking for a faith that provided all the answers; they
\nwere looking for one in which they were free to ask questions.<\/p>\n

The next example illustrates how much the cracks in her
\nbelief system affected her faith in God. 
\n<\/span>Lest anyone think that the evolution of her faith journey was one of
\nsimple adaptation, it is quite clear from her words that extinction was an
\noption.  <\/span>Rachel, with her trademark
\nwit (p. 115):<\/p>\n

Sarah looked ready to give up.  <\/span>“God’s ways are higher than our ways,
\nRachel.  <\/span>At some point you have to
\naccept the fact that you cannot understand everything he does.  <\/span>He is the potter.  <\/span>You are the clay.  <\/span>The clay can’t tell the potter what to
\ndo.”<\/p>\n

“You know what, Sarah?  <\/span>I’m starting to wonder if maybe we made
\nthis potter up.”<\/p>\n

… While some friends declared my
\nfaith dead on arrival, others insisted on defibrillation via systematic
\ntheology.  <\/span>Most insistent was my
\nfriend Andy, who sent me an email with the subject line “just checking in”
\nafter hearing from someone (who heard from someone else) that I’d become a
\nuniversalist, or a Buddhist, or something really terrible, like an Anglican…<\/p>\n

And finally, Rachel coming to a tentative conclusion in her
\nstruggle with religious pluralism, the struggle that seemed to give Rachel the
\ngreatest pause (p. 129-30):<\/p>\n

For as long as I can remember, the
\nassumption has been that the Bible speaks definitively about eternity, and that
\nthe news is not good for people like Zarmina.  <\/span>Born-again Christians go to heaven.  <\/span>Everyone else goes to hell.  <\/span>End of story.  <\/span>Those of us who lack the fortitude to accept God’s Word on
\nthe subject are just “Burger King Christians”.  <\/span>We want to “have it our way.” <\/span><\/p>\n

The problem for me is that such a
\nscheme – which renders most people damned from the start based on geographical
\ndisadvantages – never sat well with my conscience, and my conscience is a big
\npart of my faith.  <\/span>In fact, C.S.
\nLewis argued that the basic, intuitive sense of right and wrong written on every
\nhuman heart serves as evidence for the very existence of God.  <\/span>He called this phenomenon the “moral
\nlaw”, and he used it to make a case for the reasonableness of faith.  <\/span>It seems to me that to ignore my
\nconscience is to ignore the same voice that sings when I read the words of
\nJesus, that clears its throat when I’m about to do something wrong, that speaks
\nagainst cruelty and oppression, and that shouts with every sunrise and every
\nsnowfall and every act of love, “Hey, God exists!”  <\/span>Apologists like to say that following Christ shouldn’t mean
\nchecking our brains at the door. 
\n<\/span>Perhaps it shouldn’t mean checking our hearts either.<\/p>\n

I faced an unnecessary ultimatum –
\nbelieve the Bible or believe your conscience.  <\/span>Mercifully, before I could make my choice, I came upon
\nanother C.S. Lewis quote that changed everything.<\/p>\n

“We do know that no person can be
\nsaved except through Christ,” he wrote in Mere
\nChristianity<\/i>.  <\/span>“We do not know
\nthat only those who know Him can be saved by Him.”<\/p>\n

I’ve never heard anyone call C.S.
\nLewis a “Burger King Christian.”<\/p>\n

Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the
\nAnswers Learned to Ask the Questions<\/u> is a wonderfully written and engaging
\nmemoir of author Rachel Held Evans’ spiritual journey from having all the
\nanswers to feeling comfortable pursuing the questions.  <\/span>While I most highly recommend this book
\nto anyone who works with students and 20-somethings who are coming into their
\nown faith, I also recommend it to anyone struggling with doubt.  <\/span>You are not alone.  <\/span>And Rachel is going to narrate the
\nstory for you.   <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions by Rachel Held Evans Zondervan ISBN 978-0310293996   Reviewed by Justin Topp, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology, North Park University Blog: http:\/\/scienceandtheology.wordpress.com\/  and Twitter: JustinTopp   The biggest complaint my students have about me is that my tests are too hard.  I use a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"\nEvolving in Monkey Town: Justin Topp - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evolving in Monkey Town: Justin Topp - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions by Rachel Held Evans Zondervan ISBN 978-0310293996   Reviewed by Justin Topp, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology, North Park University Blog: http:\/\/scienceandtheology.wordpress.com\/  and Twitter: JustinTopp   The biggest complaint my students have about me is that my tests are too hard.  I use a…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-10T12:25:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/Evolving%20in%20Monkey%20Town%20ds.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Evolving in Monkey Town: Justin Topp - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Evolving in Monkey Town: Justin Topp - Jesus Creed","og_description":"Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions by Rachel Held Evans Zondervan ISBN 978-0310293996   Reviewed by Justin Topp, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology, North Park University Blog: http:\/\/scienceandtheology.wordpress.com\/  and Twitter: JustinTopp   The biggest complaint my students have about me is that my tests are too hard.  I use a…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2010-08-10T12:25:03+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/Evolving%20in%20Monkey%20Town%20ds.jpg"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html","name":"Evolving in Monkey Town: Justin Topp - Jesus Creed","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/Evolving%20in%20Monkey%20Town%20ds.jpg","datePublished":"2010-08-10T12:25:03+00:00","dateModified":"2010-08-10T12:25:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/19879975236b70da80f4cbea933c59d0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/Evolving%20in%20Monkey%20Town%20ds.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/imgs\/Evolving%20in%20Monkey%20Town%20ds.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/evolving-in-monkey-town-justin.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Evolving in Monkey Town: Justin Topp"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith for today","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/19879975236b70da80f4cbea933c59d0","name":"Scot McKnight","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c10\/c10b0226ed6cfd8319b2b8742ac4088ax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c10\/c10b0226ed6cfd8319b2b8742ac4088ax96.jpg","caption":"Scot McKnight"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/author\/smcknight"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}