Rachel Held Evans is such an inspired author and I really enjoy everything I've read by her. I think I wasn't in the right season of my faith journey for this title, where it wasn't as impactful as I expected it be.

Rachel Held Evans is a triumph, a true gift to the Christian and non-Christian worlds alike. Her compassionate yet firm approach to scriptural interpretation, paired with her vulnerability and unflinching introspection on full display in this book make it an instant classic in its genre. As a pastor I have been overjoyed to press this book into the hands of my congregants, because it helps facilitate a new relationship with the Bible for all who read it.

Not as good as her other books, found it a bit boring, didn’t finish. Author’s other books very good.

I struggled through the beginning of the book, not because I didn't relate to Evans' questions about the Bible, but I didn't necessarily agree with her conclusions. But the further I got into the book, the more often I was saying, yes, I agree. Two chapters alone make the book worth reading: her retelling of the incident when Jesus meets the woman at the well, and her description of the early church gathering hearing one of Paul's letters read aloud for the first time. In the end, I was reminded of the generous grace of God that does leave room for our many doubts and questions and that also keeps leading and guiding us down different paths to answers.

Inspired was just that- inspirational. It helped to read but the thoughts on the Bible and God I felt were toxic to new believers or those searching for truth. I felt Rachel Held Evans had poor biblical understanding— but that’s different for each person. This is just my personal thoughts and review.

One of the most debated issues in the Christian world is about the infallibility of the Bible. How we we understand the way Christians are convicted about the Bible being inerrant and inspired? How do we know when to read things literally and when not to? For theologians and scholars, one word that has become quite notorious for many conservatives is the word "myth." How could anyone who call themselves Christians dare label the stories in the Bible as "myths?" After all, there are many who struggle to understand things like:

How could a serpent deceive Adam and Eve? (Gen 3:2)
How could so many animals fit into an ark? (Gen 7:1-3)
Is it possible for a donkey to speak? (Numbers 22:28)
Did Lot's wife literally turn into a pillar of salt? (Gen 19:26)
How could Jonah survive in a big fish for three days and three nights? (Jon 1:17)
How do we make of God saying that man could only live up to 120-years age? (Gen 6:3)
Is it really true that the sun stood still for a whole 24 hours? (Joshua 10:13)
How about contradictions in the Bible?
Can a Christian believe in evolution?
...
The way forward: Nuances. Just like the packed meaning in the gospel of John, there are multiple ways to understand the Word of God in its original settings. Author and popular blogger, Rachel Held Evans adds in additional words such as: "controversial, sacred, irrelevant, timeless, oppressive, embattled, divine," to describe the different viewpoints with regard to the Holy Bible. The single thread that keeps us engaged is this: We are still influenced by the Bible regardless of what and how we think of it. Whether one is against or for the Word of God, we cannot help but reference it from time to time. Rachel skillfully helps us manuever through these questions of faith and doubt, making room for all parties to dialogue and to engage in one's quest for truth. The introduction to the book sounds like her own biography of faith as she describes her own struggles back and forth, from conservative circles to liberal engagement. Her moment of freedom comes forth in her own words:
"When you stop trying to force the Bible to be something it’s not—static, perspicacious, certain, absolute—then you’re free to revel in what it is: living, breathing, confounding, surprising, and yes, perhaps even magic."
This book is filled with gems. One of my favourites is how Evans uses Neil Gaiman's words to describe fairy tales as a way to understand truth. While one can debate whether dragons exist or not, the more important truth is that dragons can be defeated. While she does not directly tell you that the Bible is not magic, she approaches it from the angle of "Inspiration is better than magic." While we can keep on arguing about the copying mistakes or inaccuracy of the re-writes, we could make space to wait upon the Bible to stir up in us a thought or an inspiration. She is convicted that one "will never leave the things without learning something new" and if one is persistent, one "just might leave inspired."

There are eight biblical genres selected. These are:
Origin stories
Deliverance stories
War stories
Wisdom stories
Resistance stories
Gospel stories
Fish stories
Church stories
Rachel is a master storyteller. She begins each biblical genre section like a story, weaving together her vast knowledge of contexts in the ancient near east and biblical characters. On the origin stories, she argues that the Bible was "forged from a crisis of faith" which essentially places many of us and the Bible on the same page. We all have our individual crises from time to time that nudge us toward the supernatural to look for divine hope. Many writers in the Bible did exactly that as they were inspired to write from deep within their struggles of faith. It reminds them that even in a state of disorder and confusion, originally that was not meant to be. Genesis begins with a declaration of God who ordered the universe together from nothing to something. Such origin genres are most relevant because they tell us about our identities, our origins, and our destinies. They inspire us to keep searching. Deliverance stories encourage us to keep hoping. Like the way the Israelites were delivered from Egypt and how the blacks were liberated from slavery, we are inspired to trust that God will make a way even when it seems there is no way. War genres are about victories in hope. Rachel even reminds us that we are not as different from the vicious war characters in the Old Testament. Perhaps, our resistance to accept such war horrors is simply a personal fear of letting ourselves repeat the same atrocities in our world. Wisdom genres are about our quest for living a good life, or a better life. While some might question why a book of Job that talks about suffering should be included in "wisdom literature," Rachel argues that the themes in Job go way beyond pain and suffering. Truth is, the literary brilliance is a way to illuminate truth. While wisdom genres inspire us to live a good life, resistance stories inspire us to keep persevering in spite of odds. From the prophets to the gospel writers, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we are reminded that the Bible is not simply talking about escaping to a heavenly world in the future but to remain in the earthly world in the present. She inspires us to resist our modern temptations to more power, more status, more wealth, and so on. For even if we are able to attain these things, they never last. Resist such worldliness and we will have made room for true fulfillment. She helps us engage the gospel stories as a way to understand the mission of Jesus by calling the gospel as "a mosaic of stories." The part about fish stories is interesting. Connecting the story of Jonah, the fish miracles of Jesus, and the modern fishing sport, she engages the skeptics who had given in to spiritualizing everything. For if everything that we couldn't understand are spiritualized, we have two problems. First, we have to determine whether our subjective understanding is indicative of the truth. What happens if there are two opposing opinions? Could both be true or false? Second, if everything is spiritualized, even hope could be spiritualized to the point that our physical conditions have no hope for real change. What if it is true that both physical and spiritual things in the Bible are one and the same thing? We wait for inspiration as we adopt this mode of openness. Finally, church stories offer us correctives to cultural norms. She offers a counter to our modern understanding of same-sex relationships, showing us the ancient cultural contexts of what is "natural" and what is "unnatural" before arguing that many of our disagreements arise from a wrongful interpretation of Paul's message and contexts. Her key point: Don't use particularity to generalize. Don't use the Bible to stereotype any group. Instead, note that Paul's main motif is essentially to preach the gospel and to welcome all who receive Christ into the fold, that they may be one.

My Thoughts

Firstly, the one word that pops up most when I read this book is "story-telling." The author is not just a masterful storyteller, she is also a skillful weaver of stories. Well-versed in the Bible stories and the many stories of everyday life, she takes the questions of faith and doubt and resists answering them directly. She often begins each chapter with a story or a poem before engaging readers with biblical reflection of selected biblical passages from each genre. While at it, she adds in a couple of her own observations about modern evangelical culture while adding a couple of wise snippets here and there. The literature and references she uses are wide and varied. There are scholars, theologians, motivational speakers, Bible teachers, and many popular writers she uses to paint the different shades of understanding with regard to the Bible.

Secondly, She is not afraid about doubts that would pull her away from faith. Having experienced personal attacks by well-meaning individuals, she tries to create a fresh space for us to ask legitimate and honest questions with regard to our beliefs. What she is more concerned about is the type of faith that pushes people away from authentic questions and thoughtful skeptics. If we are able to overcome our own fears about honest doubts and probing questions, we could be free to pursue the truth as what God has meant to be instead of being locked up in some human structures that force us to toe the line when God had not drawn the line in the first place. If God has given us the freedom to choose why should we limit one another on choosing to pursue truth?

Finally, Rachel nuances Bible concepts very well. She may not be as direct like a scientist or mathematician in answering an equation or providing a final solution. What she has done is to help us understand that our present understanding of the Bible can be enhanced with a greater appreciation of the nuances that our traveling pilgrims can see from time to time. We need to be open to reading the Bible as a community because the Bible was written to a community of faith. That is why we need to learn to nuance our understanding of the Bible as best as possible. Rachel helps us do just that.

Rachel Held Evans is one of the most popular (and controversial) author and blogger in the Christian world today. Growing up in a staunchly conservative Bible Belt backyard, she knows what it means to take things literally and to adopt fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible. As she tries to engage thoughtfully the skeptics claim about the Bible, she has managed to create a space for people to meaningfully question their faith and to answer their doubts in creative ways that do not compromise on the legitimacy and truth of the Bible. On her blog, she calls herself as one who "writes about faith, doubt, and life in the Bible Belt." She has written books such as "A Year of Biblical Womanhood (2012)" and "Searching for Sunday (2015)."

Rating: 4.75 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of NetGalley, and Thomas-Nelson, a division of Harper-Collins Publishing without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

I have a great deal of sympathy with the author as she tries to re-engage with the Bible. Evans' plight is similar to that of many Christians brought up to love God and the Bible and then having to come to terms with parts of the Bible they find objectionable and apparently unscientific. So I admire Evans' for wanting 'a way back in' to the Bible so to speak. I'm afraid though I find the general principle Evans seems to be operating under is to reinterpret the bits she doesn't like until she finds an interpretation more palatable to her and that she finds more acceptable. For me the theology is poor and frequently contradictory. There was a time when there were very few answers available for anyone with questions but nowadays there are many resources which deal well with Evans' problems with the Bible and the science actually supports rather than discredits the Bible (I acknowledge not everyone will agree with this). If you identify yourself as 'progressive' then you'll probably like this book but I'm afraid it's not one I can recommend other than as an example of some views prevalent in sections of the church today which need to be challenged. I admire Evans for her desire to return to the Bible but I simply can't agree with many of her methodology or conclusions.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for ARC.

How can we love the Bible again, when it has so often been used to condemn instead of give life? Though I don’t agree with all of her assertions, this book stirs my heart and beckons me to re-evaluate the book that is so dear to who I am. How do we revere “the Word of God” while still taking into account those words we spoken to people in a much different time and place than me? Rachel Held Evans makes me ask hard questions about how I interpret the Bible, but ultimately I believe God and His Word are strong enough to combat them.

A fresh perspective on scripture. Loved reading about Rachel's journey with her beliefs over the years. Rachel was very honest and vulnerable and made me feel freedom in expressing doubts about certain parts of the bible and then wrestling with those doubts. An important book for our time -- especially for someone struggling with what they believe.

Once again a book by Rachel Held Evens has page after page filled with my highlights. I loved the Midrash style of reframing Scriptural accounts. Illustrating them in a screenplay set in a cafeteria or through the eyes of the woman at the well, Evans helps us experience these often heard stories in a new way. She weaves in the wisdom of contemporary scholars and connects the Scripture to the injustice in today's society. She highlights the Good News for people in the #MeToo movement and #BlackLivesMatter It is creative and imaginative, easy to read, and valuable for those who are searching for ways to connect the Bible to our lives today.

Rachel Held Evans wrote a book about her struggles with doubt and belief in many parts of The Bible. While she is a gifted writer, I found myself struggling with some of her theories. As Christians, there is a vast majority of Scripture that we aren't meant to understand but have to accept by faith.
I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This book had some very good points and I could easily see the passion of the author. I think it was beautifully written and I found myself nodding along in agreement many times.
But all that to say, the theology is just plain bad. When we start using eisegesis to make the Bible say whatever fits our worldview instead of using what the Bible actually says to shape our worldview we're in for a lot of pain and disappointed. There are some very difficult things in the Bible. There are some things I have to have faith that God knew what he was doing because he's, you know, God. But I cannot cut and paste from the Bible to make me feel better. I'm glad the author found her way back to Scripture. Now I pray that Scripture has a transforming power on her life.

I had never read anything more than a couple blogs and articles by RHE until I received an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I find this book eye opening for the Christian who has struggled with questions- for those that can't get those questions answered and for those Christians who believe in a strong and loving God yet can't jump into loving the Bible and taking it's word the way they may have been taught from a young age. I appreciate Rachel's ideas and beliefs and opinions.... And although I didn't always know if I agreed with them I felt like my heart was opened to so many new thoughts while reading this book.

For hurting Christian hearts, for life long believers, for wandering souls, for everyone.... This book is a must read. No matter what you think or how you were raised or how you live your life....read this book! I can't wait to delve into more of her writing.

Nobody understands all of the Bible exactly right. It’s not as easy to decode as some make it out to be. We do the best we can with what we’ve learned, with what we’ve seen, with what we’ve experienced.

That’s what Rachel Held Evans does, too, just like the rest of us. She loves the words and she loves God. Even though she wrestles with the words, like many of us, it’s in the Bible that we learn the stories about Jesus. And ultimately, about ourselves.

Rachel’s latest book, Inspired, is all about the Bible. About her love for it. She shares her wranglings, her quests, her discoveries. I recognize many of my own in hers.

“With Scripture, we’ve not been invited to an academic fraternity; we’ve been invited to a wrestling match. We’ve been invited to a dynamic, centuries-long conversation with God and God’s people that has been unfolding since creation, one story at a time. If we’re lucky, it will leave us with a limp.”

This book is different from her other books. It’s a collection of genres instead of a simple narrative. In one chapter she’s retelling a favorite Bible story. In another chapter she writes a poem. Yet another may be a memoir moment. Or an exegesis of a biblical text. It’s not my favorite book of hers (I prefer her straight narratives). But it’s still worth reading.

Rachel doesn’t ask us to agree or disagree with her in this book. She’s just sharing where she’s been and where she is now. And like the rest of us, who knows where she’ll be next?

“I’m still learning, still getting things wrong. But sometimes God knows the kind of deliverance you need the most is deliverance from your own comfort.”

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book.

“Jesus didn’t just ‘come to die.’ Jesus came to live. . . Jesus did not simply die to save us from our sins, Jesus lived to save us from our sins. His life and teachings show us the way to liberation.”

~ * ~

“So perhaps a better question than, ‘Do I believe in miracles?’ is, ‘Am I acting like I do?’ Am I including the people who are typically excluded? Am I feeding the hungry and caring for the sick? Am I holding the hands of the homeless and offering help to addicts?”

~ * ~

“To demand that the Bible meet our demands is to put ourselves and our own interests at the center of the story, which is one of the first traps we must to learn to avoid if we are to engage the Bible with integrity or care.”

~ * ~

“The gospel means that every small story is part of a sweeping story, every ordinary life part of an extraordinary movement. God is busy making all things new, and life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has opened that work to everyone who wants in on it. The church is not a group of people who believe all the same things; the church is a group of people caught up in the same story, with Jesus at the center.”

~ * ~

“These questions loosened my grip on the text and gave me permission to love the Bible for what it is, not what I want it to be.”

My thanks to Net Galley for the review copy of this book.

Inspired is Rachel Held Evans’s attempt to get readers to fall in love with the Bible, despite the tough stories within it.

The introduction pulled me in right away as Evans weaves her own fairy tale of a girl in love with a book and describes the wondrous stories she found in the Bible, until she was older and realized there were many stories that left God seeming more like a villain than a hero.

What I appreciated about this book is that Evans doesn’t shy away from the harder parts of the Bible that deal with war, slavery, rape, and other difficult topics. She doesn’t sweep those under the rug in a blind “The Bible is perfect” way. In fact, she talks about how some of these points caused her to deeply question faith and Christianity.

"We live inside an unfinished story." -Rachel Held Evans

Ultimately, Evans is still making the case for Christianity and learning from the Bible, but she approaches text as a collection of letters, poetry, and prose — as a wide literary canon that can be studied. For example, she describes how the story of Jonah and the whale employs fanciful literary conventions to make its point, and she says that it is okay not to view the story as a literal history.

Having heard plenty of literal interpretations without room for questioning, I appreciated Inspired for its ability to question and reframe these stories. It’s worth a read for Christians and questioners.

I really like Rachel Held Evans. I appreciate how her faith as evolved and not only is she not afraid to share it with the world, it is her calling to do so. I really enjoyed her book, "My Year of Biblical Womanhood," and was excited to see that she had written a book on the bible. As she admits, she is a memoirist, so this book is a departure for her. However, she is more than equipped to tackle the subject. She has devoted much of her life to reading and trying to understand the Bible and has read far and wide on the subject. This book shares what she has come to understand about how to read the bible in a way that makes sense. As she states at the beginning, this book is geared towards people like her - former evangelicals who are love the bible and want to truly understand how to read it properly. Because I am not an evangelical and already ascribe to her way of interpretation, I did get bored in some parts. She does invoke an interesting literary technique of retelling a biblical story in a way that helps the reader to see it differently and discover new insights. These writings were sometimes interesting, sometimes not. One place that felt the most lacking to me was her struggle with the war stories of the Old Testament. She gave some ideas but ultimately could not reconcile these stories with the overall story of the bible. I think she will be able to do this in the future, as there are certainly writers out there who have, but she's not there yet. My favorite quote from the book came near the end: "If the biggest story we can imagine is about God’s loving and redemptive work in the world, then our lives will be shaped by that epic." This is a worthy perspective to keep in mind at all times. I still adore Held Evans for who she is and the work she is doing in this world. This may not be the book for me, but it is an important book full of stories that need to be told.

I LOVED this book. I have been following Rachel since she released "A Year of Biblical Womanhood." While she is definitely more progressive than me on many issues - particularly sexuality - the way she unpacked the beauty of the Bible in this book is unbelievable. Her variety of genres in this book - screenplays, poetry, first person retellings of stories - made Scripture come alive in a way many books on the Bible fails to do.
Rachel's sense of humour, theological weight and beautiful way of weaving words together made this book a pleasure to read and reminded me why I love the Bible so much.

If you love the Bible, but struggle with it, and if you want to understand your beloved bible stories in a new, more inclusive light, then absolutely read this book. Its full of heart and wisdom and humour. Highly recommended.

Rachel Held Evans' book A Year of Biblical Womanhood was pivotal for me, and the book Searching for Sunday mirrors much of my own journey. In her newest book, Inspired, Evans comes back to the Scripture with new eyes, reminding herself why she was drawn to it in the first place, and she falls in love with it again.

In some ways, the format reminds me of How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth; both recognize the Bible is written in various styles, and just as you wouldn't approach a book of poetry the same way you'd approach a history text, so you shouldn't read the Psalms the same you'd read the prophets and so on, but Inspired has a less clinical feel.

Rachel Held Evans has a small vignette before each chapter to bring light to the upcoming section. Perhaps it's a short story, a play, a poem, even a choose-your-own adventure piece.

Some chapters, like her section "Resistance Stories," feel especially relevant and timely. In the "War Stories" chapter, Rachel Held Evans reminds us it is good to wrestle with passages we can't make sense of, like widespread slaughter of people groups in the Old Testament:

"Brene Brown warns us we can't selectively numb our emotions, and no doubt this applies to the emotions we have about our faith. If the slaughter of Canaanite children elicits only a shrug, then why not the slaughter of Pequots? Of Syrians? Of Jews? If we train ourselves not to ask hard questions about the Bible, and to emotionally distance ourselves from any potential conflicts or doubts, then where will we find the courage to challenge interpretations that justify injustice? How will we know when we've got it wrong?"

I appreciated this book, following Held Evans' journey and watching her create and learn, finding herself retreating back into the Bible and being reminded of what she loves about it.

I highlighted so many passages in this book! I absolutely love Rachel Held Evans's honesty with her faith, struggles, relationships, church, everything. I feel like she does not hold back and gives an honest overview. She also isn't afraid to rock the boat, something I appreciate coming from a Christian author when so many are in this contained box of "must be conservative, there is no other way, RAWRRRR."