In her own words, from the Huffington Post article, which pasted her FB status updates:

On my Facebook account–where all true theological discourse happens–I posted the link to her announcement and the responses have been mixed. Some think it is all contrived, a PR boost for her next book. Others think she is being theologically naive to think she can continue in her Christian journey alone. Others think this is both genuine and understandable.

Feel free to post your thoughts, in a non-disputatious manner.

Rachel Evans thinks doubt is a part of faith. In fact she thinks doubt can save your faith–provided you have the faith to doubt and the courage to learn from it what God may be showing you.

I agree with Rachel, and I wish I could say it as well as she does in her just-published memoir Evolving in Monkey Town.

Like a lot of people out there, I picked up the book (actually, Rachel gave me a copy at a conference –yeah me), and I couldn’t put it down. It struck a cord with me (here and here), but more importantly, it became quickly clear to me that there are a LOT of people who will benefit from Rachel’s honesty and insights.

Rachel connects with Christians who believe the Gospel, or think they do, or want to, but whose inner-theological gatekeeper collides with their life experience. Evangelicalism and fundamentalism are losing steam for many young people–not because they are rebellious or naive or unlearned–but because the ecclesiastical and theological paradigms with which they are familiar have lost their explanatory power.

Critics will say that subjective experience does not determine theological truth. This is false, since any articulation of theological truth involves an inescapable subjective dimension. My proof for this is the theological diversity that has existed throughout the history of the church and continues today throughout the world.

Subjective experience, such as Rachel’s, actually exposes the inadequacies of any theological tradition when it holds itself in too high regard. It reminds us, sometimes painfully, that these traditions are not the Gospel itself but impermanent ways of understanding it. They are provisional, always in need of refinement, adjustment, augmentation, deletion–and when and where need be, abandonment.

Rachel’s critics will likely mistake her criticism of the paradigms with criticism of the Gospel itself–which precisely misses the point of the book.  Rachel’s crisis of faith was fueled by her religious education, which failed to distinguish between the two--to question one is to question the other.

In a word, this book is about how Rachel learned to stop doing that. Such a journey is risky, because it involves moving away from all that is familiar and comforting. But for Rachel and many like her, staying put is not an option.