Evolving in Monkey Town

Rachel Held Evans

Zondervan

softcover, 400 pages, $14.99

978-0-310-29399-6

Anyone who knows American history or has seen the movie Inherit the Wind will be familiar with the names Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan and the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, a famous court case on creationism in which they played a part.

In Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions, Evans, a twentysomething journalist, shares her journey of growing up in Dayton, Tenn., where the case took place. The book brings readers into Evans' home, where she grew up with her theologian father and spent her halcyon days at Christian schools, including Bryan College—named after William Jennings Bryan. She introduces readers to people who've crossed her path—from "Matt the Apologist" to Zarmina, a Muslim woman—and shares her journey from fundamentalism through doubt and eventually to faith.

Evans' autobiographical account is an important contribution to the dialogue between church and culture. Her writing is lucid, witty and trenchant, and her transparency will appeal to seekers. Evolving in Monkey Town gives readers permission to live and even rest in uncertainty and doubt.

—Brian Smith McCallum

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