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Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church

Review

Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church

As is evident in these pages, Christians have very different reactions to the writings and message of Rachel Held Evans. Some: she’s breathing fresh air into an old faith. Others: she’s strayed too far from the fold --- come home, come home. Before reading SEARCHING FOR SUNDAY, I’d previously heard about her, though I hadn’t read her material, beyond a few blog posts. Yes, she’s a good writer; her prose captured my attention and gave me food for thought, whether a chapter was autobiographical or more generally theologically, culturally or biblically reflective.

"The book has a solid framework, with four to six chapters fleshing out some aspect of the seven liturgical sacraments of the Catholic Church..."

This isn’t a memoir with a flow-through narrative, though a good number of chapters relate Evans’ ecclesial journey, from a conservative Bible Church and evangelical Christian elementary school to a “Christian [nondenominational] liberal arts college where my father taught theology” and then her growing restlessness in the local church scene until she and her husband, now college graduates, are trying various congregational settings or, she can hardly believe herself, sleeping in on Sundays. One poignant sentence cuts to the chase --- the day they meet with their pastor and she breaks down, realizing her heart no longer belongs to or in the church of her childhood: “I put my head in my hands and cried, startled to tears by the selfishness of my own thoughts:

Who will bring us casseroles when we have a baby?

She quits attending church, but the need for worship, nurturance and a faith community is never far from the surface of her psyche. With a former youth pastor and a few others, the Evanses enthusiastically establish an independent church start-up, which satisfies for a season but doesn’t maintain itself. Along the way, Evans is asking keen questions. She’s seeing through some of the sheep-herd mentality of the American church. Eventually they tentatively slip into an Episcopal church setting, finding in a particular parish a theological openness that focuses on gospel grace and resurrection gifts.

The book has a solid framework, with four to six chapters fleshing out some aspect of the seven liturgical sacraments of the Catholic Church (not that Evans or the text itself is tied to that tradition): baptism, confession, holy orders, communion, confirmation, anointing of the sick, and marriage. Okay, sometimes a chapter’s topic feels tangential to the overarching sacramental heading, but I won’t quibble. I wished for more substance from the “anointing the sick” section, which seems to beg for a heaven-storming prayer session and for discussion of prayers for the dying; for Catholics, “anointing” encompasses what used to be called “last rites.” She’s young --- way younger than I.

I pray that as she ages she will be gifted by a church that draws her weary spirit home, not just to the community but to Christ.

Reviewed by Evelyn Bence on August 27, 2015

Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church
by Rachel Held Evans