Book Review – Searching for Sunday
Image: Searching for Sunday by Len Lantz (CC BY-NC-ND)
Synopsis: Len's Star Rating: 8 out of 10. An engaging and challenging book that is both memoir and catharsis of the author’s struggle to find connection and meaning with other Christians and the Church.
BY LEN LANTZ, MD / 12.3.2022; No. 99
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Star Rating – 8 out of 10
Rating guide: 1 = horrible, 5 = average and 10 = wow
Author
Rachel Held Evans
About the author
Rachel Held Evans (1981-2019) was a Christian columnist, blogger, speaker, and best-selling author of five popular books on topics of Christian faith, doubt, and culture. Her work was featured nationally and internationally in prominent news outlets, and she served on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
General description
Searching for Sunday is a book on faith and the author’s struggle to connect to a church and a larger congregation of believers in a way that feels authentic and personal. Rachel Held Evans’ stories are humorous, painful, hopeful, and full of frustration. She touches on a variety of topics that Christian readers who grew up in the church can connect with as she references Bible characters, popular culture in the 1980s and 90s, AWANA and church youth group, and the problems of politics at church. The author organized the book into seven sections – the “Seven Sacraments” – which include:
Baptism
Confession
Holy Orders
Communion
Confirmation
Anointing the Sick
Marriage
Unique and most important aspects
While Searching for Sunday is a book with many humorous and painful stories from a Christian perspective, it has a different feel from the classic book, Blue Like Jazz (see Len’s Book Review). Rachel Held Evans’ writing in Searching for Sunday is equal parts memoir and catharsis as she explains why – in her mixture of stories, memories, and reflections – she simply cannot turn off her brain and stop thinking about the painful issues she has with the church in order to attend a worship service. The author writes thoughtfully about LGBTQ Christians in this book. She shares unexpected stories about failure and triumph in a way that helps the reader understand the undercurrent driving Christians in the US to stop attending church. Rachel Held Evans shares her struggle to pursue authenticity in her faith that is engaging, courageous, mindful, and unvarnished.
Best quotes
“In the United States, 59% of young people ages eighteen to twenty-nine with a Christian background have dropped out of church.”
“Millennials aren’t looking for a hipper Christianity, I said. We’re looking for a truer Christianity, a more authentic Christianity.”
“Many months would pass before I understood that people bond more deeply over shared brokenness than they do over shared beliefs.”
“As a counselor, Kathy had encountered Christians who kept their battles with pain and depression a secret from their churches, so she helped found and pastor the Refuge, and eclectic and growing faith community in Denver inspired by both the Beatitudes and the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.”
Who would enjoy this book?
Readers looking for a book on the struggle for connection and authenticity in the Christian church are likely to enjoy Searching for Sunday.
Who would not enjoy this book?
Readers who would be offended by the author’s criticism of aspects of American Christian culture are unlikely to enjoy Searching for Sunday.
Conclusion
Searching for Sunday is an engaging and challenging book that is both memoir and catharsis of the author’s struggle to find connection and meaning with other Christians and the Church.