If you spent any time in the "progressive Christian" corner of the internet over the last decade, you know the name. Rachel Held Evans was the woman who dared to ask the questions we were all whispering in the back of Sunday School. She wasn’t just a blogger; she was a life raft for people drowning in certainty.
When she died suddenly in 2019 at just 37, it felt like a hole had been ripped in the digital sky. But the legacy she left behind—specifically in her final full-length work—is still doing some heavy lifting. Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again isn't just a book on a shelf. It’s a movement. People are still hosting "Inspired" book clubs in 2026 because, honestly, the tension between ancient scripture and modern life hasn't gotten any easier to navigate.
What People Get Wrong About Inspired Rachel Held Evans
There’s this weird misconception that Rachel was trying to "debunk" the Bible. You’ll see it in grumpy comment sections or old blog posts from her critics. They claim she wanted to tear the whole thing down.
Actually? It was the exact opposite.
Rachel was obsessed with the Bible. She grew up as a "Best Christian Attitude" award winner in Dayton, Tennessee—the same town where the Scopes Monkey Trial happened. She knew the verses. She knew the Greek and the Hebrew (or at least, she knew which scholars to call). Inspired Rachel Held Evans wasn't about walking away from the Word; it was about walking into it with your eyes wide open.
She used this beautiful Jewish concept called midrash. Basically, it’s the idea that the Bible is a conversation, not a set of rules. It’s an invitation to wrestle. If the Bible feels messy, it’s because humans are messy. She argued that if we stop trying to make the Bible a science textbook or a flat "instruction manual," it actually starts to breathe again.
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Why the "Inspired" Framework Still Hits Different
Most of us were taught that the Bible is a "B.I.B.L.E.—Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth." Rachel hated that. She thought it was lazy.
In her book, she breaks things down into categories that help people who are deconstructing their faith actually find a way back to the table. We're talking:
- Origin Stories: Looking at Genesis as poetry rather than a lab report.
- Deliverance Stories: How the Exodus matters to the oppressed today.
- War Stories: Confronting the "scary" parts of the Old Testament instead of skipping them.
- Gospel Stories: Seeing Jesus not as a political prop, but as a revolutionary.
She even included short stories and "screenplays" inside the book to show how we can use our imagination to engage with the text. It’s kinda brilliant, really. It gives you permission to say, "I don't understand this," without feeling like you're going to hell for it.
The Evolving Faith Connection
You can’t talk about the "Inspired" era without talking about the Evolving Faith Conference. Rachel co-founded this with her close friend Sarah Bessey back in 2018. They expected maybe 200 people to show up at a retreat center in North Carolina.
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Instead, 1,400 people crammed into the room.
It was a "gathering of wanderers, wonderers, and spiritual refugees." It was the physical manifestation of what Rachel was writing about. It proved that there was a massive, untapped demographic of people who still loved Jesus but were tired of the "culture wars" and the rigid dogmatism of their childhood churches.
Even after her death, that community hasn't folded. If anything, it’s grown. The conference continues because the "Inspired" way of looking at the world—with curiosity instead of fear—is addictive. It’s the difference between being told what to think and being taught how to breathe.
Factual Nuance: The Criticism She Faced
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Rachel was a polarizing figure. Many conservative theologians felt she played too fast and loose with the "authority of scripture." They worried that by emphasizing the human fingerprints on the Bible, she was minimizing the divine inspiration.
Rachel’s response was usually some version of: "If God chose to use humans to tell the story, then the human parts are sacred, too." She didn't shy away from the contradictions. She leaned into them. She believed that a faith that can't handle a question isn't much of a faith at all.
How to Actually Use the "Inspired" Approach Today
If you're sitting there with a dusty Bible and a lot of baggage, here’s the "Inspired" way to jump back in. It’s not about doing a "Year of Biblical Womanhood" (though her book on that is hilarious and you should read it). It’s about a posture change.
- Stop looking for "The Answer." Start looking for the story. Why did the author write this? Who were they afraid of? What were they hoping for?
- Read with the marginalized. Rachel was big on this. If you only read the Bible through the lens of people in power, you’re going to miss the point. Read it through the eyes of the refugee, the widow, and the outcast.
- Embrace the "I don't know." There is so much freedom in those three words.
- Get creative. Write a poem about a psalm. Paint something based on a parable. Use your "sanctified imagination," as she called it.
Honestly, the world feels a lot more chaotic now than it did when Rachel was writing. But that’s why her work stays relevant. She didn't offer a 5-step plan to fix your life. She offered a way to stay in the room when you feel like leaving.
She reminded us that the story is big enough for all of us. Even the doubters. Even the loudmouths. Even the ones who are just plain tired.
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The most "Inspired" thing you can do today is just show up as you are. No mask, no "Christian" persona. Just you.
Next Steps for Your Journey
To put these ideas into practice, start by picking one "difficult" story in the Bible—perhaps the story of Hagar or the book of Jonah—and read it while intentionally asking: "Who is the 'power' in this story, and who is the 'outsider'?" Notice how your perspective shifts when you look for God in the margins rather than the center of the action. This simple shift in "hermeneutics" (the way we interpret) is the core of the legacy Rachel Held Evans left for us.