Rachel Held Evans

June 8, 1981 - May 4, 2019

Rachel Held Evans was a New York Times best-selling author whose books included Faith Unraveled (2010), A Year of Biblical Womanhood (2012), Searching for Sunday (2015), Inspired (2018). Hailing from Dayton, Tennessee—home of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925— she wrote about faith, doubt, and life in the Bible Belt. Rachel had been featured in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Christianity Today, Slate, The Huffington Post, The CNN Belief Blog, and on NPR, The BBC, The Today Show, and The View. She served on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and kept a busy schedule speaking at churches, conferences, and colleges and universities around the country.

Rachel was married to Dan, and they recently welcomed their second child.

*According to “health updates” posted on her blog by her husband Dan, Rachel was admitted to the hospital mid-April with the flu, then had a severe allergic reaction to antibiotics, then developed sustained seizures. Doctors put her into a medically induced coma and then when they tried to wean her off that medication, her seizures returned. Upon further investigation, they discovered severe swelling of her brain. She died in the early morning of May 4th. www.rachelheldevans.com

Sarah Bessey - Author of Jesus Feminist and Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith, Speaker, Co-Curator & Host of Evolving Faith Conference, Friend of Rachel Held Evans