Previously on...

Her strongest critics within the church are conservatives who should be most sympathetic to the project’s strictures: those who claim to follow the Bible literally themselves. “It’s revealing that when I say, ‘I’m going to actually do it,’ they react,” she said ruefully. “It goes to show at some level there’s a fear of exposing what it means to follow the Bible literally.” Evans is speaking to the church, but she’s not preaching to the choir. And by doing that, she’s helping her readers follow another Biblical instruction, this one from Paul’s letter to the Romans: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.