A Faith of Many Rooms: Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity – The Presbyterian Outlook

Debie Thomas
Broadleaf Books, 184 pages
Published March 19, 2024
Debie Thomas writes, “Christianity is no longer America’s cultural default … Finding a viable way forward … requires a courageous willingness to reexamine and re-vision the religion of our pasts.” In A Faith of Many Rooms: Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity, she does exactly that. Thomas weaves biblical narratives together with her experiences as ”a second-generation, Asian-American,” evangelical pastor’s daughter who never-fit-into-just-one-box, demonstrating that God’s expansive hospitality makes room for all sorts of people.
Each chapter explores a core aspect of faith identity – doubt, story, spirit, sin, lament and more – reading like sermons without ever sounding preachy. This beautifully written book speaks to the ex-vangelical struggling to evolve, the traditional church-goer yearning to understand why people leave, the bicultural Christian straddling two worlds, the preacher in search of fresh perspectives on familiar texts — and everyone in-between.
Thomas is the daughter of immigrants who trace their religious heritage back to the “Thomas Christians” of first-century India. That means she was raised in an honor-shame culture following the “dictates of a religion that prized authority, conformity, and submission.” She writes lovingly about the people and places that shaped her, such as her mother’s cooking, family pilgrimages to India and her fundamentalist father’s preaching.
As she grew, she found she didn’t fit. She feared that her questions and doubts made her “a traitor: a culturally disloyal daughter to the long and storied religious heritage that formed me.” As she wrestles to have a faith rooted in tradition but not strangled by it, she discovers God can handle it. As she observes “Jesus was bicultural” and wonders “if Jesus feels this way,” she discovers that God creates space. It’s deeply personal, but never just about her.
In addition to being a wonderful storyteller, Thomas is an excellent theologian, taking on stereotypically “conservative” and “progressive” approaches to get to the heart of the gospel. For instance, in a chapter on sin and salvation, she asks: “How is Christianity different from progressivism?” Then, in just a few pages, she expounds on the power of sin, the hope of salvation, and the possibility that a roomier faith actually takes both “‘s’ words” seriously. She writes, “I no longer worry that a robust belief in heaven will lead to a lazy escapism. We are capable of more nuance than this. We can hold the both-and of heaven and earth, faith and works, trust in the hereafter and active engagement now.”
Throughout, she constructs what Christianity needs more of: language that honors the best of Christian traditions while fearlessly raising the challenges that an authentic, 21st-century American faith demands. Brian McLaren’s phrase “A generous orthodoxy” comes to mind.
Those familiar with Thomas will recognize her uncanny ability to package profound theological claims in stories and phrases that make them self-evident. Newcomers will be thrilled to discover her as she cements her place among trusted voices (such as Rachel Held Evans and Nadia Bolz-Weber) who construct accessible theology for our time.
A special gem is the last chapter, a poem called “Why I Stay.” It is worth reading even if you don’t read the rest — but you’ll be glad you did. Debie Thomas is a gift to the church and the world.

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Rev. Sarah S. Scherschligt, a senior pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Virginia. She is the author of God Holds You: A Pandemic Chronicle.
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