“I love Shannon’s conviction that resurrection is not a moment, but a process. There is a holy unfolding in this book, as Scripture comes to life in a fresh, accurate, and authentic way. In the process Shannon blesses us with the story of his own resurrection.”
— Paula Stone Williams
from the foreword
“By blending the biblical narrative with his own, Kearns shows us just how resilient and adaptive our stories can be—for our selves, for our communities, and for our loved ones. This is the greatest kind of faithfulness—not to a single notion of God or to a certain set of unchanging rules, but to one another’s flourishing.”
— Blake Chastain
author and host of the Exvangelical podcast
“Woven together with his own personal experiences, In the Margins is honest and heartfelt. Father Shannon presents a transgender reading of the Bible in a way that is accessible without watering down the deep scholarship so clearly at its foundation. Cis and trans Christians, clergy and lay, alike have a lot to gain by reading this book.”
— Elle Dowd
author of Baptized in Tear Gas: From White Moderate to Abolitionist
“In telling his own story, Shannon Kearns somehow also manages to hold a mirror up to the reader. In the Margins doesn’t just provide this gift to readers who are transgender—I believe Kearns’s journey through American evangelicalism and his reclamation of his own body, autonomy, and faith will ring true for anyone blessed to find a copy.”
— Austen Hartke
author of Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians
“I tell folks in my church, ‘Don’t read the Bible alone.’ It takes a community to do the discerning work such a powerful text requires. Shannon Kearns has expanded my community by inviting me into his company as a transgender Christian and a serious reader of Scripture. He shows me what my cis-straight self would easily miss—and isn’t that a good gift?”
— Katie Hays
author of God Gets Everything God Wants
Library Journal
“Recommended for readers looking for new, exciting ways to understand the Bible and Christianity, particularly through the eyes of a trans man who is theologically informed and writes lucidly about his journey.”
The Christian Century
“Kearns’s work is so uncomplicatedly compassionate in its narrative voice that reading it at times felt like sitting at coffee hour with a generous and utterly safe church friend.”