Rachel Held Evans, 37, a famed Christian author and resident of Dayton, Tennessee, died early Saturday after a brief illness.
The Bryan College alum's husband, Dan Evans, reported the news of her death on her website, rachelheldevans.com.
"This entire experience is surreal. I keep hoping it's a nightmare from which I'll awake. I feel like I'm telling someone else's story," he wrote. "I cannot express how much the support means to me and our kids. To everyone who has prayed, called, texted, driven, flown, given of themselves physically and financially to help ease this burden: Thank you. We are privileged. Rachel's presence in this world was a gift to us all and her work will long survive her."
Evans was put in a medically-induced coma last month after she began having serious seizures following an allergic reaction to antibiotics as she was being treated for an infection.
On Thursday, Evans' health declined rapidly.
"The team at the hospital discovered extensive swelling of her brain and took emergency action to stabilize her," Dan Evans wrote. "The team worked until Friday afternoon to the best of their ability to save her. This swelling event caused severe damage and ultimately was not survivable."
A leading progressive Christian voice, Evans earned renown for her columns and bestselling books, including "A Year of Biblical Womanhood," "Searching for Sunday," and her most recent, 2018's "Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again."
Evans spent much of her youth in Birmingham, Alabama, before moving at age 14 to Dayton.
She grew up in a conservative religious environment, she told the Times Free Press in July 2018, and upon reaching adulthood, she started looking at many of the Bible stories she had memorized as a child through different eyes, and didn't much like what she saw.
She studied English literature at Bryan College and went on to challenge the evangelical approach to science, women, LGBT rights and more.
Evans is survived by her husband and two children, Henry, 3, and Harper, 1.