POPULARITY
3 episodes with metaphors created
2 episodes with metaphors created
2 episodes with metaphors created
3 episodes with metaphors created
2 episodes with metaphors created
A deportation showdown, Pete Hegseth's cleanup of the Naval Academy library, and the impact of USAID cuts in war-weary Sudan. Find us on YouTube. This week, the Trump administration continues its deportation plan despite court orders, defense secretary Pete Hegseth cleans out the Naval Academy library, and war-weary Sudan experiences the tragic consequences of USAID cuts. The Bulletin is joined by Elizabeth Neumann, Karen Swallow Prior, and CT contributor Mindy Belz to discuss these headlines and why they matter to you. GO DEEPER WITH THE BULLETIN: Join the conversation at our Substack. Find us on YouTube. Rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts. ABOUT THE GUESTS: Elizabeth Neumann is a national security expert who has served across three presidential administrations—on the inaugural staff of the White House Homeland Security Council under President George W. Bush, as an advisor to the office of the director of national intelligence during the Obama Administration, and as the Department of Homeland Security's deputy chief of staff and assistant secretary for counterterrorism and threat prevention in the Trump administration. Neumann is also a national security contributor for ABC News, board chair for the National Immigration Forum, a fellow of the fourth class of the Civil Society Fellowship of The Aspen Institute, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Karen Swallow Prior is a reader, writer, and professor. She is the author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis; On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books; Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist; and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me. She has a monthly column for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Think Christian, The Gospel Coalition, and various other places. Mindy Belz is a journalist who has covered wars and victims of conflict in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, and the Balkans. She recounts some of her experiences in a 2016 award-winning book, They Say We Are Infidels. David Brooks with The New York Times calls her “one of the bravest and best foreign correspondents in the country.” She is the former senior editor at World magazine and has done writing and editing for Christianity Today. ABOUT THE BULLETIN: The Bulletin is a weekly (and sometimes more!) current events show from Christianity Today hosted and moderated by Clarissa Moll, with senior commentary from Russell Moore (Christianity Today's editor in chief) and Mike Cosper (director, CT Media). Each week, the show explores current events and breaking news and shares a Christian perspective on issues that are shaping our world. We also offer special one-on-one conversations with writers, artists, and thought leaders whose impact on the world brings important significance to a Christian worldview, like Bono, Sharon McMahon, Harrison Scott Key, Frank Bruni, and more. The Bulletin listeners get 25 percent off CT. Go to https://orderct.com/THEBULLETIN to learn more. “The Bulletin” is a production of Christianity Today Producer: Clarissa Moll Associate Producer: Alexa Burke Editing and Mix: TJ Hester Music: Dan Phelps Executive Producers: Erik Petrik and Mike Cosper Senior Producer: Matt Stevens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Next up in our Exvangelicalism series, Karen Swallow Prior outlines some of the images that have shaped the social imaginary of evangelicals—for good and ill—and how that has impacted the experiences of exvangelicals .She is the author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2024).
Tolkien and the “fantasy generation,” rising abortion rates, and cell phones in schools. Find us on Youtube. This week on The Bulletin, Russell, Mike, and Clarissa cover J.D. Vance's esteem for J.R.R. Tolkien and the millennial interest in The Lord of the Rings with Karen Swallow Prior (Author, Religion News Service). Then, the four engage on the subject of rising abortion rates in a post-Dobbs world. Finally, we welcome Krista Boan (founder, Screen Sanity) to discuss the cell phone bans in schools. GO DEEPER WITH THE BULLETIN: Follow the show in your podcast app of choice Find us on Youtube. Rate and Review the show in your podcast app of choice Leave a comment in Spotify with your feedback on the discussion–we may even respond! TODAY'S GUESTS: Karen Swallow Prior, Ph. D., is a reader, writer, and professor. She is the author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023); On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Brazos 2018); Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson, 2014); and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (T. S. Poetry Press, 2012). She is co-editor of Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues (Zondervan 2019) and has contributed to numerous other books. She has a monthly column for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Think Christian, The Gospel Coalition, and various other places. Krista Boan is the cofounder of the international nonprofit Screen Sanity, host of the Screen Sanity podcast and a former middle school teacher. Her current work is creating simple social media discipleship resources for tweens, which she shares through the Social Compass newsletter. She lives in Kansas City with her husband and four t(w)eens. ABOUT THE BULLETIN: The Bulletin is a weekly (and sometimes more!) current events show from Christianity Today hosted and moderated by Clarissa Moll, with senior commentary from Russell Moore (Christianity Today's Editor-in-Chief) and Mike Cosper (Director, CT Media). Each week the show explores current events and breaking news and shares a Christian perspective on issues that are shaping our world. We also offer special one-on-one conversations with writers, artists, and thought leaders whose impact on the world brings important significance to a Christian worldview, like Bono, Harrison Scott Key, Frank Bruni, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Join us for our second conversation on Faith In Public Life, featuring Karen Swallow Prior Ph. D., reader, writer, and professor. In this episode we discuss Karen's most recent book, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis, in which she outlines some of the cultural influences that have shaped our understanding of the role faith plays in public life. Resources The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis Free e-book to continue your learning Politics at Twilight. Faith & Work Podcast: "Leading with Christian Distinctiveness in a Pluralistic Society" with Stephanie Summers, CEO of Center for Public Justice"
Peru permits euthanasia, Florida frets about national security, and Kristi Noem is in the doghouse. This week on The Bulletin, Mike Cosper and producer Clarissa Moll discuss Florida's new laws restricting Chinese citizens from real estate transactions and employment at state universities. Conversation turns next to Peru's first exemption for medically assisted suicide and the growth of the global right to die movement. Finally, we talk about dogs -- our own and Governor Kristi Noem's, to be exact. Can the vice presidential hopeful remain a viable candidate after the release of her new book No Going Back? Special guests Skot Welch and Karen Swallow Prior join the discussion. Today's Guests: Skot Welch is the principal/founder of Global Bridgebuilders, a firm focusing on organizational development, cultural transformation and inclusion. Prior to the launch of Global Bridgebuilders, Skot served as Vice President of Business Development and Benchmarking Services for DiversityInc magazine in New Jersey, where he worked with many of the Fortune 500's biggest global brands across a broad range of industries. Skot's most recent book is Unfractured: A Christ-Centered Action Plan for Cultural Change. Karen Swallow Prior, Ph.D., is the author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis and On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books, among other titles. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, First Things, and various other places. In addition, Dr. Prior is a columnist for Religion News Service, a contributing editor for Comment, a founding member of The Pelican Project, and a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum. Resources Referenced: When Buying a Home Is Treated as a National Security Threat - The New York Times The Art of Dying: Living Fully into the Life to Come Who Will Comfort Me? The Total Care of Cicely Saunders | Acton Institute “The Bulletin” is a production of Christianity Today Executive Producer: Erik Petrik Producer: Clarissa Moll and Matt Stevens Associate Producer: McKenzie Hill and Raed Gilliam Editing and Mix: TJ Hester Music: Dan Phelps Show Design: Bryan Todd Graphic Design: Amy Jones Social Media: Kate Lucky Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This Week in the Nation's Capitol (Biden visiting all battleground states ... + ... Trump's legal twists and turns ... + ... Pence will not endorse Trump ... + ... Biden/ Netanyahu tensions) ... GUEST Greg Clugston ... SRN White House Correspondent. My Body Is Not A Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church ... GUEST Dr. Amy Kenny ... is a disabled scholar and a Shakespeare lecturer whose research focuses on medical and bodily themes in literature. The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (new book)... GUEST Dr Karen Swallow Prior ... author of “On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Literature" ... also co-editor of "Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues”. Originally aired 08.07.23, 5:10pm.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This Week in the Nation's Capitol (Biden visiting all battleground states ... + ... Trump's legal twists and turns ... + ... Pence will not endorse Trump ... + ... Biden/ Netanyahu tensions) ... GUEST Greg Clugston ... SRN White House Correspondent. My Body Is Not A Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church ... GUEST Dr. Amy Kenny ... is a disabled scholar and a Shakespeare lecturer whose research focuses on medical and bodily themes in literature. The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (new book)... GUEST Dr Karen Swallow Prior ... author of “On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Literature" ... also co-editor of "Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues”. Originally aired 08.07.23, 5:10pm.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Karen Swallow Prior earned her Ph.D. in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is a popular writer and speaker, as well as a columnist for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vox, The Washington Post, Christianity Today, and many other places. Her most recent book is The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023). In this interview, I talked with Dr. Prior about her book, On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Brazos, 2018). Dr. Prior's website: karenswallowprior.com The Book: https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Well-Finding-through-Great/dp/1587433966 Follow Dr. Prior: https://twitter.com/KSPrior?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor -------------------------------- GIVING -------------------------------- Please consider becoming a Patron! Patreon (Thanks!): https://www.patreon.com/AdherentApologetics YouTube Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO8jj_CQwrRRwwwXBndo6nQ/join
The podcast crew (Jen, Chris & Joel) is joined once again by Ashley Hales for our favorite topic: the books we enjoyed the most this year! ERB Contributors from 2023 also offer their suggestions throughout, so we cover a wide, wide range of titles. Enjoy this veritable feast of reading suggestions to keep you occupied until next year!Books Mentioned in this Episode:If you'd like to order any of the following books, we encourage you to do so from Hearts and Minds Books(An independent bookstore in Dallastown, PA, run by Byron and Beth Borger) Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West by Andrew WilsonDemon Copperhead by Barbara KingsolverDavid Copperfield by Charles DickensHow to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told by Harrison Scott KeyStolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention - And How to Think Deeply Again by Johann HariAll My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir by Beth MooreYou Could Make this Place Beautiful: A Memoir by Maggie SmithThe Kingdom, The Power and the Glory: American Evangelicalism in an Age of Extremism by Tim AlbertaDisobedient Women: How a Small Group of Faithful Women Exposed Abuse, Brought Down Pastors, and Ignited an Evangelical Reckoning by Sarah StankorbFoster by Claire KeeganThese Walls are Starting to Glow (chapbook) by Karen Bjork KubinBox Office Gospel: Poems by Marissa GloverThe Church in an Age of Secular Mysticisms: Why Spiritualities Without God Fail to Transform Us by Andrew RootThe Other Evangelicals: A Story of Liberal, Black, Progressive, Feminist and Gay Christians - And the Movement That Pushed Them Out by Isaac SharpThe Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis by Karen Swallow PriorLoving Disagreement: Fighting for Community Through the Fruit of the Spirit by Matt Mikalatos and Kathy KhangChristian Poetry in America Since 1940: An Anthology edited by Micah Mattix and Sally ThomasRivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith and Migration by Alejandro OlivaSanctuary and Subjectivity: Thinking Theologically about Whiteness and Sanctuary Movements by Michael WoolfThe Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism by Daniel HummelThe Scandal of Leadership by J.R. WoodwardJoel's Interview with JR WoodwardZero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair by Christian WimanThe Crosswicks Journals by Madeliene L'EngleThe Sayings and Stories of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (2 Volume Set) translated by Tim VivianWhere God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another by Rowan WilliamsChristianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff LiouChrist Among the Classes: The Rich, The Poor and the Mission of the Church by Al TizonOvercoming Apathy: Gospel Hope for those Who Struggle to Care by Uche Anizor
It was an honor to be joined by Dr. Karen Swallow Prior, author of the new book The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. Dr. Prior has keen insight into the role our imaginations play in creating assumptions about ourselves and those around us. She shares how the Evangelical imagination was created within our community and how it has changed over time. We hope you are encouraged to think more deeply about the assumptions we all carry about our neighbors, and hope you join us in praying for a more redeemed imagination for all of us. LINKS & SHOW NOTES:This UWP Podcast Episode was produced by Josh Deng with editing by Roshane Ricketts.To order Dr. Prior's excellent new book, click here. To find more information on her substack newsletter, click here. Support the showTo learn more about United? We Pray, follow us on Twitter and keep exploring our website. Please consider rating the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe using your favorite podcast client to hear more!
Chris sat down with two first-time ERB Podcast guests, Soong-Chan Rah and Mark Charles, at the recent CCDA conference to discuss their work related to colonialism, race, history and the church.Books Mentioned in this Episode:If you'd like to order any of the following books, we encourage you to do so from Hearts and Minds Books(An independent bookstore in Dallastown, PA, run by Byron and Beth Borger) Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan RahProphetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times by Soong-Chan RahThe Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity by Soong-Chan RahThe Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis by Karen Swallow PriorModern Social Imaginaries by Charles TaylorThe Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery by Sarah AugustineHow to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel ImmerwahrDie with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins
Words by writer, speaker and columnist Karen Swallow Prior are heard often on The Common Good, but today Brian and Aubrey get to interview her about her most recent book: The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. The book unpacks the social imaginary, or the collective metaphors and understandings, that a group might have and pass on without even realizing it. In this case, Karen explores those held by evangelicals--for example, the concept of conversion, which was largely forgotten in the 18th century because of the relationship between the church and the state, but was brought back into vogue by evangelicals. Most significantly, Karen shares how the book became increasingly her personal story as she was finishing it; what started out as a more academic examination became a personal story. Follow The Common Good on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Follow Karen Swallow Prior: @KSPrior Hosted by Aubrey Sampson and Brian From Produced by Laura Finch and Keith ConradSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mandy interviews reader, writer, and professor Karen Swallow Prior, talking about her recent book, "The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis." Mandy and Karen explore the last few hundred years of evangelicalism's relation to culture through the lens of "literary anthropology" and Karen's decades of experience teaching evangelical college students.
About the GuestKaren Swallow Prior, Ph. D., is a reader, writer, and professor. She is the author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023); On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Brazos 2018); Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson, 2014); and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (T. S. Poetry Press, 2012). She is co-editor of Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues (Zondervan 2019) and has contributed to numerous other books. She has a monthly column for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Think Christian, The Gospel Coalition, and various other places. She hosted the podcast Jane and Jesus. She is a Contributing Editor for Comment, a founding member of The Pelican Project, a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a Senior Fellow at the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture. She and her husband live on a 100-year-old homestead in central Virginia with dogs, chickens, and lots of books.Show NotesAdrienne Freas and Karen Swallow Prior enjoy discussing the idea of culture creation through great literature. Why not think of reading for enjoyment instead of just reading for an assignment? Enjoy more balance while gaining an enriching approach to literature. Some Questions Include: How is the book, On Reading Well helpful for parents and teachers? What do you believe is helpful in your books and what do you hope teachers and parents will take away ? What is your view concerning critical theory in contrast with the idea of reading well? What are the implications for how we teach students? Resources and books mentioned:On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great BooksThe Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in CrisisMoby DickThe BibleTo Kill A MockingbirdUncle Tom's CabinJane EyreGerard Manly Hopkins poetryEast of Eden________________________________________________________Let us help you discover what a beautiful education should look like. Subscribe to this Podcast on your favorite podcast app! Meet our Team, Explore our Resources and Take advantage of our Services! This podcast is produced by Beautiful Teaching, LLC.Support this podcast: ★ Support this podcast ★ _________________________________________________________Credits:Sound Engineer: Andrew HelselLogo Art: Anastasiya CFMusic: Vivaldi's Concerto for 2 Violins in B flat major, RV529 : Lana Trotovsek, violin Sreten Krstic, violin with Chamber Orchestra of Slovenian Philharmonic © 2023 Beautiful Teaching LLC. All Rights Reserved
![Ephesiology [n. ih·fē·zē·äləʒē]: The Study of a Movement](https://ivyfm.s3.amazonaws.com/i320/164089.jpg)
On this episode of the Ephesiology Podcast, Andrew and Michael ae joined by Dr. Karen Swallow Prior about her recent book, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. Dr. Prior discusses, among other things, how 18th century evangelicalism during the Victorian Age impacts us today. The influences of the … Continue reading "Episode 148: The Evangelical Imagination with Karen Swallow Prior"
Glen Scrivener interviews Karen Swallow Prior about her latest book 'The Evangelical Imagination - How Stories, Images & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis'.Karen's website: https://karenswallowprior.com/See 321: 321course.comSubscribe to the Speak Life YouTube channel for videos which see all of life with Jesus at the centre:youtube.com/SpeakLifeMediaSubscribe to the Reformed Mythologist YouTube channel to explore how the stories we love point to the greatest story of all:youtube.com/@ReformedMythologistDiscord is an online platform where you can interact with the Speak Life team and other Speak Life supporters. There's bonus content, creative/theological discussion and lots of fun. Join our Discord here:speaklife.org.uk/giveContact the show: info@speaklife.org.ukSpeak Life is a UK based charity that resources the church to reach the world.Learn more about us here:speaklife.org.ukSupport the show
Jen welcomed first-time ERB guest Russell Moore alongside returning guest Karen Swallow Prior to discuss their recent writings on the state of Evangelical religion and culture in American life, as well as a fascinating and unexpected list of titles they are currently enjoying.Books Mentioned in this Episode:If you'd like to order any of the following books, we encourage you to do so from Hearts and Minds Books(An independent bookstore in Dallastown, PA, run by Byron and Beth Borger) Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America by R MooreThe Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis by Karen Swallow PriorOn Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books by Karen Swallow PriorFierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More: Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist by Karen Swallow PriorBooked: Literature in the Soul of Me by Karen Swallow Prior"How Do People Actually Change?" Article by Simeon Zahl for MockingbirdA Christmas Carol by Charles DickensThe Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey ChaucerThe Priory - Karen Swallow Prior on SubstackThe Four Quartets by T.S. EliotAn Experiment in Criticism by C.S. LewisA Secular Age by Charles TaylorCultural Liturgies Trilogy by James KA SmithFranz Kafka: The Complete StoriesHigh Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda RipleyA Time to Build by Yuval LevinThe Godless Crusade by Tobias CremerA World After Liberalism: Philosophers of the Radical Right by Matthew RoseThe Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich by Doris BergenThe Goat-Foot God by Dion FortuneThe Green Man by Kingsley AmisThe Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
This week, Heather sits down with Viral Jesus “honorary co-host” Karen Swallow Prior to discuss the origins of the evangelical movement's PR troubles. And few thought leaders are better qualified to put the issue into a hopeful perspective than Karen Swallow Prior. Fun Fact: This is Karen's third appearance on Viral Jesus, and the most of any of our guests so far. Karen's latest book, The Evangelical Imagination, is about how art, literature, and popular culture have helped push evangelicals into an existential crisis of sorts. And of course, social media, with its penchant for both joy and destruction, plays a role in this evangelical saga. In her wide-ranging conversation with Heather, Karen brings sociological context to the recent talk of evangelical deconstruction; she makes the case for a return to virtue; and she offers a postmortem on purity culture, showing how its roots can be spotted in the pages of classic literature. This crackling, high-energy chat will leave you ready to get your copy of Karen's book posthaste. In this episode Heather also spends some quality time with her best friend and co-blogger Scarlett Longstreet for this week's Safe Space segment. Today, Heather asks Scarlett, who is not a Christian, to share what she likes and dislikes about the Christian influencers that she follows. Guest Bio Karen Swallow Prior, PhD, is a reader, writer, and professor. She is the author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023). She has a monthly column for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, First Things, and Vox. Host Bio Heather Thompson Day is an associate professor of communication at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. She is the author of eight books, including I'll See You Tomorrow and It's Not Your Turn. Reach out to Heather on X, the app formerly known as Twitter, at @HeatherTDay and on Instagram @heatherthompsonday. Additional Links Get Heather's weekly inspirational email delivered to your inbox every Friday night at 7 PM EDT. Sign up now at: www.heatherthompsonday.com/links. Viral Jesus is a production of Christianity Today Host and creator: Heather Thompson Day Executive Producer: Ed Gilbreath Producer: Loren Joseph Mix Engineer: Alex Carter Director of CT Podcasts: Mike Cosper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Grace welcomes Karen Swallow Prior to discuss her brand-new book, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023), and from that book, the power of imagination and our formation through literature and products of culture. Karen Swallow Prior (Ph.D., State University of New York, Buffalo) is a reader, writer, and professor. She is the author of multiple books including The Evangelical Imagination, On Reading Well, and Fierce Convictions. She and her husband live on a 100-year old homestead in central Virginia with dogs, chickens, and lots of books. She writes on Substack at The Priory.
In this episode Richard has a conversation with Karen Swallow Prior, Ph.D. She is a reader, writer and professor. She talks with Richard about her latest book, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. Another one of her books mentioned on the podcast is On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books. She has authored and contributed to numerous other books. She has a monthly column for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Think Christian, The Gospel Coalition, and various other places. She hosted the podcast Jane and Jesus. She is a Contributing Editor for Comment, a founding member of The Pelican Project, a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a Senior Fellow at the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture. She and her husband live on a 100-year-old homestead in central Virginia with dogs, chickens, and lots of books. Connect with Karen on her website: www.karenswallowprior.com DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support what we do, click here. RESOURCES: Find out more about our upcoming Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshops here. Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff, Mark Johnson. Find it here. CONNECT: Follow Richard on Twitter. Follow Richard on Facebook. Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com.
Welcome to episode ninety-six of New Creation Conversations. I'm joined this week by writer, professor, and expert on theology and literature, Dr. Karen Swallow Prior. Karen did her PhD at the State University of New York at Buffalo with a specialization in eighteenth century British literature. Karen taught in seminaries for a number of years, and she is a contributing editor for Comment, a founding member of The Pelican Project, a Senior Fellow at Trinity Forum, a Senior Fellow at the International Alliance for Christian Education, a Senior Fellow at the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture and is a former member of the Faith Advisory Council of the Humane Society of the United States. She and her husband live on a 100-year-old homestead in central Virginia with dogs, chickens, and lots of books.Karen has written and contributed to several books. We discuss her most recent work, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos Press). In the book she examines evangelical history – both good and bad. By analyzing the literature, art, and popular cultural that has surrounded evangelicalism, she unpacks some of the movement's most deeply held concepts, ideas, values, and practices to consider what is Christian rather than merely cultural. The result is a clearer path forward for evangelicals amid their current identity crisis – and insight for others who want a deeper understanding of what was best about the evangelical movement, and what possibilities might still be in its future. As many of you know, I am a fan of theology and literature, and I love the way Karen blends those too with important cultural and philosophical analysis. It is a very thoughtful and helpful book. And a very fun conversation.
Karen Swallow Prior - TC's Greta Gerwig correspondent - joins Josh to discuss the hilarity, profundity, and theological resonance of Gerwig's summer blockbuster, Barbie, which is now available via video on demand. SHOW NOTES Karen's book, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis - http://www.bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/the-evangelical-imagination/412270 Roslyn Hernández on ‘Barbie and Our Reason for Being' - https://thinkchristian.net/barbie-and-our-reason-for-being Alissa Wilkinson: ‘In the Beginning, There was Barbie' - https://www.vox.com/culture/23800753/barbie-review-bible-eden Sign up to join the TC Movie Club - https://thinkchristian.net/movieclub
When it comes to spiritual growth and personal righteousness, many Christians have a set of expectations for themselves and for God. What happens when our sanctification process isn't as smooth as we think it should be? How do we handle doubts and failures? Today, I speak with Dr. Karen Swallow Prior, author of the new book The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. We discuss some of the cultural and historical factors that led to these expectations, and what to do when the life of faith doesn't always feel like we think it should.
In this episode, Caleb talks with Karen about her book, The Evangelical Imagination, and more.Links MentionedKaren Swallow PriorThe Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis by Karen Swallow PriorEpisode 178: Karen Swallow PriorCaleb's Substack
Karen Swallow Prior and I have a fantastic conversation around evangelical culture and true Christian faith. We dig into the history of Evangelical faith, what myths, stories, and narratives have contributed to the underlying assumptions we have on how the world works, and we talk through how to be faithful to Jesus in the midst of unexamined culture. Join us as we start to unveil the underlying narratives that we follow unaware.Karen Swallow Prior, Ph. D., is a reader, writer, and professor. She is the author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023); On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Brazos 2018); Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson, 2014); and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (T. S. Poetry Press, 2012). She is co-editor of Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues (Zondervan 2019) and has contributed to numerous other books. She has a monthly column for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Think Christian, The Gospel Coalition, and various other places. She hosted the podcast Jane and Jesus. She is a Contributing Editor for Comment, a founding member of The Pelican Project, a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a Senior Fellow at the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture. She and her husband live on a 100-year-old homestead in central Virginia with dogs, chickens, and lots of books.Karen's Book:The Evangelical ImaginationKaren's Substack:The PrioryKaren's Website:Karen Swallow PriorKaren's Recommendation:The Brothers KConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.usGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Threads at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/shiftingculturepodcast/https://twitter.com/shiftingcultur2https://www.threads.net/@shiftingculturepodcastConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below.Support the show
Guest Bios Show Transcript How is it that evangelicals, who have long extolled the virtues of the First and Second Great Awakenings, now think being “awakened” or “woke” is a bad thing? And how did we evolve from valuing sanctification—to reducing faith into a self-help project? In this podcast, author and longtime professor Karen Swallow Prior joins Julie to discuss the current crisis in the church, which isn't just about Trump or celebrity pastor scandals. As Karen explains, evangelicalism suffers from a crisis of imagination. Somehow, over the past few decades, the pool of images, stories, and metaphors that form our imagination has become distorted and diseased. And the result has been catastrophic. We no longer think or imagine in biblical ways. For example, instead of thinking of the kingdom of heaven as something that advances as we love, serve, and sacrifice for our fellow man, we've adopted an empire mentality. In this system, one wins by dominating his fellow man and putting the right people in office. It's a far cry from the words of Jesus: The last will be first. To get out of this crisis, we need to reform our imagination—radically. But to do that, we first need to understand how we got here, Karen explains. And only then, can we chart a way forward. Guests Karen Swallow Prior Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) is a reader, writer, and longtime professor. She is the author of several best-selling books including On Reading Well, Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me and Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist. Prior has written for Christianity Today, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, First Things, Vox, and Religion News Service. Show Transcript SPEAKERS KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR, JULIE ROYS JULIE ROYS 00:04 How is it that evangelicals who have long extolled the virtues of the first and second great awakenings now think being awakened or woke is a bad thing? And why have testimonies degenerated into a contest over who has the most dramatic story? And how do we evolve from valuing sanctification to reducing faith into a self-help project? Welcome to The Roys Report, a podcast dedicated to reporting the truth and restoring the church. I'm Julie Roys, and today I'm going to be talking about the evangelical imagination with Karen Swallow Prior. Karen has just written a book by that name. And as she explains in her book, our current crisis isn't just about Trump or celebrity pastor scandals. Evangelicalism is suffering from a crisis of the imagination. Somehow over the past few decades, the pool of images, stories and metaphors, the form our imagination has become distorted and diseased. And the result has been catastrophic. We no longer think or imagine in biblical ways. For example, instead of thinking about the kingdom of heaven as something that advances as we love and serve and sacrifice for our fellow man, we've adopted an empire mentality where we win by dominating our fellow man, by putting the right people in office, by winning an actual culture war, by being first not last. And so, if we want to navigate out of this crisis, we need to reform our imagination. But to do that, we need to understand our history and how we got here. And Karen has done a masterful job of researching and explaining that development. So, I'm very much looking forward to our discussion today. But before we dive in, I'd like to thank the sponsors of this podcast, Judson University, and Marquardt of Barrington. If you're looking for a top ranked Christian University, providing a caring community and an excellent college experience, Judson University is for you. Judson is located on 90 acres just 40 miles west of Chicago in Elgin, Illinois. The school offers more than 60 majors, great leadership opportunities, and strong financial aid. Plus, you can take classes online as well as in person. Judson University is shaping lives that shaped the world. For more information, just go to JUDSONU.EDU. Also, if you're looking for a quality new or used car, I highly recommend my friends at Marquardt of Barrington. Marquardt is a Buick GMC dealership where you can expect honesty, integrity, and transparency. That's because the owners there Dan and Kurt Marquardt, are men of integrity. To check them out, just go to BUYACAR123.COM. Well, joining me now is Karen Swallow Prior, a former longtime English professor at Liberty University, and until quite recently, she was a research professor of English Christianity and culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Now she's a full-time writer and the author of several fantastic books including her latest, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. Karen also writes a monthly column for Religion News Service, is a contributing editor for Comment, a founding member of the Pelican Project and a senior fellow at the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture. And last but not least, she and her husband Roy live on a 100-year-old homestead in central Virginia, with two dogs, Eva the Diva, and Ruby. If you follow her , and I'm just thrilled to have you. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 03:45 And so great to be talking with you, Julie, thank you. JULIE ROYS 03:48 I am going to start this podcast with a little bit of a confession. Normally just because of my schedule, when I come to do a podcast and I come to read the book, it's often the day or two before the actual podcast and I'm rushing through this book to get through it. And true to form, I did that with your book. Now that I've read it, I am really dying to go back and to read it again. And to sit down I'm even thinking, I got some friends like we should do a book club and do this book because every chapter is so so rich. And so, I'm just thanking you for writing this book and for the richness in it. And you bring so much of yourself into it. It's just quintessential Karen Swallow Prior because of all of the literary illusions that you have and just fantastically done. So, thank you. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 04:42 Thank you. I have had a few interviewers either confess or read schedule. I think a lot of Christian books are fast reads. And so, I think a lot of people picked it up and just thought they could breeze through it, and I don't maybe if I were a better writer, I would write in a breezier style,, but you're not the only one to say it's you know, it's rich and taken time and a lot of thought. JULIE ROYS 05:05 absolutely true. And with most books, when I go through them in two or three hours, I feel like I'm done. Your book I didn't get through in two or three hours, it took me much more than that. But at the same time, I was just like, Man, this is important stuff that we need to really meditate on. And we really need to think about. And this idea of writing about the imagination. I love that because I think the imagination is something that so often, especially in evangelicalism, right, because we're so reason focus, we think of the imagination as something that's fiction, something that's not real. And we don't realize the extent to which the imagination and the stories, this pool of ideas and thought, how that really impacts the way we act, the way that we think, the way we perceive the future, all of that. And you so beautifully wove that into this book. I remember from when I was homeschooling my kids, we used to talk about the imagination as a garden, and how the weeds can take over. And I think in essence, that's a lot of what you're saying in this book, there's a lot of weeds that have gotten into our imagination, and yet, we're not even cognizant of them. So first, let me just ask you, why did you decide to write this book at this time? KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 06:26 For me, it takes a long time to write a book. And maybe that's why it takes so long to read. So, I started imagining this book, probably 2018 or 2019. But it really arose or teaching Victorian literature, and my college students are primarily evangelical, grew up in evangelical subculture, and a lot of what we would read in the Victorian age. Now, the Victorian age is the century after the rise of evangelicalism, but it sort of embodies the great influence of evangelicalism. And so, we would read this literature that talked about purity culture, and the sexual double standard that you know, the one standard for women, and another one much lower for men, family values, the separate spheres for men and women, all of those things in this wonderful literature that I love. And my students would often say, wait a minute, this sounds like the idea I was raised with, or this sounds like what I was taught, you know, in the 20th century. So, we would have these discussions, these conversations. Well, what is a truly biblical view of purity of family of men and women, and what's really just Victorian? We started separating those two threads in the classroom with my students who had largely been brought up in evangelical subculture was the beginning of the book. And, you know, so it's been a few years where I've been able to think about this, find other examples. And of course, a lot has been going on in the culture outside the classroom that helped me to see this as not just an intellectual exercise in the classroom, but really part of the crisis that our movement is facing right now. JULIE ROYS 08:05 Isn't that interesting that the Victorian era would be like our current era? I don't think most people would even fathom that, that's true. And even so many of the hip and, you know, cutting edge ministries we have today, would not recognize how their roots are actually in some of these centuries, way before them, and we're going to delve into that. But before we do, since we're talking about the evangelical imagination, let's start with a definition of evangelicalism because this is something that has morphed with time and means different things to different people. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 08:43 Absolutely. And of course, even the term has many different meanings and understandings, as it might have had over the years, it's really been kind of hijacked and catapulted into headlines and political polls and surveys. And so, it's just become even more confused and contested. And so, I realized that I am evangelical, so I know this, the problem surrounding the term and in many people's desire to reject it or replace it or denounce it. So I drew on a number of definitions that are given by scholars and the primary one that I think everyone either agrees with or differs with a little bit is that of the church historian David Bebbington as the Bebbington quadrilateral, and Bebbington basically looks at the evangelical movement from the 18th century on and says that, regardless of the denomination or the country, or the century, evangelicals are defined by their emphasis on the conversion experience, the centrality of the Bible or their lives as God's authoritative word, the centrality of Christ's crucifixion, and His sacrifice for our sins. And also, a lot of people don't maybe realize this but an activist spirit like evangelicals have always been activists of some kind; missions in the 19th century, social justice in the 21st, you know. I mean, across the board left or right evangelicals are defined by all four of these things, but including they all come together, activists spirit. JULIE ROYS 10:16 And that activism has its outworking very different in each age, which you highlight in a number of your chapters. But each one of your chapters sort of focuses on a word or a concept that captures an aspect of the evangelical imagination. And then you talk about this development of the concept about what's good and true about the concept within evangelicalism, but also what may be a perversion and that's what I think is so eye opening. Let's start with just this concept of awakening, your second chapter, because your first chapter sort of outlines what the imagination is, which I think was awesome. But explain how awakening and this idea of being awakened, is central to evangelicalism throughout the history and development of the movement. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 11:10 My expertise is in British Literature, the 18th and 19th century. So, I'll say that's the beginning, but most people are more familiar with American history and religious history, even if we're not experts. And we all know about the Great Awakenings, right? I mean, the Evangelical revival in America in the 18th century, it was called the Great Awakening, and then there are ones after that. So right away, we know that this whole idea of awakening is central to the evangelical movement. It also happens to be a very powerful and prevalent symbol in literature, throughout all time, but also during this period. So that is an area where I was able to make a connection, like why awakening and how many ways is that concept, that idea that symbols show up, and we have the Great Awakening in America. But the other thing that really defines America is the American Dream, which of course, you know, sleeping, dreaming, waking, these are all connected. And so that's one of the points that I make in this chapter and a couple places in the book is how the American Dream, which was so much part of America's founding has been part not just of American history, but also of evangelical history, just because of the way our nation was founded. And so, people talk about whether or not you know, there's Christian nation and what that means or doesn't mean. Even the whole concept of the American dream, and that sort of consumerist materialists prosperity idea is interwoven not only with American history, but evangelical history. JULIE ROYS 12:49 And of course, the American Dream is in the New Testament. Not. Not close. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 12:57 But Make America Great is there. JULIE ROYS 12:59 Oh, yeah, exactly. And this is the issue that you're getting at this sort of sifting between, you know, what is real and true to Christianity. Obviously, the idea of being awakened spiritually, I mean, evangelicalism grew out of what had become a very dry and dead and wrote Christian church culture, and yet people awakening some of them pastors awakening, which is beautiful, to the truth of a relationship with Jesus who is the truth. Ironically, I thought that the word woke, right. Something that's based on being awakened, has now become within a lot of evangelical circles, a pejorative term, and yet, again, it's our roots. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 13:47 It's our it's our roots. Right? And, and it is, you know, I talked about this in the book, and there's so many more things I could have said, but I wanted to trace that history. That's, you know, the way that the African American community use the word woke early in the 20th century, is really similar to the way that we were using it back in the 18th century. Now woke is centered in Yes, social justice and being awakened to oppression. But that's what the Great Awakening is too, is being awakened to the spiritual oppression that we undergo when we do not have that relationship in Jesus Christ, or we are denying the work of the Holy Spirit. And so, there's a direct connection there. And, again, going back to what I said about how evangelicalism has always been defined by an activist spirit. So this whole idea of being woke and having your conscience gripped by things that are wrong in our culture, whether systemically or individually, or there is sin matters or social matters. Like that is part of our heritage and to use that variation of the word woke as an insult or a pejorative or just an outright dismissal for everything that you disagree with, does violence not only to the language but does violence to our heritage as evangelicals and just violence to the people who are using that term to express this urgent and important felt need. JULIE ROYS 15:12 So, to the person who's trying to keep what is good, throw out what is bad when it comes to this most central concept of being awakened spiritually, what would you say? KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 15:23 I would say that, you know, this is one reason why I'm still an evangelical is because evangelicalism arose in the modern age. And an important feature of the modern age is the individual [ ] the individual soul that need for individual salvation and conversion. And it's all centered on the conscience. Now, I also happen to be not just evangelical Baptist. And for us, soul autonomy is really important, like the idea that we are each responsible and accountable as individuals, our own individual souls before God. And so that idea of the individual conscience is central to the evangelical movement. And so being awakened, not only spiritually, but also awakened just to our relationship in this world with one another and how we treat one another. It's just to me, it's central to what it means to be an evangelical. JULIE ROYS 16:26 So, A related term, which you already mentioned, is conversion. I think if you've grown up in evangelicalism, you've heard of this idea of easy believe ism. I remember that my mother moved from the north to the south, and she did go to a Baptist church in the south. They had a horrible tragedy where a teenage boy shot his family, killed all of them. And then he turned the gun on himself. And I remember my mother was so shocked that the pastor got up and said, Well, we know that the shooter was a Christian, because he came forward and gave his life to Christ. You know, when he was I forget what age and she was just appalled by this, that that was given as something to sooth the community, supposedly. I mean, she felt like how can we know this man that just went on a murderous rampage? Of course, we don't know, if he had mental illness, whatever, but that kind of statement, which, again, it takes that conversion experience into almost 100% iron clad, you're going to heaven, I think there's been some perversion of what a conversion really means. And you talk about the history and development of this term, if you would, give us a little bit of the background and how this has evolved over time. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 17:45 You know, the Evangelical revival in England arose at a time when, you know, a couple of centuries after the Reformation took place, and there was an established church in England, a state church, a government Church, which meant that if you were born as a citizen in England, that meant that you were a Christian, officially. So, it just bred of nominal Christianity, but this is what the Evangelical revival is like the Wesley's when they were young men, John and Charles Wesley who helped begin this who were Anglicans, studying for the ministry. They felt something was lacking, and then had that famous warming of the heart experience, and which we would call it being born again, or individual conversion. And so, this revival in England and this awakening in America centered on this idea that you're not a Christian just because you are born into a Christian family or confirmed or baptized as an infant in a Christian church, but you must be born again, you must have an individual salvation experience. And, again, I'm evangelical, I believe that. But as you pointed out, just because someone goes forward, or just because someone fills out a card or raises their hand, that in itself does not mean that they were converted. And that is why the Bible does say, not all who say Lord, Lord will be saved. And that is also why the Bible gives us evidence, such as fruit of the Spirit, to show that someone that exhibits godliness and Christ likeness and doesn't mean that the converted don't sin. Would that it were so but it's not. But again, this good, important biblical idea becomes distorted when all of the emphasis is on going forward, getting the hands raised, filling out the cards, counting the number of people who've made decisions for Christ, and then letting them off and go without any follow up or discipleship, or kinds of things that can't be measured as easily, which are actually so much more important. JULIE ROYS 19:47 But it sure makes a good newsletter. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 19:49 Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, it does. And that's the sad part about it. It often becomes a fundraising gimmick. How many people have come forward or whatever. And sometimes with good intentions, but I think it has been perverted. You talk about an 18th century novel in this chapter, which I had never heard about called Pamela. Talk about that book and how it sort of typifies the issue. Yeah. Non one ever reads or talks about Pamela unless they take an odd course, from me or some other 18th century novel professor. It's considered widely is like the first English novel. It's so rooted in all of evangelical history during this time, because it's a story of, you know, a young servant girl whose harasser is attempting to seduce her and harass her and she's holding on to her virtue. He actually tries to sexually assault her twice. If anyone wants to read it, spoiler alert. And the novel shows that through her good behavior, she tames him and he's inverted. You know, that's obviously not a good idea to follow that model. And she marries him. Yes, I think we still have those dynamics. But the reason I include that novel is because the story doesn't end when they get married. The story ends much later, when this horrible husband, this former Reagan player has had some kind of conversion experience and grows and matures. But the novel was widely criticized and mocked and satirize, because it was showing this like cheap grace kind of dynamic that we just talked about, and that this guy can just be converted, and everything is instantly better. And so, it's an interesting novel from a literary perspective. But it's also interesting because it parallels a lot of what evangelicals were thinking and teaching and modeling, but it shows it in such an access that we should stop and question and say many this is not how to evangelize and convert people. JULIE ROYS 21:53 A related concept is the idea of testimony and giving your testimony. And again, I'm thinking about my childhood. So, I'm one of those that went forward when I was six years old, at a camp meeting. don't really remember what was preached. But I remember like when he said, Do you want to come forward and accept Jesus? I was like, Oh, I've heard about Jesus my whole life. Of course, I do. You know. And so, I did go forward. I actually remember it very vividly. Because for the next two weeks, everybody I met, my parents would be like, oh tell them your testimony. But it was good for me because it solidified in me that experience and the importance of it. A lot of people don't have necessarily that one time testimony. I know my sister, one of the most beautiful Christians I know on the planet, she can't point to a time, and I think in your book you talk about you can kind of point to a time period, right? But not really a time. So, this can be a good thing, the testimony. You talked about testimony envy, which I thought was a great phrase. How can this be twisted, and how has it been twisted within evangelicalism? KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 23:03 So, testimony and story are just a central aspect of what it means to be human and also to what it means to be a Christian. We are to be prepared to give a defense to give our testimonies to tell our story. And yet, we also have to examine sort of the flip side, and as you said, if we don't remember that particular time and place and we can't tell that story because we, like in my case, and probably your sisters, were so young. But even John Bunyan, as I show in the book, has a really long Spiritual Autobiography. And you keep wondering, okay is this the moment is this the moment he keeps having these spiritual epiphanies or awakenings. And Jonathan Edwards himself says, sometimes people don't know and that's okay. I'm paraphrasing him, obviously. So, it's wonderful to have a testimony. But that testimony envy that I talked about, and you mentioned, can lead people to feeling as though if they don't have a testimony, something is wrong. Or we'd come to learn that someone who shared a testimony, embellished it. And so again, as I show throughout this whole book with all of these beautiful, wonderful concepts and ideas that are rooted in the Bible, but also become part of our imagination, our social imaginary, if they get distorted or twisted, then we take something that is good and true, and turn it into something that is not that; our salvation testimony is the most important one, but also our sanctification, our growth, the way God works, and as well as all of those are testimonies. JULIE ROYS 24:36 I couldn't help but think of Michael Warnke when I was reading that chapter. If you remember, he was in the 80s had this very dramatic testimony of being converted from being a Satanist to Christ, and he would tell the stories became an evangelist. Well, it turned out it was all bunk. He had concocted the whole thing; he had made it up. And the horrible thing is It just takes one fraud, for about 100 real testimonies and the truth for a lot of people, the Christian life is day by day living in the ordinary. And these days, I'm much more impressed by the person who's not so on fire outwardly, but just is living that quiet life of obedience to Christ, not bringing attention to himself or herself, and just following the Lord. And I think we forget how ordinary even Jesus was right? You know, some of them have dramatics; Saul has a dramatic testimony. But a lot of them it was just, follow me., and they did. The evangelical, or the Protestant work ethic, which is another concept that you talked about. And that's something that was drilled into me, in fact, there wouldn't be a Roy Report if I didn't have a Protestant work ethic. Yep. Before reading your book, I don't think I'd ever really thought about how this work ethic developed out of sort of an age of improvement, and how it even might be contributing to our self-help movement today. Would you explain how these things are related? KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 26:09 Yeah, that was a fun chapter, because I too, am a product of the Protestant work ethic, and it's made me who I am today. And so that is good. But there's this sort of, off branch of that work ethic, which is improvement, even the idea of a self-improvement or an improvement to your life was something that people for thousands of years, didn't imagine. Because for thousands of years, people's lives, generation after generation after generation, looks the same. You were trying to survive trying to herd your sheep and raise your children, and nothing much changed. So, improvement itself is a very modern idea. I'm for improvement too, but it goes too far when we improve just for improvement sake, or when it breeds lack of contentment, or we often don't look at what we lose or sacrifice by trying to make an improvement. If we go to the supermarket, we see these packages of food and products that say new and improved. And when you read the fine print, it's really just the labels changed or something. It's not even necessarily anything substantial that is improved. But we love improvements so much that the marketing and the research that goes into it shows us that it works to have that little label on it, even if we don't know what the improvement was. And of course, that carries over into modern evangelicalism when we are formed and shaped and motivated by self-improvement and influencers. And these aren't all bad. But we're the Christian, we are supposed to undergo growth and sanctification, which is really not quite the same thing as improvement. JULIE ROYS 27:50 The focus of it is so different. I mean, it almost becomes like a Babel thing, like I've built this, I've done this, instead of, you know, sanctification, the point of it is to become like Christ. Why? So that we can glorify Him. Because the chief end of man is to glorify God, and we miss that. We think the chief end of man, actually, we think the chief end of religion is to make our life better, so we can live our best life now. I mean, we've just so fundamentally perverted it. And this is why I think, when I hear so many people deconstructing, and I think we all should, I don't know if I like that word. You want to call it sifting, whatever. But we should be looking at what is it that we have imbibed? And what is it that we're really rejecting? I'm very grateful that for me, the stories, and the ideas that I feel like inform me, a lot of them are centuries old, because they've grown up in our family and in our church. But if you came to the Lord in this generation, and this is all you know, is this iteration of evangelicalism, I can see why people hate it. I hate a lot of it too, because it has nothing to do with the gospel, just nothing. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 29:01 There are so many layers that need to be peeled back. And so many things that need to be examined under the surface, but we have to look at them, so we know what to throw out and what to keep. And that's what I'm trying to demonstrate with this book. JULIE ROYS 29:15 So, you devote an entire chapter to sentimentalism which I think highlight a major, major tension in evangelicalism. I mean, on one hand, we are products of the Enlightenment, and I think you really explain that in a really good way. We love reason. I think when you look at the Sunday service in most churches, you can see that – what's the highlight? It's the sermon, right? It's the word. That can be a good thing. I will say it's one of the things I liked about the years that we spent at an Anglican Church is that the highlight was actually the table. It was the Eucharist which is a much more experiential though not experiential in the sense of rooted in your subjective experience, but in coming to the table that Christ has called us to do every week. And so, I love that, but again, you've got this reason on one hand, and yet on the other hand, as you describe, we've been influenced by something called the cult of sensibility, which emphasizes more feeling and emotion. And you use the book Sense and Sensibility, which doesn't necessarily mean what we would think it means today so that that has changed over time. But this is kind of a new idea to me. And then how this sensibility has sort of morphed into the sentimentalism that we find so commonly in churches today. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 30:30 Yeah, so Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility is a good touchstone for thinking about this idea, because most people are at least familiar with the title, if not the book. And if you're at all familiar with the book, or even the movie, you know, that like sense represents Eleanor and her rational, reasonable, non-emotional approach to life and Mary Anne represents sensibility, which is that romantic emotional approach. And Austen was actually satirizing just before Austin's lifetime was called the cult of sensibility, which tried to show that moral virtue is demonstrated by how sensitive you are to art and literature and opera and theatre, and not necessarily the real people suffering around you, perhaps, but at least you may respond emotionally with your heart to something that you see. And that is the mark of virtue. And Austin was making fun of them. But there was a short-lived movement. But it did slowly morph into sentimentalism, which is basically emphasizing emotion for the sake of emotion. As you said, we're both Protestants; we've made that clear. We're both maybe privilege word and reason and rationality a little bit more. So, it's not to say that we should ignore or downplay the emotional aspect of our humanity. It's not to say that empathy is a sin or anything like that. Because we are both emotional and rational creatures, and that those things should be in balance. But what sentimentalism does is it just emphasizes the emotional, and more specifically, when I talk about like Christian and evangelical art, it's emphasizing the sort of cheap, easy emotion like the easy way of feeling sad or happy, if you watch like a, you know, Hallmark or Lifetime movie. It just plays on our emotions, or a Budweiser beer commercial with puppies and horses, plays on our emotions, right? Those are cheap, easy ways to draw out our emotions that ignore sort of the hard realities or the sacrifice that good art, or spiritual redemption requires. So we live in a culture that has emphasized sort of the cheap and easy emotional shortcut. Real truth and sacrifice and redemption as well as good art requires sacrifice, and bringing into balance, truth, goodness, and beauty, which is just not the same thing as sentimentality. JULIE ROYS 32:59 I kept thinking of the verses where the Lord says, These people worship Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. I see it in the church today. I mean, people that I report on, and I know so much about the sin that they're involved in, and yet I'll see them in their services, you know, projected on YouTube, acting so spiritual and crying and during the worship, and it's repulsive, I think it has become manipulative, it has become where we leave no room for the moving of the Holy Spirit in our highly programmed services. And where it's excesses of emotion that's in the church. And again, over the centuries, the church has been very concerned about this, and has thought deeply about the place of worship and emotion. And sometimes airing way too far to cutting off emotion side, but at the same time, wanting it to be real. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 33:59 Yeah, I mean, emotions are an essential part of what it means to be human. But if we confuse emotion with worship, I mean, we can worship God, and we want to feel what we are saying and expressing with our worship. But some of us are just more rational, some are more emotional. And the goal as individuals, and as a church is to have them in balance, not go from one extreme to the other. JULIE ROYS 34:21 For time sake, we're gonna have to skip over several chapters of your book, although I will just say, I would really encourage people to get the book. And by the way, if you get the book right now, it's something that we're offering as a premium to all the donors to The Roys Report. So you can get Karen's book, which thanks to some intervention that you did on your part, because this is a hardcover book. It's an expensive book, but you helped us get it at a really reasonable price, so we can offer it to anybody who gives a donation to The Roys Report in this month, we will send you a copy of Karen's book, which again, fantastic book. You just go to JULIEROYS.COM/DONATE. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 35:03 And if I can just throw in one word. It's not only a hardcover book, but this is also something I'm so proud of, because I negotiated it. It includes a number of beautiful color plates of paintings and artwork that I either talk about in the book or that illustrate the things I'm talking about. And so, I think books should be beautiful. And I think this one is. JULIE ROYS 35:24 Oh, it's gorgeous. So, thank you for helping us get that cheaper than we deserve. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 35:31 I'm so glad I was able to do that. JULIE ROYS 35:33 So, the last three chapters, which I think are absolutely crucial, chapter nine, you explore the concept of empire, and how evangelicalism, maybe without meaning to but it is just integral to this idea of British imperialism, which again, the sun never set on the British Empire, right? I mean, talk about the pride involved in that. But would you describe how evangelicalism, even the modern mission movement has become so married to Empire and how we can extricate ourselves from that. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 36:08 If anyone knows anything about me and my work, you know that I love cultural engagement, right? I love to engage all of the culture, art, literature, think about it as a Christian, applied biblical worldview. And the fact is, even with the negative things that I have to say, especially in this chapter, this is sort of the darkest, heaviest chapter. I think. My whole point is that we are creatures of culture, no matter what Christians we're talking about the ones that the first century, the ones of the 30th century should the Lord tarry. All Christians will be in a culture, they will be influenced by their culture, hopefully they will influence their culture. So, what I'm talking about in this book of, you know, a 300-year slice of very like Western British American evangelicalism and the problems that we have to face, all Christians are going to have to face that entanglement with culture. So that's just how it is. And so, I'm not saying anything in particular, that is different. Where us as modern evangelicals as for Christians than any other place. But Empire happens to be an area in which it is the time and the place and the context in which evangelicalism was great before. The evangelical movement arose as the British Empire was arising. Evangelical influence and power reached its peak when the British Empire was peaking. So, the great work the evangelicals wanted to do as missionaries was inextricably tied to the work that British Empire wanted to do in colonizing and conquering around the globe. And so even if it's just barely coincidence, which it's more than that, there was effort and human intention and agency and mixed motives and all that involved, but even just the mere coincidence of the movement, and the Empire, arising at the same time means that evangelicalism was born by notions of Empire. And so, we might not go out as evangelicals and take lands and oppress people. We might we might not, but we don't have to do that to see the influence of empire in our evangelical culture today whether it's what our friend, Skye Jehani, has coined the evangelical industrial complex, or mega churches or big conferences, or coalition. All those things that I'm part of, too. So, I'm not standing at the outside and pointing. What I'm asking and examining saying, has this imperialist mindset affected us? Well, it has, it's in our DNA. And so that empire exists when we try to dominate our neighbors rather than loving them. JULIE ROYS 38:52 I will say, just to balance a little bit with that there was an article in Christianity Today several years ago that talked about colonialism and the missionaries and found that a lot of missionaries, actually the majority of them, were much more on the side of the Indigenous people and fighting for their rights than they were the colonial powers. So, I think there is some balance to that. But when I read this, the thing that I thought of so much, and this is where I've probably experienced so much change myself, is just the triumphalism within evangelicalism, and sometimes it's just really trite that we just always have the Cinderella story. It's in our brain and in essence, Christianity is a Cinderella story. I mean, Jesus did rise from the dead, we are eventually going to see heaven, but the in between, we forget the cross and the suffering and all of that, and that's a part of what it means to be Christian. And now I think, too, I've become much more aware of how I'm a part of the white dominant culture. And it's just like we're talking about the imagination that the soup that you swim, and you don't even realize it. But now that I'm beginning to realize it, I can see it more and more and more and in the ways that Christianity around the globe, I mean, quite frankly, Western Christianity is shrinking. The global south is growing and growing by leaps and bounds, and we're going to be, we are learning from them. And we need to learn much more and stop thinking that we have the corner on the way to do things when we need to admit that they do. This is not a white man's religion. This is, you know, something that was started by a Jewish dark-skinned man. And so, we need to be aware of that. Then your next chapter on reformation reminded me of the motto of The Roys Report, which is reporting the truth, restoring the church. It's central to our again imagination as evangelicals to reform to be restored. I mean, that's huge. And yet we have seen so much perversion of the real. And I know there's people listening right now who are so disillusioned because of what they've seen in the church. How do we reform something that has been so fundamentally distorted? KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 41:21 That's a big question. But I think some of the answer is, it's so simple, it's listening to one another, as you said, like listening to the people outside of our circles, who have different stories, different experiences. It's not turning away, You model that. It's not turning away from the sin that's in front of us, or the sin that's beneath the surface that we sort of sense we would rather not know about. It's paying attention to the red flags, it's being open, honest, supporting those who are courageous enough to come forward, and just opening our eyes. And I feel like for me, that's where I am in my life. And so, this book, in some ways, is sort of my confession, because it's just me demonstrating what I'm going through, because I had a very good for the most part experience within the evangelical world, most of my life, but others . . . . And so, I don't feel like I'm saying anything in here that is new. It's new to me, perhaps, but I can hear other people saying, Yeah, well, I told you so a long time ago, or we've been saying this a long time. And so, I humbly respect that and admit that, and yet, we had this Protestant Reformation 500 years ago, which we've already identified with. And yet part of what that movement said is like, always reform is not just one reformation. And the way that I frame it in the book is that maybe that first big reformation was over doctrine and cleaning up the doctrine and clarifying that in the church, and maybe in the next 500 years is about practice. JULIE ROYS 43:01 For too long, we have focused almost exclusively on orthodoxy, you know, right belief. And there's been so little emphasis on orthopraxy, which is right behavior. And we have people who are preaching on huge platforms with the most pristine doctrine you can imagine and, you know, passing judgment on those who don't have as good a doctrine, and yet their lives. And I'm so glad you said fruit of the Spirit when you were talking about fruit because that's what reflects whether we're filled by the Holy Spirit, not by how many people are listening to our sermons or our podcasts or sitting in the pews. It is about Christ likeness. Well, lastly, let's talk about the Rapture. This has been the topic of so many evangelical books and movies from the Late Great Planet Earth to the Left Behind series. And the rapture, again, is something that's just seared into the evangelical imagination, and yet a literal rapture, which, at least in the tradition I grew up in, was very much assumed. Now, a lot of evangelicals are saying, well, maybe it's not exactly how we had envisioned it. Regardless, our obsession with the rapture, I think sometimes we miss the point. And you talk about that. What do you think about the Rapture now, as you reflect on it? What's it about, and what is God really asking us to think about His Second Coming? KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 44:33 Yeah, I mean, for me, I have some lighthearted fun with this, because what's not fun talking about the Rapture and chick tracks and left behind and although you know, the trauma of that. This topic does illustrate what I'm trying to do throughout the whole book, because I grew up thinking that this interpretation of a physical literal rapture. I didn't know that was an interpretation, right? And I also didn't know it was an interpretation that arose in the 19th century. I just thought it was what all Christians believed. And so, it was a shocking revelation when I learned that not all Christians have this interpretation. And so that's not the only thing that we could say about having interpretations. And so, we need to examine not only our assumption, but examine our interpretive communities, because we interpret in community. And so, we are shaped by the way that our communities read Scripture emphasize scripture, which parts they tend to quote in the sermons and which ones never get preached about. And so, rapture is just, you know, one sort of dramatic example of that. And I say in the book, I haven't studied this on my own, I'm not a theologian in this area, I don't even really care what it means because I was just so tired of it. But I do know that whether the rapture is physical and literal or not, what the word means refers to us being caught up in Christ, right. And so all of the interpretations of that phrase are important, especially the one in which we are caught up with him now. Because we see him and are so filled with the spirit that we reflect Him and nothing else is as important. As Paul said, all this world is dung. We only want Christ. And that's what it means to be caught up in him. And so that's the most important interpretation. And that's kind of the note that I closed the book on is just to say, let's just imagine that. JULIE ROYS 46:32 Let me read that because I think you put it so well, and it really moved me. So, I just want to read this part of your book. The rapture is assuredly this. We who are in Christ will be caught up with him, caught up in him. To be caught up with Christ in Christ is to be filled with a love not only powerful enough to move the sun and the stars, but powerful enough to love that person we would otherwise despise. It is to love the kingdom of God more than the kingdoms of this world. It is to count all human empires as dirt, all our petty platforms and performances, as dung. To be caught up in Christ is to be enraptured by him, to be beholden to him, to be taken by him to be, as 17th century poet John Donne puts it, ravished by him. Not just in the sky, and on some future day, but here, and now. Just imagine it. I love that. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 47:29 Thank you. I worked hard on that ending. JULIE ROYS 47:32 I'm sure you did. And if that captured our imagination, as Christians as evangelicals, if we were more caught up in Jesus, and in this picture of oneness with him, instead of in the political empires that we think we have to gain or in the huge mega churches we think we have to build. If it really was about Jesus, again, what a huge difference that would make. And if anything, I hope people take away from your book, it is that; that this needs to be about Jesus and not about us and our imaginations need to be filled with what's good and true and beautiful. And that will change the world. So, thank you. KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR 48:17 Thanks, Julie. JULIE ROYS 48:19 Well, again, thanks so much for listening to The Roys Report, a podcast dedicated to recording the truth and restoring the church. I'm Julie Roys. And as I mentioned earlier, if you'd like a copy of Karen's book, The Evangelical Imagination, we're giving them as a thank you to anyone who gives a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month. So, if you appreciate these podcasts, would you please consider giving to support our work? As I've said before, we don't have any big donors or advertising, we simply have you, the people who care about the integrity of the church and the protection of the most vulnerable. To donate and get a copy of The Evangelical Imagination, just go to JULIEROYS.COM/DONATED. Also, just a quick reminder to subscribe to The Roys Report on Apple podcast, Google podcasts or Spotify. That way you'll never miss an episode. And while you're at it, I'd really appreciate it if you'd help us spread the word about the podcast by leaving a review. And then please share the podcast on social media so more people can hear about this great content. Again, thanks so much for joining me today. Hope you were blessed and encouraged. Read more
Make a one-time or recurring donation on our Donor Box profile here. Join us in the mission of introducing Reformed Theology across the world! Interested in further study of the Bible? Join us at Logos Bible Software. Are you interested in a rigorous and Reformed seminary education? Call Westminster Seminary California at 888-480-8474 or visit www.wscal.edu! Please help support the show on our Patreon Page! WELCOME TO BOOK CLUB! Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) is the award-winning author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books. She is a frequent speaker, a monthly columnist at Religion News Service, and has written for Christianity Today, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Vox. She is a contributing editor for Comment, a founding member of the Pelican Project, a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a senior fellow at the International Alliance for Christian Education. Visit Karen Swallow Prior's personal website here. We want to thank Brazos Press for their help in setting up this interview and providing us with the necessary materials for this interview with Dr. Prior! Purchase the book(s) here: The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis Have Feedback or Questions? Email us at: guiltgracepod@gmail.com Find us on Instagram: @guiltgracepod Follow us on Twitter: @guiltgracepod Find us on YouTube: Guilt Grace Gratitude Podcast Please rate and subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you use! Looking for a Reformed Church? North American Presbyterian & Reformed Churches --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gggpodcast/support
Rich Christman and guest host Houston Arledge interview Dr. Karen Swallow Prior about the ideas in her all-new book, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023). Karen Swallow Prior, Ph. D., is a reader, writer, and professor. In addition to The Evangelical Imagination, she is the author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Brazos 2018); Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson, 2014); and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (T. S. Poetry Press, 2012). She is co-editor of Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues (Zondervan 2019) and has contributed to numerous other books. She has a monthly column for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Think Christian, The Gospel Coalition, and various other places. She hosted the podcast Jane and Jesus.
In this episode of the Grace Enough podcast, Amber Cullum interviews Karen Swallow Prior about the influence of stories, images, and metaphors on the Christian faith. They discuss how these influences, also known as the social imaginary, shape our expectations, hopes, and disappointments in ways we may not always be aware of. Karen Swallow Prior explores the positive aspects as well as the pitfalls of evangelicalism, focusing on the power of stories, songs, and artwork in interpreting the facts of the Bible. By critically examining these influences, we can align our beliefs and practices with the teachings of Scripture. This episode is essential for Christians seeking a deeper understanding of how stories and metaphors shape their faith and how to discern between what is true and what may be distortion or sentimentality in their interpretations of Scripture., Key Takeaways: Bring to light the pivotal role of stories, imagery, and metaphors in shaping Christian ideology. Venture into a balanced discussion of the commendable qualities and latent issues within evangelicalism. Throw light on the unintended obsessions with conversion at the expense of discipleship within the evangelical circle. Trace the subtle art of how images, metaphors, and stories contribute to our faith and understanding of hypocognition. Resources Mentioned: Listen to episode 86 of the Grace Enough Enough podcast where Dr. Karen Swallow Prior discusses the impact of reading good books on your journey with Jesus, particularly in relation to virtue and understanding Scripture. Check out Dr. Karen Swallow Prior's newest book, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. John Bunyan and his influential book, The Pilgrim's Progress. Show Notes cont. https://www.graceenoughpodcast.com/imagination/ JOIN Come be a part of the Grace Enough Gang http://eepurl.com/gidRnD Follow Grace Enough on IG: https://www.instagram.com/graceenoughpodcast_amber/ Follow Grace Enough: https://www.facebook.com/graceenoughpodcast www.graceenoughpodcast.com Become a Grace Enough supporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
All Shall Be Well: Conversations with Women in the Academy and Beyond
“Whatever is true of the Christian faith is true for all times and all people, not just 21st century American evangelicals.” — Karen Swallow Prior Author and scholar Karen Swallow Prior talks with us about the historical influences around evangelical culture and how they impact the expression of faith today. What forces have shaped the evangelical culture and how can understanding them shape our future? Author and scholar Karen Swallow Prior joined us on the podcast to discuss her recent book, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. Karen talks with us about the history of evangelicalism and the way Victorian influences impact its expression even today, helping us to consider what ideas are Christian and what are merely cultural. Karen also offers some sound advice for those who are beginning their academic careers, and if you listen to the very end of the podcast, you'll hear an excerpt from our conversation in which Karen shares thoughts on responding to the pressures that come with life as a woman who hasn't had children. So jump right in! We're so glad you're here. — Ann Boyd For show notes or more information please visit our article at The Well. If you'd like to support the work of InterVarsity's Women Scholars and Professionals, including future podcasts such as this episode, you can do so at givetoiv.org/wsap. Thank you for listening!
A new survey of worship leaders finds that four megachurches have cornered the worship music market. Should we care who is writing the songs we sing in church, and what gets lost when market forces influence local ministries? A sermon clip has gone viral showing a megachurch pastor scolding people who arrive late or leave early because they are treating the “church like it's a religious show instead of a welcoming family.” But are people acting like church is a show because that's the model church leaders have created? We explore the history of how churches came to copy theaters and its impact on the church's mission and power. Then, Phil talks to Karen Swallow Prior about her new book, “The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis.” She explains how the current crisis in evangelicalism finds its roots in trying to preserve Victorian values rather than biblical ones. Also this week: a celebrity bear is above the law. Patreon Bonus: Holy Post Office - How do you justify the O.T God who commanded Israel to annihilate other nations, with the New Testament themes of loving our enemies? https://youtu.be/IMEMzA8rJZQ 0:00 - Intro 1:49 - Show Starts 4:10 - Theme Song 4:27 - Sponsor - Hiya Health 5:36 - Animal News 14:05 - How we choose worship music in church 34:55 - JD Greear's recent viral clip 56:03 - Sponsor - AG1 To get your FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase, go to athleticgreens.com/HOLYPOST 57:32 - Sponsor - Blueland To get 15% off your first order, go to Blueland.com/HOLYPOST 58:38 - Interview Intro Karen Swallow Prior 1:03:36 - How Victorian literature influenced Evangelicalism 1:12:20 - Evangelicialism and Empire 1:24:43 - Broadening our imagination 1:36:43 - End Credits Links mentioned in news segment: Hank the Tank: Fugitive burglar bear captured in California https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66429736 Few worship leaders avoid Hillsong, Bethel songs — despite controversies and scandal https://religionnews.com/2023/07/11/few-worship-leaders-avoid-hillsong-bethel-songs-despite-controversies-and-scandal/ JD Greear's sermon clip - https://twitter.com/laurchas22/status/1687426921586622464 Other resources: The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis by Karen Swallow Prior https://amzn.to/3qm5F9N Holy Post website: https://www.holypost.com/ Holy Post Plus: www.holypost.com/plus Holy Post Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/holypost Holy Post Merch Store: https://www.holypost.com/shop The Holy Post is supported by our listeners. We may earn affiliate commissions through links listed here. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Karen Swallow Prior, Ph. D., is a reader, writer, and professor. She is the author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023); On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Brazos 2018); Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson, 2014); and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (T. S. Poetry Press, 2012). She is co-editor of Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues (Zondervan 2019) and has contributed to numerous other books. She has a monthly column for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Think Christian, The Gospel Coalition, and various other places. She hosted the podcast Jane and Jesus.
Karen Swallow Prior is one of the leading evangelical writers and commentators our time. Her new book is The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. In this episode, Dr. Prior and I talk about the role of imagination in the making of meaning, and we talk about what happens when we start to examine the unexamined metaphors that make it possible for us to make sense of the world while also limiting our possibilities for making sense of the world.Subscribe to Dr. Prior's new Substack newsletter.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Ride Home with John & Kathy! Buckle in for a Monday full! Like… GUEST Greg Clugston ... SRN News White House Correspondent Kids Need Both Affection and Authority ... GUEST Chap Bettis ... author of "The Disciple-Making Parent: A Guidebook for Raising Your Children to Love and Follow Jesus Christ” and “Parenting with Patience: Overcoming Anger in the Home” ... he is also executive director of The Apollos Project, a ministry dedicated to helping families pass the gospel to their children, and for 25 yrs, he was lead pastor of a New England church plant The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (new book)... GUEST Dr Karen Swallow Prior ... author of “On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Literature" ... also co- editor of "Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues” Thanks for riding with us on The Ride Home with John & Kathy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Ride Home with John & Kathy! Buckle in for a Monday full! Like… GUEST Greg Clugston ... SRN News White House Correspondent Kids Need Both Affection and Authority ... GUEST Chap Bettis ... author of "The Disciple-Making Parent: A Guidebook for Raising Your Children to Love and Follow Jesus Christ” and “Parenting with Patience: Overcoming Anger in the Home” ... he is also executive director of The Apollos Project, a ministry dedicated to helping families pass the gospel to their children, and for 25 yrs, he was lead pastor of a New England church plant The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (new book)... GUEST Dr Karen Swallow Prior ... author of “On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Literature" ... also co- editor of "Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues” Thanks for riding with us on The Ride Home with John & Kathy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Karen Swallow Prior is the author of multiple books, including On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books. Her new book is called The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. It's out August 8 from Brazos Press. She is a professor of English literature and a popular speaker and writer. Karen's new book argues that "so much ... that what evangelicals uncritically assume is 'biblical' turns out to be simply Victorian." She explains here why the Victorian age, in particular, has had such a formative impact on American Christianity.The book unpacks how numerous major themes, ideas and emphases in American evangelicalism -- such as revival, conversion, rapture, improvement, sentimentality, and empire -- have their roots in the culture and the literature of 19th century Britain.Karen is a spirited conversation partner and a really joyful champion of reading and writing and language, and she has been evolving herself over the past several years in her views of American evangelicalism and faith itself, and we talk about that as well here.Karen really does come from inside evangelicalism. She's taught at Liberty University. She's tried extremely hard to be positive and affirming of as much as she can. But she talks here about how there is a tendency inside conservative Christianity to discourage difficult questions or criticism that breeds a "gullibility" that she says provides endless grist for the "evangelical industrial mill."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Author Karen Swallow Prior, Ph.D. joins LAB: The Podcast to celebrate the August 8 release of her latest book, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. We've been excited for this release for months! Don't miss this chance to share some time with Dr. Swallow Prior! Excerpt below from https://karenswallowprior.com/In this book, acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior examines evangelical history, both good and bad. By analyzing the literature, art, and popular culture that has surrounded evangelicalism, she unpacks some of the movement's most deeply held concepts, ideas, values, and practices to consider what is Christian rather than merely cultural. The result is a clearer path forward for evangelicals amid their current identity crisis--and insight for others who want a deeper understanding of what the term "evangelical" means today.Brought to life with color illustrations, images, and paintings, this book explores ideas including conversion, domesticity, empire, sentimentality, and more. In the end, it goes beyond evangelicalism to show us how we might be influenced by images, stories, and metaphors in ways we cannot always see.Dr. Swallow Prior is a reader, writer, and professor. She is the author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good life through Great Books (Brazos 2018); Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hanna More - Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson, 2014); and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (T.S. Poetry Press, 2012). Link to order your copy: https://karenswallowprior.com/#purchase
Welcome back to the Losing Our Religion series of The Russell Moore Podcast! This special series of episodes around Russell Moore's newest book, Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America, explores navigating the Christian faith in confusing times. This week, Moore welcomes his good friend, author, and professor Karen Swallow Prior to the show. Moore and Prior discuss their newest titles—Prior's The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis and Moore's Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America, which have powerful crossovers. They talk about the history of evangelicalism, the significance of metaphors and language in the church, and biblical interpretation. Their conversation covers conversion stories, social media, and their thoughts on the classic John Bunyan work The Pilgrim's Progress. Tune in for an episode that is engaging, insightful, and infused with hope in the gospel. Resources mentioned in this episode include: The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis by Karen Swallow Prior Areopagitica by John Milton The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan The work of Flannery O'Connor The work of Thomas Kinkade Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist by Karen Swallow Prior Grab a copy of Russell's new title, Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America, here! If you're able, join us for a live event hosted by Beth Moore in Houston on August 9. Click here for details. Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to questions@russellmoore.com. Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today. “The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper Host: Russell Moore Producer: Ashley Hales Associate Producers: Abby Perry and Azurae Phelps CT Administration: Christine Kolb Social Media: Kate Lucky Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens Audio engineering by Dan Phelps Video producer: Abby Egan Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Purity Culture graduates left the movement with our feet stuck to chewed up gum, our fingers locked into purity rings, and our hearts (supposedly) irreparably broken. But these were images and metaphors given to us by an evangelicalism broken by its own damaged stories, images, and metaphors. This episode gets into what went wrong, and how we can start to make it right. Join us in Patreon to hear about deconstruction in evangelical history. Join today and get a ticket to our monthly Zoom call happening on July 27 (9pm EST) and 28 (11am AEDT). It's $3/month USD, and you get romcom recaps, purity culture news & views, and more! The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis16: Read Better Books (with Karen Swallow Prior) Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) is the award-winning author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books. She is a frequent speaker, a monthly columnist at Religion News Service, and has written for Christianity Today, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Vox. She is a contributing editor for Comment, a founding member of the Pelican Project, a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a senior fellow at the International Alliance for Christian Education. Connect with Karen on Instagram and Twitter
Is the Christian ideal that we aspire to in our lives really Christian? In our families? In what we do pursue? How do we separate the Gospel from the evangelical culture? And what happens when you address these things in our evangelical institutions? This week on Apollos Watered, we finish off our conversation about Karen's forthcoming book, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos 2023). Travis and Karen talk about all things evangelicalism and culture and how they overlap. They also discuss her departure from the Southern Baptist Convention, and her desire for the church in North America going forward. Karen Swallow Prior, Ph. D., is a reader, writer, and professor. In addition to her newest book, she is the author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Brazos 2018); Jane Eyre: A Guide to Reading and Reflecting (B&H 2021), The Scarlet Letter: A Guide to Reading and Reflecting (Read and Reflect with the Classics) (B&H 2022), Frankenstein: A Guide to Reading and Reflecting (B&H 2021), Sense and Sensibility: A Guide to Reading and Reflecting (B&H 2020), Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Guide to Reading and Reflecting (B&H 2022), Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson, 2014); and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (T. S. Poetry Press, 2012). She is co-editor of
In today's episode, Fr. Wesley Walker sits down to discuss Robinson Crusoe with Dr. Karen Swallow Prior. Dr. Prior's forthcoming book is The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. It comes out on August 8. You can find more of her work at her website: https://karenswallowprior.com. Get full access to The Classical Mind at www.theclassicalmind.com/subscribe
What is the "good life" to you? Is it the American Dream? Is it the kids getting a good education and job? What about the family? Taking a vacation someplace exotic on spring break? Where did we get these ideas on the good life from? Are they biblical? Karen Swallow Prior has some pretty good ideas!Travis and Karen discuss her forthcoming book, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos 2023). They discuss how we developed this idea of what the good life is and what it is supposed to be and how some have ordered their lives to get it. They also discuss Flannery O'Connor, eighteenth and nineteenth-century literature, modern evangelicalism, her departure from the Southern Baptist Convention, and her desire for the church in North America going forward. Karen Swallow Prior, Ph. D., is a reader, writer, and professor. In addition to her newest book, she is the author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Brazos 2018); Jane Eyre: A Guide to Reading and Reflecting (B&H 2021), The Scarlet Letter: A Guide to Reading and Reflecting (Read and Reflect with the Classics) (B&H 2022), Frankenstein: A Guide to Reading and Reflecting (B&H 2021), Sense and Sensibility: A Guide to Reading and Reflecting (B&H 2020), Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Guide to Reading and Reflecting (B&H 2022), Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson, 2014); and Booked:...
The Ride Home with John & Kathy! Buckle in for a Monday full! Like… 4:10 PM The Week in the Nation's Capitol (Debt ceiling deadline / talks ... + ... Southern border update ... + ... GOP 2024 update: names of possible hopefuls who have not announced ) ... GUEST Greg Clugston ... SRN News White House Correspondent 4:35 PM Seven Secrets of the Spirit-filled Life (new book) ... GUEST Jack Levison ... internationally acclaimed scholar and award winning author of many book, incl “40 Days with the Holy Spirit: Fresh Air for Every Day,” “An Unconventional God: The Spirit according to Jesus,” “A Boundless God: The Spirit according to the Old Testament” 5:10 PM Human progress, the myth of the modern age, is increasingly in doubt ... GUEST Dr Karen Swallow Prior ... Research Prof of English & Christianity & Culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary ... author of “On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Literature" ... also co-editor of "Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues” ... her forthcoming book (Aug 8, ‘23) is “The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis” Plus Does This Make Sense? And more! Thanks for riding with us on The Ride Home with John & Kathy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Ride Home with John & Kathy! Buckle in for a Monday full! Like… 4:10 PM The Week in the Nation's Capitol (Debt ceiling deadline / talks ... + ... Southern border update ... + ... GOP 2024 update: names of possible hopefuls who have not announced ) ... GUEST Greg Clugston ... SRN News White House Correspondent 4:35 PM Seven Secrets of the Spirit-filled Life (new book) ... GUEST Jack Levison ... internationally acclaimed scholar and award winning author of many book, incl “40 Days with the Holy Spirit: Fresh Air for Every Day,” “An Unconventional God: The Spirit according to Jesus,” “A Boundless God: The Spirit according to the Old Testament” 5:10 PM Human progress, the myth of the modern age, is increasingly in doubt ... GUEST Dr Karen Swallow Prior ... Research Prof of English & Christianity & Culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary ... author of “On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Literature" ... also co-editor of "Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues” ... her forthcoming book (Aug 8, ‘23) is “The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis” Plus Does This Make Sense? And more! Thanks for riding with us on The Ride Home with John & Kathy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dr. Karen Swallow Prior, professor and author and monthly columnist of Religion News Service, just announced her resignation from the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She joined Brian & Aubrey for the very first interview about her book coming out in August, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. Then, Instagram sensation Natalie Runion talks about her book due out in July, Raised to Stay: Persevering in Ministry When You Have a Million Reasons to Walk Away. And first and foremost: Aubrey gets mystery callers for her birthday! Follow The Common Good on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Hosted by Aubrey Sampson and Brian From Produced by Laura Finch and Keith ConradSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
