Additional information
by Karen Swallow Prior (Author)
"Provides plenty of fodder for those wishing to explore what evangelicalism is and reimagine what it might become. It's an eye-opener."--Publishers Weekly
Contemporary American evangelicalism is suffering from an identity crisis--and a lot of bad press.
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.
Back Jacket
"Thoughtful, elegantly written, literate, and timely"
Contemporary American evangelicalism is suffering from an identity crisis--and a lot of bad press.
In The Evangelical Imagination, acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior analyzes the literature, art, and popular culture that has surrounded evangelicalism and unpacks some of the movement's most deeply held concepts, ideas, values, and practices. She shows that understanding what the term "evangelical" means today means understanding not only evangelicalism's faith commitments but also the images, metaphors, assumptions, and stories that have cultivated evangelical culture.
"Prior is among the most helpful Christian literary critics writing today. Her call for the reformation of evangelicalism is a call to repent, to allow new metaphors and analogies to drive us to more faithfully read and put into practice the Scriptures. An insightful work of love that aids a holy transformation of our imaginations."
--Tish Harrison Warren, Anglican priest and author of Liturgy of the Ordinary and Prayer in the Night
"A marvelous book--thoughtful, elegantly written, literate, and timely. An evangelical herself, Prior has done a masterful job of identifying the unstated assumptions that have shaped evangelical Christianity. American evangelicalism is in crisis; The Evangelical Imagination helps us to understand why and what needs to be done to make it an instrument of grace in a world that desperately needs it."
--Peter Wehner, contributing writer, the New York Times and The Atlantic
"As an artist and follower of Jesus often falling into the gaps and fractures of the church and the world, I found this book to be a refreshing and eye-opening guide to navigating beyond the borderlands. Sanctified imagination is critical in developing as the body of Christ, in being the harbingers of hope and creators of beauty, and Prior is one of the most trusted voices to help us find our thriving."
--Makoto Fujimura, artist and author of Art and Faith: A Theology of Making
"This book brings together the history of evangelicalism, Prior's expertise in Victorian literature, and sensitive analysis of the present moment into an indictment of the 'evangelical imagination, ' but an indictment with hope because of evangelical engagement with the gospel."
--Mark Noll, author of A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada
Author Biography
Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo), one of today's leading evangelical writers and commentators, 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. Prior lives with her husband in central Virginia.
