EXAMINING the Evangelical Imagination with Karen Swallow Prior (ep. 41)

On this episode of the podcast, we talk with Dr. Karen Swallow Prior about her new book, The Evangelical Imagination. It’s a conversation about the stories, images, and metaphors that have shaped evangelical Christianity. Whether or not you consider yourself part of that movement/brand/space, you're invited to join us in examining what stories and images are shaping us. Among the topics we discuss:

• Why the imagination matters and what it means to speak of "the evangelical imagination" and why the cover of the book is "kitschy"
• How the evangelical desire to engage culture (shared by some varieties of Reformed Christianity) has meant that faith is captive to cultural currents
• Why the metaphor of being "born again" has such purchase on the American evangelical imagination, for good and ill
• What it means to engage in "examination as an act of love" not just a work of criticism or deconstruction
• How we might discern the difference between building faithful institutions and building empires
• Counsel for those who teach as well as for those who find themselves discouraged by the state of things

Get the book: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/492150

Follow Dr. Prior: https://karenswallowprior.com/ 

Included music on this episode is "(dis)appear" from the Ruralists album Trying. Find lyrics and more here: https://www.fullyruralized.com/