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/
