The Evangelical Imagination
How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis
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Christianity Today 2024 Book Award Finalist (Culture and the Arts)
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.
Brought to life with color illustrations and paintings, this book explores ideas including
● conversion
● domesticity
● empire
● sentimentality
● and more
"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
"Akin to enjoying a lively conversation over a cheering yet bracing cup of tea."--Christianity Today (5-star review)
"A breathtaking reminder of just how powerful the evangelical imagination has been and how much is lost when we forfeit it."--The Gospel Coalition
Karen Swallow Prior
Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) is the 2025-26 Karlson Scholar at Bethel Seminary. She is the author of You Have a Calling; The Evangelical Imagination; On Reading Well; Fierce Convictions; and Booked. She is coeditor of Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues and has contributed to numerous other books. Prior is a frequent speaker, a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, a contributing writer at The Dispatch, a research fellow for Comment, and a monthly columnist at Religion News Service.
More by Karen Swallow Prior
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