Book Review: The Evangelical Imagination on target, presents a thought-provoking read

The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis Karen Swallow Prior. Brazos Press, 2023.  

Karen Swallow Prior knows English literature well, and she is thoroughly familiar with evangelical Christianity as an insider. The intersection of these two worlds forms the heart of her book “The Evangelical Imagination.”

Prior, who taught at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, has a doctorate from the State University of New York in Buffalo. She is the author of numerous books and articles. In this new volume, she points out that evangelicals have sometimes allowed superficial metaphors and imagery to influence their thinking in unhealthy ways. She seeks to help believers use their imaginations in a more robust and biblical manner. 

Prior traces the influence of biblical faith in classic English literature and art as well as in modern entertainment. Some of that influence reveals an appreciative view of Christianity, while other instances have pushed against the Christian worldview. Chapters consider how ideas like “awakening,” “conversion,” “testimony” and “sentimentality” permeate literature, Christian thought and contemporary society. She shows that these themes are often warped from their biblical basis and can lead to distortions in how we think. For example, “born again,” which is rooted in Christ’s description of regeneration in John 3, became a popular theme in politics (p. 56). She also laments the shallowness of some Christian fiction and art (p. 125). 

Prior encourages Christians to consider the role of imagination in our thinking rather than simply absorbing the prevailing winds about us. She warns about how ideas conveyed in a number of popular end-times fiction have influenced some people in their approach to politics (p. 237). This a deeply thought-provoking read that merits careful consideration. No one will resonate with every point, but her overall examination of how evangelicals need a more careful and biblically informed imagination is surely on target.