The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis

by Karen Swallow Prior

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493441914
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/08/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304

About the Author

Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) is research professor of English and Christianity & Culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is an award-winning author and one of today's leading evangelical writers and commentators. Her book On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books was recognized as a Publishers Weekly Book of the Year in Religion in 2018. She is a frequent speaker, is a monthly columnist at Religion New Service, and has written for Christianity Today, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Gospel Coalition. Prior lives with her husband in central Virginia.
Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) is research professor of English and Christianity & Culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is an award-winning author and one of today's leading evangelical writers and commentators. Her book On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books was recognized as a Publishers Weekly Book of the Year in Religion in 2018. She is a frequent speaker, is a monthly columnist at Religion New Service, and has written for Christianity Today, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Gospel Coalition. She is also a senior fellow with the Trinity Forum and a member of the Faith Advisory Council of the Humane Society of the United States. Prior lives with her husband in central Virginia.

Table of Contents

Contents
1. Invitation: Victorians, Evangelicals, Evocations, and the Obligatory Altar Call
2. Made in the Divine Image: Imagination, Imaginaries, and Evangelicalisms
3. Awakening: Mumford, MLK, Hurston, Hughes, and Other Poets
4. Conversion: Language, Dr. Pepper, and Ebenezer Scrooge
5. Testimony: Grace Abounding and "Evangelically Speaking"
6. Improvement: The Puritan Work Ethic, Paradise Lost, and the Price of Progress
7. Sentimentality: Sweet Jesus, Uncle Tom, and Public Urination
8. Materiality: Jesus in the Window, the Virgin Mary on Grilled Cheese, Gingerbread Houses, and the Sacramentality of Church Space
9. Domesticity: Angels and Castles and Prostitutes, Oh My!
10. Empire: "The White Man's Burden," His Man Friday, the Jesus Nobody Knows, and What Johnny Cash Really Knew
11. Reformation: Reckoning or Rip Van Winkle?
12. Rapture: Or How a Thief Came in the Night But Left My Chick Tracts Behind