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

by Karen Swallow Prior, Susan Hanfield (reader)

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Christian, Christianity, Religion, Theology, Politics

Audio CD

First published August 28, 2023

About the author

Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) is the award-winning author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis; On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books; Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More--Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist; and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me. She is a frequent speaker, a monthly columnist at Religion News Service, and has written for Christianity Today, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Vox. She is a Contributing Editor for Comment, a founding member of The Pelican Project, a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a Senior Fellow at the International Alliance for Christian Education.

Reviews

[Ben Makuh · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's frankly difficult these days to exist within church spaces for longer than five minutes without hearing the name "Charles Taylor" or the term "social imaginary." If neither of those things mean anything to you, I'd probably just stop reading this review right now!

I've heard many sermons and lectures referencing Taylor and his writings about the "social imaginary," which is sort of the mental furniture (values, beliefs, practices, patterns, etc.) that makes sense of our shared life in a society. For example, at one point she pictures the stereotype of a sparsely decorated Evangelical sanctuary composed of straight pews all facing toward a pulpit, and how that literal furniture reinforces the Evangelical insistence upon a life oriented around the Bible and its proclamation without much ornamentation. I'm embarrassed to admit, though, that until I read Karen Swallow Prior's new book, The Evangelical Imagination, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of social imaginaries, but I had never really bothered to ask myself the question, "What is that social imaginary for Evangelicals? What is the content of that social imaginary? What is that mental furniture?"

Prior names ten things that she believes to be integral to the Evangelical social imaginary:

Awakening
Conversion
Testimony
Improvement
Sentimentality
Materiality
Domesticity
Empire
Reformation
Rapture
For each, she explains what she means by the term, why she thinks its a necessary component to understanding the Evangelical movement, and where that component came from. She readily acknowledges that none of these are necessarily unique to Evangelicalism, and she takes time to examine how these things take up a life of their own in the broader society surrounding Evangelicalism.

Some of these chapters are pretty much exactly what you might expect (guess what the "Rapture" chapter is about!) while others struck me with unexpectedly insightful connections. Probably my favorite chapter in the whole book was about sentimentality. Prior argues that sentimentalism could be defined as "emotion for the sake of emotion itself," a sort of emotion that is "self-aware and self-satisfied." She's not so much deriding emotion (or even sentimentality altogether!) as much as trying to understand why it finds such purchase in Evangelical culture. Why is it that the paintings of Thomas Kinkade mean so much to so many Evangelicals? Why is it that Evangelicals can "feel so close to God" when a favored song is played on Sunday, regardless of whether that song even says anything meaningful about or to God?

Prior drew out insights about sentimentalism and Evangelicalism that I had never considered before, though, such as this analysis of Evangelicals' fixation upon manhood and womanhood:

Some aspects of both masculinity and femininity are connected to biological sex, of course, while other aspects are rooted in historical and cultural context. (When one advocates for masculinity, is it the masculinity of King James I in his velvet cloak and crinkled ruff, or is it that of Chad, the cartoon figure of the alpha male popular in manosphere memes? Does the hardy peasant woman sowing the fields to help feed her large family in nineteenth-century Russia meet the criteria of femininity set by today’s evangelical social media influencers?) It’s helpful to consider how some aspects of cultural expectations around masculinity and femininity originate in feelings that have grown up around our contextually based perceptions of what constitutes “masculinity” and “femininity.” Often, exaggerated expressions of masculinity and femininity (like those found in cosplaying militia groups or plastic-surgery-enhanced housewives of certain counties) are at base just a form of sentimentalism: indulgence in the feelings aroused by our own personal and cultural associations more than reality. (emphasis mine)

I don't think I would have ever drawn a connection between the obsessiveness of the Biblical Manhood crowd and sentimentalism, but I must admit that it makes a certain kind of sense to me.

Prior also reflected on other aspects of Evangelicalism that have perplexed me, such as why there tends to be such a revulsion and rejection from Evangelicals toward the idea that evils could be embedded into society in systemic ways, or why it seems like it's harder for younger Evangelicals to hold to the faith than for Gen Xers and older. To be clear, I don't think that Prior's list of 10 components of the Evangelical social imaginary is any way exhaustive or definitive, but I found her analysis to be both profound and refreshingly grounded both in history and in the literature that has shaped the movement.

Much of her book is what I would describe as "interesting, intriguing, and intellectually stimulating," but there was one snippet that cut past all of that and has lived rent-free in my head since I read it:

The question in the current evangelical social imaginary isn’t so much about whether Jesus is real as it is about whether the person telling the story is real. It’s not a bad question. I don’t know about you, but I have no doubts about how real Jesus is. Yet, I have increasing questions about the stories of some of those who claim to follow him.

That's basically exactly how I have felt for a long time, and I suspect that many feel likewise. What is it about Evangelicalism that produces a petri dish where abuse, conspiracy theories, groupthink, anti-intellectualism, and celebrity worship thrive? It does my soul good to read someone like Prior who is earnest, sincere, thoughtful, and compassionate. If you've lived long within Evangelicalism, I'd recommend you read this book.

DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of a fair, unbiased review.

[W.R. Gingell]

i really enjoyed this for the most part, and i think it's a good book, worthy of being re-read.

unfortunately, the ending both soured and undercut a lot of the premise for me by more of what i'm now coming to think of as KSP's snobbery when it comes to fantasy writing. this time it comes with what feels like a condescending veneer of "well, we shouldn't call fantasy writing *bad* exactly, and everything has a place, but it's basically the equivalent of shouting truth for the deaf people who can't quite hear well enough to read *real* books and discern *real* truth. when they don't need shouting anymore they move on to *real* books."

obvs as a fiction and fantasy fiction author, who works a great amount of craft to display eternal truth in my fantasy books, this is insulting. worse, it's untrue. i know several people who hold the same views as KSP, and each of them is so dull of hearing that the only way they can hear truth is if it's plain, unvarnished, and in "real life" situations. fantasy, with its snatches of parable, its juxtaposed layers of meaning and delicately drawn allusions, is far too complex for readers who need truth spoon-fed to them.

i hope one day that ksp is able to enjoy the truth and beauty of God's world in fantasy as well as classic literature, but for now it looks like she still needs it given to her through classical fiction and non fiction. i also hope that one day she stops looking down with gentle condescension on those of us exercising the most godly talents of imagination, creation, and ornate, subtle truth

i'm still very much interested in reading more of KSP's writing and ideas; she has a great deal of good and truth to share. i would simply challenge her to re-examine her views, and her seeming inability to treat certain of God's creative gifts as lesser and ruder bc they're not what she, personally, understands or likes

[Ashley Hoss · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is absolutely my favorite book by Karen Swallow Prior. It is intellectually engaging and gives so much food for thought. Every time I read one of Dr. Prior's books, I feel as though I've grown as a person, this one is no exception. In a way, The Evangelical Imagination is hard to review because it is so rich and covers so much material. All I can really say is that I heartily recommend it, especially for a book club or discussion group, where you can see what other people have gotten out of it.

[Haley Baumeister · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much writing on *evangelicalism* these days is predictable, commonplace, and unhelpfully vague or cynical that I almost didn’t pick this up. And I respect and trust KSP!

But I found her voice and scholarship so levelheaded and explanatory. She didn't have to be sensational, because her academic work talks for itself. She knows her literature and church history... and walks you through the various philosophies and ideas which captured our collective imagination in a straightforward way. And her care about us retaining an unadulterated Christian faith shines through.

These chapters were FASCINATING, so I found myself wishing to read an entire book on each one. That’s really my only critique — it seemed to be a significant amount of good stuff that had to be condensed into one book. But I did appreciate the book for what it is — an overview which re-examins history, culture, and scripture to better see the lines between what is the core of our Christian faith and what are only recent, cultural, or morphed versions of it.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Evangelical Imagination untangles the twist of evangelicalism and culture, particularly Enlightenment, Romantic, and Victorian movements. Prior considers topics like domesticity, sentimentalism, rapture, empire, and more, considering where Christianity ends and the tides of English-American culture begin.

This book is very well-researched, but readable, well-paced, and, for anyone familiar with evangelicalism, full of references to the world we understand. Kinkade! Moody! Lindsay! The Pamela fandom! In every chapter, so much more could have been said, but I appreciated that Prior held back and contributed a meaningful text instead of a deep dive into every single topic. I am still waiting for that book about how John Nelson Darby dominoed us into the Hunger Games. (Dispensational theology -> rapture media -> apocalypticism trending in literature -> Panem.) Wait, does this mean I think novels like The Handmaid's Tale and the Earthseed books reached popular heights because of dispensationalism???? Food for thought.

Recommended for those invested in the conversation about Christianity and culture. Worth getting a physical copy because of the color plates of relevant images. (Not sure why Sallman's Head of Christ wasn't included, because it got quite a few pages of discussion.) The one thing that got under my skin is her anemic view of the medieval world, but I've encountered that elsewhere in her thought so it was not surprising to me. It was a very small part of the book that didn't affect her main argument. Overall, a highly enjoyable read and one I will continue mulling over.

[Michelle VanLoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the privilege of reading an advanced copy of this book, and can't wait for it to hit the world in a few months. Dr. Karen Swallow Prior explores major themes in Evangelicalism of the last 250+/- years through the lens of literature, culture, history, politics, and more. Most books that address various aspects of Evangelicalism tend to start their exploration in the early years of the 20th century. Prior reaches back to the true beginning of the movement to highlight both the failures of imagination in the movement and the seeds of hope for the future of the Church universal.

[Noah Vance · Rating 3 out of 5]

A frustrating work. I am a fan of Dr. Prior when her work is more focused—this felt like a smattering of loosely assembled concepts, symbols, and verbiage, explained via commentary liberally cribbed from more esoteric and traditionally academic sources to create a popular academic work with an explicit agenda that felt more than a little self-congratulatory, elitist, and smug.

There are good ideas here. Great ones even. But digging for them was more onerous than I had hoped.

[Avery Amstutz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I’m not as optimistic about the values of evangelicals as the author is, but it was refreshing hearing someone give a passionate defense of that tradition since it’s been getting a bit of a bad wrap of late. Most of the book centers on the importance of imagination in shaping our worldview and analyzing how the Evangelical imagination has shaped its theology. She argues that a critical look at the Evangelical Imagination gives us a better understanding of why evangelism is currently so impoverished, as well as a path for reformation within evangelism.

Ps. She argues that Thomas Kincaid and lifestyle influencers are sentimentalist to the point of pornographic… which makes me happy because it’s yet another argument for the eradication of that particular scourge on Christian culture.

[Persis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never paid much attention to air quality until this summer. It seemed hazier than usual one morning when I left for work, but I assumed it was typical humidity. But later in the day, I received a text from my daughter telling me to be careful when I went outside. The air quality was bad, unhealthily bad from wildfire smoke from Canada moving down the East coast. Since I didn't want what was clouding the air in my lungs, I took precautions by masking up.

I never considered what was in the air, where it came from, or what could pollute it on its way to me. I assumed it was safe until I was warned by someone who cared. So by way of metaphor, "The Evangelical Imagination" asks us to consider the cultural "air" we breathe as Evangelical Christians. What's in it? Where did it come from? And what could possibly harm us if we are left unaware?

This "imagination" is not a kid's make-believe nor the stuff of fantasy novels. The "social imaginary," coined by philosopher Charles Taylor, consists of all the influences that tell us what it means to be a person and how one is to be in a given culture. It affects and may even govern every aspect of our lives. These influences can be explicitly taught as mental concepts. But more often, they are implicitly caught by the culture's inhabitants through language we use, stories we read, and iconic images we see.

This book examines crucial components of the Evangelical imaginary. Drawing from history, literature, art, and current events, author Karen Swallow Prior discusses many themes which include Conversion, Testimony, Domesticity, Empire, Reformation, and Rapture. I'm leaving some out because I want you to read the book and find out for yourself!

Most of these themes are not all bad in themselves, but they can cross a line and wind up being contrary to what Scripture calls us to. As Christians, we can naively think that only the Bible informs us, but until we dig a little deeper into why we believe, feel, and act as we do, we won't know. It may not be purely biblical but a mixture of many influences that hover in the "air" unbeknownst to us. That's why this book is important.

I learned so much in reading "The Evangelical Imagination." One major takeaway was that the Evangelical movement has a specific historical and geographical context beginning in 18th century England. As its children, we inherited its ethos, but we inhabit contexts of our own. We aren't timeless like God. We are limited by bodies that can't escape the time and place we live. We may share much with other saints past and present, but our take on the world and Christianity isn't the only one. Knowing this helps us to be aware of the potential pitfalls of thinking our experiences are normative for the universal church let alone the rest of the mankind. Knowing this will help keep us humble.

In addition, there are aspects of Evangelicalism that I can't unsee after reading this book. Specifically, "Empire." As a nation, we rebelled against one empire only to form another, and "empires expand by dominating - rather than loving - their neighbors." The church is not exempt. Words of empire show up frequently in our metaphors. We have "crusades." We "fight" culture "wars." The bigger, flashier, and lucrative the better. And a sign that we are "winning" is proximity to political power. But is this triumphalism like Christ? Are ministry leaders servants of all or empire builders? This particular chapter is very direct, no pulling punches. But it needs to be said. After all, how can American Evangelicalism change for the better without honest evaluation?

This book has also been a springboard for more questions and exploration, which in my opinion is a mark of the best kind of book. During my reading, I would share excerpts with my daughter and ask her, "Doesn't this relate to ....? Doesn't it remind you of ...?" There are so many thoughts swirling in my head and dots that want connecting.

Finally, I greatly appreciate the author's faith that Jesus is still building his church despite its faults and failings. Her critiques are fair and firm but not without hope because our hope isn't in ourselves but in Jesus Christ.

I highly recommend "The Evangelical Imagination." It's definitely going on my "best of 2023" list.

(I received an advance reader copy from the publisher. This review is cross posted from my blog.)

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of this information wasn’t particularly new to me, but it was nice to have it all in one place, and Karen is an excellent writer, making it a delight to read. I’ve been reading almost a book a day (of non fiction), so her writing really stood out and was a breath of fresh air lol. Also, I appreciated her graciousness in this book-she lays out quite a few components of the evangelical social imagination, all of which certainly require reformation, but she is also willing to see the good where the good lies. It can be easy sometimes to get frustrated over how Victorian domesticity has created so many man/woman issues in the evangelical church, and yet it is worth remarking that the home is important. History is almost always a mixed bag. This is, I think, the most hopeful book I’ve read on this topic, and that is a gift.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Evangelical Imagination
In this book, Karen Swallow Prior takes us on a sweeping journey through the history of the evangelical movement to show us how we have gotten to the moment that we currently find ourselves in. With careful research and a healthy balance of introspection and love for the church, she critiques aspects of Christian culture that 21st century evangelicals might take for granted.
My biggest takeaway from reading this is the reminder that none of us exist in a vacuum. We are all influenced by the historical moment we are in and culture we are surrounded by. I also appreciate the hopeful note that she ends on. Things are not as they have always been, nor are they how they always will be.
In a lot of ways I don’t feel smart enough to accurately review this book written by an obviously brilliant author. But she has given me a lot to think over.
Thank you to Netgalley and Baker Academic for the advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

[Brother Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a excellent map through the "social imaginary" (borrowing Charles Taylor's term) of evangelicalism. Prior helps us navigate the evangelical imagination we take for granted through the lens of literature and art, but particularly from the position of a scholar of Victorian literature which is her expertise. She reminds us that to be an evangelical is not simply to "believe certain things"—though it includes that—but its a way of being in the world that assumes certain things and sees and thinks by particular images and metaphors that are the backdrop of evangelical existence (e.g. "conversionism", "improvement", the Rapture, "sentimentality" to name a few). I really enjoyed this book.

My only wish was that certain chapters were longer for her arguments to be fleshed out, but I don't hold this against her as the scope of this book is quite large.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an insightful and timely read!

I’m so grateful to live in a world where we have writers, teachers, and thinkers like Dr. Prior. Felt like being in the classroom again. Her classes brought me so much joy, curiosity, and wonder. And this book did the exact same for me.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prior explores the stories and metaphors that make up the modern evangelical mindset—the evangelical imaginary. She explains that many of what we consider proper Christian values are actually just borrowed from the Victorian culture through which the evangelical movement arose.

This movement, which grew from beginnings later termed Methodist (and other offshoots) was a reaction to the nominal Christianity of the day. At the time, it properly emphasized the importance of a changed heart over mere adherence to empty rituals and respect of social standing. This movement influenced and changed the culture for the better by striving to improve the lives of the poor and downtrodden through such programs as the abolition of slavery, child labor laws, prevention of cruelty to animals, elimination of debtors prisons, promoting public welfare programs, etc.

Over time, as the evangelical movement influenced the culture, evangelicalism came to be associated with a number of cultural values which aren’t necessarily Christian, but are now often regarded as such: the notion of improvement through the Puritan work ethic, sentimentality, materiality, domesticity, empire, reformation, and rapture. As our society has evolved some of these values now seem passé or even problematic. But they aren’t necessarily Christian.

Prior shows how, like 200 years ago, Christianity has once again become associated with certain cultural markers rather than what’s actually important—a heart changed by God.


Naturally, she refers to the Bebbington Quadrilateral to help to define evangelical:

- Conversionism: the belief that lives need to be transformed through a "born-again" experience and a lifelong process of following Jesus
- Activism: the expression and demonstration of the gospel in missionary and social reform efforts
- Biblicism: a high regard for and obedience to the Bible as the ultimate authority
- Crucicentrism: a stress on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as making possible the redemption of humanity


In one chapter Prior helpfully explains the problem with sentimentalism:

‘It is easy to confuse the beautiful with the sentimental because in some ways both are aesthetic experiences. The root meaning of "emotion" is stirring, agitation, or movement, which later came to mean "feelings." At the most fundamental level, an aesthetic experience is an affective experience, one that moves us. To be moved by something is to experience a bodily response, such as a quickened heartbeat, widened eyes, gathering tears, a gasp, a nod, or a smile. Sentimental art can move us or evoke emotion, just as true beauty does. But not all movements are equal.

‘Consider this famous passage from Milan Kundera's novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which points to the difference. Kundera is defining "kitsch," which is cheap, derivative, sentimental art. Kitsch comes in many forms, including amusement park souvenirs, garden gnomes, knickknacks, Hobby Lobby wall decor, Lifetime movies, and so on. Kundera explains kitsch this way:
“Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass!”

‘Kitsch, like sentimentalism, indulges emotion for the sake of the emotion itself. And as Kundera points out, that second emotion is self-aware and self-satisfied. Again, emotions are not bad. They are good. They are essential to our humanity. But divorced from their proper purpose of rightly driving our thoughts and actions, sentimentality is akin to pornography, as Flannery O'Connor memorably puts it. For both sentimentality and pornography sever the experience (emotional in the first case, sexual in the latter) from its meaning and purpose.

‘In reality, you can’t have beauty apart from truth. Beauty apart from truth and goodness is mere sentimentality.’


Bob wrote an excellent review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

“What evangelicals uncritically assume is ‘biblical’ turns out to be simply Victorian.”

I thought this look at the history of evangelicalism was interesting, and whenever Prior, who is a literature professor, digs into and assess literature to make the connections she’s showing, that’s when she really shows her prowess.
The book as a whole, however, felt very disjointed to me. The introduction/first chapter was strong, but then the rest didn’t really deliver, & whatever her thesis was felt muddled (clearly, since I can’t name it).
I also thought, based on the subtitle, and she’d focus more on now, but she was much more focused on history than present day.
Not upset to have read it, but wouldn’t recommend it.

[George Trudeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great genealogy of ideas within the evangelical social imaginary. Sprinkled with literary references, and biographies of influential people, I was entertained and informed on the images that shape evangelicalism.

[Candice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this if: You wonder how Christian Evangelical culture arrived where it is today.

Through a study of history and ideas, The Evangelical Imagination attempts to distinguish between cultural and biblical elements of modern day evangelicalism. Prior highlights that many of the ideas we ascribe to Christianity are actually Victorian ideals. Some of these have been beneficial for our culture, but to defend the faith, we first have to accurately define it.

My copy is heavily highlighted, and the book is obviously well-researched. I appreciated Prior’s humor and skill in explaining new concepts such as what a social imaginary is. I did find that it was important to read the book earlier in the day when my mind was fresh. The first few chapters required some heavy mental lifts.

One of the things that I value most about Karen Swallow Prior is her posture of humility when it comes to learning. She is obviously very intelligent, but she reaches some of her best conclusions by willingly examining ideas that have been accepted by herself and evangelical culture until recently. This requires an unshakeable faith that Jesus Christ is the upholder and originator of the faith - not our ideas about Him.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 // This is phenomenal. By providing a plethora of examples from classic literature and the visual arts, Prior expertly directs us to examine the historical and cultural roots of evangelical ideas. She is not the first academic to do so, but she is one of the few I’ve encountered to write with notable affection for Jesus and the church. Her critique has strength but also a gracious hope.

The thrust of the book is encapsulated in this quote from the last chapter:

“[Literalists] often try to position believers and the church outside human history. Wrong interpretation is dangerous… but a lack of awareness that one IS interpreting and that one interprets in community within a tradition is more dangerous. It is a danger to which evangelicals, with all their innovations and individualism, are particularly prone.”

I finished this book with a better understanding of how the spiritual ideas I grew up with have been formed throughout history. And now feel better equipped to parse out what can be held loosely and what can be held dearly.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dense and academic at times, this was nonetheless an interesting and thought-provoking read. The chapters on empire and reformation were really good, as was the final chapter on the rapture. As an aside, I’m grateful for the encouragement to look up Johnny Cash’s music video “Hurt.” So good. I’m a big fan of KSP and am grateful for her voice and her thoughtful engagement.

[chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incisive and elegant analysis of the water in which we evangelical fish swim.

“Jesus is preparing this house for us…We do not honor this work of Jesus when we are content to live in earthly edifices built on unexamined assumptions.”

With love for her tradition, Prior will not let it get away with believing easily traceable cultural influences are actually the truth of what it means to be a Christ follower. If you’ve ever been confused about what an evangelical is or frustrated by the American church or curious about how accurate modern Christianity’s claims about Jesus are, this is a must read.

[Christina “6 word reviewer” Lake]

https://currentpub.com/2023/12/13/rev...

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prior is a reader, writer, and professor of English and Christianity and culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. In this book she draws upon her evangelical background and her academic speciality, to examine evangelical sensibilities. She writes as a critical friend, and as an insider. As she puts it, “In a way, what follows in these pages is simply my testimony. It is a picture of the evangelical imagination as I have found it over the course of years of researching, studying, reading, worshiping, and living and grappling with my own imagination—what fills it and fuels it.”
In many ways it is an iconoclastic book - in it she shows how evangelical culture has been shaped by Victorian values and ethos as much as it has by biblical ones. Drawing on her academic research she examines Victorian literature:

“You will notice a pattern emerging from all this Victorian literature. You will see in both the texts and their surrounding historical contexts qualities strangely similar to many of the defining characteristics of modern American evangelical culture. And by seeing in that literature many of the values and beliefs prominent within American evangelicalism today, you might find yourself wondering whether some of the ideas that characterize today’s evangelical culture are Christian as much as they are Victorian.”

She provides an excellent critique, and one that deserves close attention. She ably exposes contemporary evangelicalism’s overemphasis on patriotism, self-improvement, achievement, marketing, business techniques, triumphalism, and consumerism. Two quotations will serve to illustrate:

“Evangelicalism’s infatuation with secular notions of social progress and self-improvement is marked throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While evangelicals initially opposed nineteenth-century movements that emphasized the possibility that human effort could bring physical healing, mind cures, victory over sin—movements such as New Thought, the Keswick movement, and the Victorious Life—the influence of these popular teachings could not be entirely stemmed: therapeutic culture snaked its way into evangelicalism. Nineteenth-century revivalists such as D. L. Moody and Billy Sunday were among those whose teachings blended evangelicalism with notions of social progress and transformation through personal purity and piety.”

And:

“This triumphalist spirit of empire was cultivated on an individual level too. “Do great things for God!” was for a generation (or two) of evangelicals not just an encouragement but an expectation that became a mandate. One younger friend who grew up evangelical told me she had the sense that if she didn’t grow up to do something great or radical, then she would have failed as a Christian.”

Components of evangelicalism see examines include: Conversion, Testimony, Improvement, Sentimentality, Materiality, Domesticity, Empire, Reformation, and Rapture. For each one she shows how these are integral to evangelicalism and how each one has been shaped by the Victorian ethos. Her analysis is nuanced and profound. The literature she discusses includes work by well-known authors such as Dickens, Swift, Defoe, Bunyan, Alcott, Hardy along with the currently less popular works including Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded, by Samuel Richardson. Works of “art” by Thomas Kinkade and Warner Sallman’s Head of Christ are also examined, both as examples of evangelical sentimentality.

In short, The Evangelical Imagination is an engaging, well-written, and thought-provoking read; it may disturb, but it will disturb those that need to be disturbed. Her main concern is that evangelicalism becomes more focused on Jesus and the scriptures rather than exemplify a Victorian ethos.

[Angela Whittle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can understand why someone would read this but it was just so dense and history focused. I didn’t feel like I got a ton out of it, but she definitely knows what she’s talking about.

[John Andrew Szott III · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an eye-opening read with regard to the evangelical waters we swim in! It’s something I’ll surely be coming back to.

[Davis Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly skim read. I'm mostly a fan of Prior's popularizing work and I appreciate her voice. But I want to read something by her that has a bit more academic chutzpah and digs a bit deeper. If you're fairly well immersed in Christian literary criticism and cultural studies, most of this won't be new to you. Still, there were several great points and observations throughout which makes it a worthy read, especially if you identify as an evangelical. However, as someone who staunchly opposes "evangelicalism" (which I define, more exclusively than Prior, as the British-American phenomenon of popular, non-sacramental Protestantism that bloomed in the 19th century) I was dissatisfied with the book on the whole. It was very hard to figure out exactly what Prior's stance was. Clearly she wants to retake evangelicalism, but what is there that is even worth retaking? By trying to be both a critic of the movement and a lover of it, I think the overall argument fails. To be fair, there are plenty of polemics out there which bash evangelicalism for its impoverished imagination and facile theology. I'm not saying we necessarily need more of that, and Prior's winsome spirit is fine and all, but maybe if you come from one of the great high church traditions you won't get as much out of this as you might have hoped, as Prior's solution to the woes described is to reclaim the flawed evangelical images and institutions themselves rather than to seek alternative ones rooted in the Word, sacraments, and the Church Universal.

[Simon O'Mahony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some helpful criticisms and historical background for ingrained practices of the American Evangelical tradition.

The two overarching problems I have with the book are that first it isn't clear what tradition she is proposing in the place of American Evangelicalism. It is one thing to deconstruct one tradition in favor of another, however in the case of the author it seems she may be sawing off the very branch she is sitting on.

The second issue, which relates to the first, is that she clearly has her own set of underlying assumptions and beliefs which she will blurt out every so often, but never substantiate. For example, in every single chapter she uses the term "capitalism" as a pejorative. This is intellectually dishonest, or at least ignorant and shows a clear bent against political liberalism. Another example is how she never passes up an opportunity to criticize former president Donald Trump or his supporters. This just comes across as tacky, and needlessly limits the influence the author could have on her readers.

I have very much appreciated some of the author's other works, but I would give this one a pass.

[Ella · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, I’m not the target audience for this. I thought it was going to be more along the lines of Daniel Silliman’s excellent Reading Evangelicals, from an evangelical background but for a crossover audience, as opposed to some weird mashup of self-help and theoryspeak for evangelicals themselves more along the lines of a worse version of The Making of Biblical Womanhood (a book I already have deeply mixed feelings on). Let’s put it bluntly in this way: I’m too atheist and too (Anglo-)Catholic for this shit. Also, a medieval historian Prior is not. Her takes on pre-Reformation Christianity and the Middle Ages are laughably bad, and the confident assertions that her particular brand of evangelical Protestantism are objectively correct and objectively true Christianity drove me up a goddamn wall. I don’t think I learned anything new about evangelicalism, except for some impressive new knowledge about weird medieval history misconceptions.

I really should’ve worked on my dissertation reading instead of reading this.

[Abigail Borland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book so much. I grew up immersed in the Victorian world and its symbols and beliefs simply because I liked 19th century novels, but I never realized just how much evangelicalism influenced Victorian culture and, in turn, just how much of modern evangelical culture is Victorian (rather than strictly biblical).

This is a book I need to sit and think about for a while, and its left me with more questions than answers, but I think the author would tell me that was the point, and that’s a good thing.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book felt somewhat disjointed, but I did glean some really interesting new ideas and reminders of others. I was glad to discuss it in a group because I think I got a lot more out of it that way.

[Brad Hough · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 // This was an absolutely fascinating book. Karen Swallow Prior has done her research, and also speaks as one in the evangelical camp herself. While her aim is in part to critique an evangelical culture which is “in crisis,” she seems clearly motivated by love for Jesus and His people. Her words can be sharp, but not for their own sake. The Evangelical Imagination is, among other things, a call to reform.

It is mostly a historical book (that is, mostly a book concerned with history), with Prior examining the long-grown roots of the most prevalent evangelical values—though as she notes, these values have formed a social imaginary which guide evangelical thought and assumptions in ways that are invisible to us (the first chapter does a fantastic job of explaining and exploring these concepts). They are to us what water is to creatures of the deep sea: assumed, unnoticed, and therefore unexamined. It is this last reality especially that Prior seeks to push back against. By examining these categories and highlighting the way they have and continue to impact evangelical thinking, her hope is that we will be better equipped to recognize which of our assumptions are true (that is to say, aligned with God’s Word) and which can and should be rejected.

There is a lot here, and I hope to read it again soon. As one who has also grown up as an evangelical, each category was both familiar (because I’ve swum in those waters my whole life) and surreal (because Prior was taking unspoken assumptions and pulling them into the light). Her chapters on improvement and sentimentality were especially compelling for these reasons.

There were weaker moments spread throughout. The earlier chapters felt a bit piece-meal at times, with abrupt shifts and not as much explicit connections to today, which I had anticipated. In this way, it almost came across as an assumption of what the reader already knew, in ways that weren’t present in the later chapters. There were also a few moments when Prior seemed to argue as fact something that, to me, fell more in line with personal opinion. In the final chapter, her dismissal of fantasy literature as “training wheels” (and the implication that people who enjoy fantasy probably don’t or can’t appreciate classics like Pride & Prejudice) stands out in this regard. Things like this did not strengthen Prior’s otherwise incredible book.

That being said, The Evangelical Imagination is a good and important read, and I hope along with Prior that by God’s grace, it will equip His people (myself included) to grow more and more in line with the Person and character of Christ, rejecting what is false and embracing what is true and good and beautiful.