“Imagination serves as a bridge between objective and subjective human experience. We act based on what we imagine about the objective, external world, and yet we also imagine based on what we perceive and receive from the world…In other words, we cannot desire what we cannot imagine.”

In The Evangelical Imagination, Dr. Karen Swallow Prior considers eleven images and metaphors that have shaped the evangelical imagination: Made in His Image, Awakening, Conversion, Testimony, Improvement, Sentimentality, Materiality, Domesticity, Empire, Reformation, and Rapture. The chapters (which honestly deserve five stars for the titles and their subheadings) are not pure historical reflections, rather they consider how the prevailing social words and metaphors have shaped the evangelical “social imaginary” - the way evangelicals understand the scriptures, themselves, and their place in the world. It has some historical crossover in so far as the artistic works explored exist in a particular time and space and reflect or encourage the ideas of that time.

Early in the book, Dr. Prior writes “You might find yourself wondering whether some of the ideas that characterize today’s evangelical culture are Christian as much as they are Victorian” and I indeed had this experience. Dr. Prior’s reflections of art, poetry, and literature draw this out. Her strength is in exploring the details - a book's plot, a character's dialogue, the history of a particular author or artist. All of these build an exploration of “the water” evangelicals swim in and have been swimming in for quite some time.

Some of the chapters I felt a bit lost in the weeds and part of that might have been that I couldn’t always follow how the various subheadings connected to one another and to the overall chapter. There were many, “oh - that’s interesting!” and “ahhh I see now” moments which were enjoyable, but also made it a bit of a clunky reading experience for me. However, I did love that the book invites lots of reflection and I found myself reflecting on the metaphors and images that are used in my own communities and considering how they are shaping me. For that, I am thankful to have read it!

Thank you NetGalley, Baker Academic, and Brazos Press for the ARC - I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

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.

What has imagination got to do with evangelicalism? How far do stories, myths, and metaphors affect our lives? How connected is modern culture with the evangelical Church? Who influences who more? In a book that uses many types of symbols and metaphors, author and professor Karen Swallow Prior gives us a creative snapshot of the state of the evangelical church. More importantly, she takes us back to how we perceive the Church, the evangelical movement, and the insidious influence the world has on public perception. It is a fresh way of thinking with regard to understanding the struggles of the Church and culture today. Taking away the notion of imagination merely as a "brain function," Prior first shows us the central function of imagination beyond mere perceptions, that it heavily influences our everyday living. The second thing is to show us that the evangelical movement is connected to our "social imaginaries." As our culture changes, so do our perceptions of the evangelical movement. After comparing the academic definitions of evangelicalism from theologians David Bebbington, Timothy Larsen, John Stackhouse, and the National Evangelical Association, Prior goes to the layperson's perspective to remind readers that most people don't see evangelicalism in an academic sense. Instead, they are influenced by the social imaginaries that we all are familiar with: Our Culture. In fact, for Christians, it is a struggle between living as a person made in the image of God and living in a world of sin and all forms of worldliness. Using various words to ignite discussion and reflection, Prior guides us with her literary prowess, language analysis, and her broad knowledge of classic literature to examine the different kinds of stories, images, and metaphors that affect how we view evangelicalism (or simply our faith) today. The word "awakening" has been used in some of the most famous revivals in the evangelical world. Perhaps, the use of this word comes from the familiar themes of awakening written or romanticized in Shakespeare's, Bunyan's, Dante's, and the Puritans. Even the Bible has its fair share of how people are awakened from their spiritual slumber. "Conversion" is also a mark of evangelical imagination. From Constantine to Augustine, John Newton to CS Lewis, many conversions have been filled with drama. Nothing is more powerful than to see a life converted from despair to hope, and in Lewis's words, "Surprised by Joy." Prior raises an important question that moves us away from mere conversions toward "What exactly are we asking people to convert to?" This leads us to the word "Testimony" which is a popular term used by Christians to share the power of the gospel in changing one's life. While most of us would think of a testimony as a form of a before-and-after story, Prior helps us see it from another perspective, such as child conversions and less dramatic forms of coming to Christ. The question becomes: Are we letting our imagination of what testimony should be, straightjacket our personal testimonies in coming to the Lord? "Improvement" is another word that looks at excellence and progress. Just like how the world sells products constantly as "new and improved," evangelicals are expected to follow the trend. Faster, Higher, Longer, and in many ways better is the key to progress. How does evangelicalism fit into these expectations? I like the way Prior drops a note about seeing progress merely as something to gain and forgetting about what we might lose. We need a fuller picture when we want improvements in anything. Yet we are reminded that there is something more fundamental than mere improvement. Any improvements per se need to grow out of faith, rather than an end in itself. Lest we fall into a self-help whirlpool that could literally suck us into self-actualization over self-denial. Then there is the opposite of forward-looking improvement, the hindsight of "sentimentality" which takes one either on the nostalgic glories of yesterday, or the emotional inclinations that elevate feelings over faith. In a world of subjective rights and self-centered spirituality, interpretations of evangelicalism are often painted with that brush that puts self above all else. These are some things that are chipping away at the public perception of authority. The danger for evangelicals is not about a lack of authority but a foolish trust in dubious authorities. Together with this sense of wrongful placement of authority is the danger of "materiality." Evangelicalism has also been infected by the god of materialism. How does this impact the shape of evangelicalism? From images to visual culture, Prior shows us how the visual world has changed the way we believe. Apart from the dangers of Money, there is another concern. From print to visual art, there is another common thread and threat: Dualism. Then there is "Domesticity" which is another way to describe the perception of home, keeping a strict distinction between what is private and what is public. Did evangelicalism help liberate women? The author says yes. In "Empire," we are reminded about how powers shape the place we live in. The Church and Christianity have a long history in shaping the kingdoms of this world. Works like "Robinson Crusoe" embodies this form of modern empire on developing lands. From the gunboat evangelism of old to the more recent export of the prosperity gospel, the formation of Moody Bible Institute to the Billy Graham Crusades, Prior takes us through the range of evangelical influences to remind us of the ongoing impact of evangelicalism. She warns us not to let this become an "empire of dirt." Prior closes the book with reflections around the words "Reformation" and "Rapture" to show us the essence of formation and imagination of the future.

My Thoughts
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Even though the author is not a historian, she is well-versed in the events of history. Though she is not a theologian, she writes with much knowledge about the state of churches and evangelical culture. Through the use of many secondary sources, Prior manages to give us a fair spectrum of what evangelical culture is. Not only that, she meticulously uncovers many different rocks on the beach of culture, to reveal that there is more than meets the eye with regard to conventional perceptions of evangelicalism. One question constantly hovers above me. It is about the question of influence. Evangelical faith and modern culture: Which is the greater influence over the other? If we begin each chapter with a 50/50 mindset, we soon realize that it could go either way. Overall, there is a sense that the force of modern culture is stronger. This is particularly so when it comes to the topics of "improvement," "sentimentality," Materiality," and "Empire." From social engagement to politics, evangelicals often imagine their faith in the light of the world instead of Christ. This is sad. There are many warnings that the author has placed either directly or more often subtly, that the evangelicals need to wake up from their slumber. Like the frog swimming in a warming pot metaphor, the fire is there, the water is getting warmer, and the evangelical frog is getting more comfortable. If this book can wake this frog up, it will be a great wake-up call.

Prior's reflections challenge me to ask: What does it take to reverse the tide of influence? I believe the last chapter on "Rapture" has much to guide us toward. It calls for imagination in the most profound way, God's Way, God's Will, in God's Word. If only more evangelicals can be enraptured by the vision of God's coming kingdom, captured by Jesus' heart of love, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, let our imagination rise up to heaven, that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. For such a profound book to be written by a non-theologian, I must say I am impressed with the depth of theological insights. For too long, evangelical since the days of Trump has come under a negative light. Hopefully, this book can be a form of constructive feedback and corrective against an ever-growing tide of pessimism. Anyone concerned about the future of the evangelical movement should read this book.

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.

Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Brazos Press via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

Prior challenges Christians to think through our presumptions and what has influenced them. Because I have limited experience with the conceptual approach of the social imaginary I did struggle to follow parts, but it is certainly worth revisiting.

Builds on recent works about evangelical culture while presenting a side of its history that many have forgotten - its roots in the Victorian period, and how many of its ideas inform how evangelicals perceive things today.

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.

This book informative, interesting, thought-provoking, and eye-opening. I feel like this book should be required reading for all English teachers at a Christian school. Prior gives a history of the evangelicals and provides literary references and examples throughout to enrich, explain, or emphasize the evangelical movement represented in the book. I have a feeling this will be a book that I reread regularly.
I received an ARC from NetGalley.

The Evangelical Imagination is a fascinating, well-researched look at how thinking in church communities have been shaped over time. I appreciate how the author has taken time to consider cultural change and influences. An intriguing read!

This was a book that delved into what imagination is and specifically how the Evangelical Imagination has been formed by stories passed down through decades, metaphors that have shifted over the years, and various images.

I really enjoyed thinking philosophically about imagination and how our imagination is impacted by what we consume in our day to day life.

"Imagination is central to the way we think, the way we go through our days, and even the way we believe and enact those beliefs."
"Our very desires are ordered - if not produced - by the power of our imaginations and the social imaginary that is our context."

Dr. Prior does not shy away from addressing the numerous failings of the Evangelical movement, and encourages us to consider what ideas need to be challenged and how to better live like Jesus.

"Sometimes the most fruitful study is simply listening to the experiences of others, enlaeginggw our perspective, not replacing subjective experience for objective truth, but rather seeking to understand how Jesus, the Logos at the center of all creation, accommodates all human experience."

One element Dr. Prior highlights is how a lot of our views on what is biblical is actually from the Victorian Era. And she challenges the view that "personal salvation alone will not solve all problems personal and social. 'Get people saved' one hears constantly in response to laments about social injustice and moral problems. If this were all that were necessary to eradicate injustice there would be no (or at least far fewer) Christians who bought and sold slaves, abused their wives, aborted their unborn children, or got drunk on power."

Ovefall, this book was a fascinating foray into the history of the Evangelical movement and how it has impacted our imagination. I thoroughly enjoyed thinking about imagination more and how Dr. Prior defined imagination.

"What is imagination but an opening of the eyes of our hearts?"
"Imagination is an expression of the human desire for meaning beyond the literal surface of our lives."