Karen Swallow Prior

Karen Swallow Prior, Ph. D., is a reader, writer, speaker and professor. She is the author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023); On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Brazos 2018); Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson, 2014); and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (T. S. Poetry Press, 2012). She is co-editor of Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues (Zondervan 2019) and has contributed to numerous other books. She has a monthly column for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Think Christian, The Gospel Coalition, and various other places. She hosted the podcast Jane and Jesus. She is a Contributing Editor for Comment, a founding member of The Pelican Project, and a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum. She and her husband live on a 100-year-old homestead in central Virginia with dogs, chickens and lots of books.

All Stories by Karen Swallow Prior

Mohler and the abortion abolitionists don’t take sin seriously enough

By Karen Swallow Prior — March 25, 2024
(RNS) — Abortion is a failure not just of individuals but also of the village.

The ‘biblical manhood’ industry is a scam

By Karen Swallow Prior — February 15, 2024
(RNS) — The church is the last place where cultural stereotypes should be upheld as biblical truth.

An open letter to the Southern Baptist Convention

By Karen Swallow Prior — February 9, 2024
(RNS) — Dear SBC, you don’t have to be this way.

As we face the grind of a Trump-Biden clash, imagine them buddies for a moment

By Karen Swallow Prior — January 24, 2024
(RNS) — Sometimes fakes serve to remind us of what we rightly desire and ought to pursue.

The passages that got John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ banned by a Florida county

By Karen Swallow Prior — January 5, 2024
(RNS) — Would students in the state's Orange County be tempted by the 17th century classic? One can only hope.

Tim Alberta on evangelical extremism and the pastors who profit from it

By Karen Swallow Prior — December 7, 2023
(RNS) — ‘These are not dupes; these are not true believers.’

Don’t go into a relationship — or institution — thinking you can change them

By Karen Swallow Prior — November 20, 2023
(RNS) — I thought for a long time I could help the church change. How foolish. How prideful.

A good pastor is hard to find

By Karen Swallow Prior — October 31, 2023
(RNS) — In art at least, the odds of a man of the cloth turning out to be a good guy are slim.

The fruit of the Spirit is not optional, despite what you might witness online

By Karen Swallow Prior — September 29, 2023
(RNS) — Before social media, I honestly never knew people who claimed to be Christians would treat one another with such cruelty.

Beware the Black Robed Regiment cosplay

By Karen Swallow Prior — August 15, 2023
(RNS) — Dressing in the garb of Revolutionary clergy in the 21st century reflects neither biblical wisdom nor sound theology.

For too many Christians, the lines between dominionism, nationalism and fascism are blurred

By Karen Swallow Prior — July 11, 2023
(RNS) — An old social experiment sheds light on how easy it is to manipulate people’s moral compasses.

Thoughts on my 5-year anniversary of getting hit by a bus

By Karen Swallow Prior — May 24, 2023
(RNS) — First a bus, now a dog attack. If these are signs, they aren’t subtle.

Human progress, the myth of the modern age, is increasingly in doubt

By Karen Swallow Prior — May 11, 2023
(RNS) — Cruelty, plagues and the irrepressibility of a certain ex-president make optimism a tough sell.

Replacing vengeance with mercy in our death penalty policy

By Karen Swallow Prior — March 7, 2023
(RNS) — The troubling case of Andre Thomas invites a closer look at all the factors that play a part in the death penalty.

Grace Community Church let her down. Now she is standing in the gap for women.

By Karen Swallow Prior — February 16, 2023
(RNS) — Eileen’s life now is a far cry from the subservient role she once played to a domineering and violent husband.
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