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

Reviewed by:

G. Connor Salter, Professional Writing alumnus from Taylor University, Upland, IN.

Title:

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

Author:

Karen Swallow Prior

Publisher:

Brazos Press (a division of Baker Publishing Group)

Publication Date:

August 8, 2023

Format:

Hardcover

Length:

304 Pages

OVERVIEW

In recent years, “evangelical” has become a loaded term. It’s rooted in a Greek word the New Testament uses for the gospel’s “good news,” but has come to mean something involving conservative American Protestantism. In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s presidency, and various evangelical groups facing investigations of sexual misconduct, calling oneself an evangelical Christian has become complicated. Some Christian leaders have begun calling themselves “exvangelicals.” Many wonder if it’s possible to redeem the term evangelical. Karen Swallow Prior argues the key to these dilemmas is looking at the evangelical movement’s roots.

While the term evangelical gained new relevance in the 1950s, Prior reminds readers it goes even further back. The English word evangelical dates back to the eighteenth century, and the evangelical movement was a broad movement that started in the United Kingdom. Evangelicalism begins not with Billy Graham, but with George Whitefield and his contemporaries. Prior details how key elements from British evangelical culture influenced American evangelicalism, like:

• European imperialism
• Fascinating with dramatic conversion stories
• The growth of sentimental literature for female readers

Prior also details some key changes that happened as evangelicalism evolved in America:

• John Nelson Darby’s dispensationalist teachings creating modern rapture theology
• L. Moody’s interest in applying business teachings to ministry

As she details how these traits inform modern-day evangelicalism, she provides a direction for where evangelicalism will go next to become healthy again.

By taking readers back to the evangelicalism movement’s Victorian roots, Prior adds something crucial to the current discussion. Daniel Silliman talks in Reading Evangelicals about how from the 1970s onward, Christian fiction helped define a new evangelical sub-culture. Jon Ward talks in Testimony about how the Jesus Movement boosted evangelical Christianity in the 1970s, then its converts took a hard shift into the culture wars during the 1980s.

Prior goes further back, exposing preconceptions that evangelicals often don’t realize they have. She details how Moody’s interest in business strategies forged a new way of talking about ministry where leaders operate more like businessmen getting the desired results than shepherds tending their valued flocks. She shows how the ongoing problem of Christian entertainment being syrupy goes back to the kind of melodramatic novels that became popular in the Victorian age (the forerunners of Christian romance novels).

Prior’s discussion of sentimental fiction proves especially interesting. She clearly explains the line between beauty and sentiment, arguing sentiment is essentially self-centered while beauty draws readers to become part of something bigger. She also makes a strong case that while some sentiment is good, too much does leave people self-centered and unbalanced—she cites how painter Thomas Kinkade became increasingly dishonest and bizarre near his life’s end.

Her argument is especially insightful when one considers that shallowness and flippancy (which Prior argues result from ingesting too much sentimental entertainment) are common reasons so many Americans have left evangelicalism. Deconstruction narratives often involve the people who left churches saying what hurt the most was when they sought spiritual advice and got trite responses. Christians behaving tritely can’t exclusively be blamed on the fact they read too many tacky Christian novels, but it is a clear factor. The Christian fiction market is mostly an evangelical market.

Even when Prior covers well-traveled ground, she adds something new to the discussion. In her chapter on rapture theology, she agrees with Ward and others that the Left Behind brand of end-times theology has a Gnostic taint to it. Like Silliman, she highlights how Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness and Left Behind are both culture war narratives that have proven problematic. However, Prior makes interesting connections that others haven’t brought up. She argues that Left Behind and other “prophecy fiction” are really a subgenre of fantasy, taking mythopoeic literature somewhere very different than the Inklings’ work.

Prior doesn’t give many other examples of prophecy fiction, and makes some offhand comments on how she doesn’t like fantasy but the genre offers a gateway to other literature. Those issues aside, her point is well-made. It’s also something to take seriously. If she’s correct, the appeal of Left Behind and This Present Darkness was similar to Lord of the Rings: they had a mythic quality, using larger-than-life ideas to communicate themes. The difference is these latter books gave mythic narratives leading to unhealthy conclusions. This means evangelicals have to face two facts. First, evangelicals’ past paranoia about fantasy is hypocritical. The evangelicals who burned fantasy novels while handing everyone copies of This Present Darkness were still reading mythic narratives. Second, Joseph Campbell was right: humans crave mythic stories. People who recognize that yearning will seek healthy stories that fill that need. Those who ignore it will settle for tacky substitutes.

Prior wraps up her discussion with honesty yet hope. She admits that it’s likely that American evangelicalism is about to go through a big, Martin Luther-style reformation period. However, she observes that Luther said the church perpetually has to reform itself to stay on track. Her suggestions on what evangelicals will have to do in this reforming period (rebuilding their credibility, recognizing their past biases) are immensely helpful.

A terrific new addition to studies on evangelical Christianity, and a great primer for where the evangelical movement must go next.

Rating:

5 out of 5

Suggested audience:

Christian fiction readers

Christian impact:

As the author details how these traits inform modern-day evangelicalism, she provides a direction for where evangelicalism will go next to become healthy again.

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Note: ECLA Readers who enjoy this book may also enjoy the following:

https://eclalibraries.org/2020/09/12/the-gospel-in-dickens-selections-from-his-works-the-gospel-in-great-writers-6-2/

https://eclalibraries.org/2021/02/19/uncommon-ground-living-faithfully-in-a-world-of-difference/

https://eclalibraries.org/2019/07/29/cultural-engagement-a-crash-course-in-contemporary-issues/