“As an artist and follower of Jesus often falling into the gaps and fractures of the church and the world, this book is a refreshing, and eye-opening, guide to navigate beyond the borderlands. Sanctified imagination is critical in developing as the body of Christ, in being the harbingers of hope and creators of beauty, and Karen Swallow Prior is one of the most trusted voices to help us find our thriving.”—Makoto Fujimura, artist and author of Art and Faith: A Theology of Making

“Karen Swallow Prior wants evangelicals to think carefully about how they think, particularly to understand how much we as evangelicals take for granted in the metaphors we use, the assumptions we make, and the conventions we take for granted. The book brings together the history of evangelicalism, Prior’s expertise in Victorian literature, and sensitive analysis of the present moment into an indictment of the ‘evangelical imagination,’ but an indictment with hope because of evangelical engagement with the gospel.”—Mark Noll, author of A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada

“If you think you’ve read everything on evangelical culture, think twice: The Evangelical Imagination will blow your mind! As well as encourage your heart to desire what is beautiful again. Prior’s writing is sharp, substantive, and engaging. You will be quoting her to friends and sharing her insights with your family as you struggle to remember the false paradigms you used to live under. With her deep knowledge of the past three hundred years of history, literature, and philosophy, Prior unmasks our assumptions about evangelical culture and shows us both the good and the bad of our inherited social imaginary. You need this book to remind you why you love the evangelical church and to inspire you to be an active culture maker for the kingdom.”—Jessica Hooten Wilson, author of The Scandal of Holiness and Reading for the Love of God

“Christians know that we should love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But what about loving him with all our imagination? In this important new book Karen Swallow Prior argues that the imagination is a vital and neglected area of discipleship for today’s church. She attacks the cultural cholesterol of ideas like improvement and sentimentality that sclerotize the evangelical imagination, and she invites us to enjoy a more healthy and biblical imaginative life. This is a crucial book for anyone who wants to bring every faculty—including the imagination—under the lordship of Christ.”—Christopher Watkin, associate professor of European languages, Monash University; author of Biblical Critical Theory

“If ‘examination is an act of love,’ as Karen Swallow Prior rightly asserts, then this important book is a loving examination of many of the received ideas, metaphors, and stories that evangelicals have inherited and that inform their worldview. Prior’s examination of this history, this underlying imagination, in light of Scripture and the deepest truths of faith, offers contemporary Christians a chance for self-awareness, renewal, and hope. The insights offered in this book are not always comfortable, but they are just that kind of truth which the gospel promises ‘will make us free,’ free to move through culture to Christ, rather than letting our culture obscure or diminish him.”—Malcolm Guite, author of Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God

“This eye-opening book calls on evangelicals to examine their fundamental assumptions and to shed their faith of unwanted elements more cultural and political than religious. It will also assist non-Christians, like me, whose image of the evangelical faith has been clouded by those same unexamined assumptions and unwelcome elements.”—Henry Reichman, professor emeritus of history, California State University, East Bay; author, Understanding Academic Freedom; former vice president, American Association of University Professors