Karen Swallow Prior: re-enchanting evangelicalism

Belle and Justin speak to Karen about imagination in faith.

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

Karen Swallow Prior is a Professor of English Literature and an award-winning author. Her most recent book is The Evangelical Imagination: How stories, images and metaphors created a culture in Crisis.

Belle and Justin speak to Karen about the role of the imagination in faith, what the term evangelical means today and whether it can be re-enchanted…

Visit Karen Swallow Prior's web site.

There’s more to life than the world we can see. Re-Enchanting is a podcast from Seen & Unseen recorded at Lambeth Palace Library, the home of the Centre for Cultural Witness. Justin Brierley and Belle Tindall engage faith and spirituality with leading figures in science, history, politics, art and education. Can our culture be re-enchanted by the vision of Christianity?

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Seen & Unseen Aloud

4 August 2025

1 min read

Portofino, neurodiversity, and McGovern's Unforgivable.

Poverty amid the privileged, the issue of over-diagnosing, and a difficult drama to watch.

Natalie Garrett

Natalie produces and narrates The Seen & Unseen Aloud podcast. She's an Anglican minister and a trained actor.

Portofino harbour.

Peter Thomas, via Unsplash.

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More about this episode

This week, George Pitcher takes us on our tour of the Portofino "bubble"; Henna Cundill has read Suzanne O'Sullivan's book and suggests we don't have an over-diagnosis problem, we have a society problem; and Henry Corbett describes Jimmy McGovern's brave storytelling in Unforgivable and asks whether there is such a thing as an unforgiveable sin.

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