Thursday, September 24, 2015

By Dr. Karen Swallow Prior

When Karen Swallow Prior was a child, church wasn’t a place that she associated with belonging, even though she was immersed in Christian culture. Books, on the other hand, were her refuge, a place where she came alive, an escape from the boredom of serving God.

Karen eventually drifted from God and pursued academia. However, she says that in graduate school, she eventually “grew to understand how inextricably connected books are to God, who is the Word and the author of all words.” It was also around this time that Karen embraced pro-life activism as a result of watching The Silent Scream, a video showing an early abortion taking place via ultrasound. Karen is now an English professor at Liberty University and the author of two books,Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me and Fierce Convictions—The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More: Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist.

In this interview, Karen discusses how Christians should think about challenging art and literature, whether Christian overachievers should go to Christian colleges, “trigger warnings,” social media, and what Christian abolitionists can teach us about the pro-life movement.

  1. You’ve steeped yourself in the life of the 18th century writer and abolitionist Hannah More. What does More’s work have to teach those of us who have strong pro-life convictions?

The pressing issue within Hannah More’s day was slavery. More was among the leading evangelicals…

Read more