16: Read Better Books

Are you tired of Christian living books and the simple answers they provide for the problems of life? Dr. Karen Swallow Prior joins us in this episode to talk about the way reading forms us, and how reading better books helps us become better thinkers and better agents of change in our culture and community. This episode is for you if you want to think deeper and need help figuring out what steps should come next. 

We talk about:

The problems with Christian living books

The difference between information and formation

What impact does bad reading habits have on reading the Bible

Tips for what books to read

Tips for how to read once you get started

Our guest this week, Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) is an award-winning professor of English at Liberty University. She is the author of On Reading Well, Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me and Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist. Prior has written for Christianity Today, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Think Christian, and The Gospel Coalition. She is a senior fellow with Liberty University’s Center for Apologetics and Cultural Engagement, a senior fellow with The Trinity Forum, and a member of the Faith Advisory Council of the Humane Society of the United States. Connect with Karen on Twitter and Instagram

Show Notes for Episode 16:

Evangelicals Incorporated: Books and the Business of Religion in America by Daniel Baca
Karen Swallow Prior: An Interview by Scott McKnight
Sense and Sensibility (with an introduction by Dr. Karen Swallow Prior)
Heart of Darkness (with an introduction by Dr. Karen Swallow Prior)
On Reading Well by Dr. Karen Swallow Prior
Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me by Dr. Karen Swallow Prior
Two Funerals, Then Easter by Rachel WelcherBecome a partner of The Jess & Devi Show on Patreon
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