Karen Swallow Prior is named Bethel’s 2025-2026 Karlson Scholar
By Heather Schnese S’12, content specialist
August 11, 2025 | 10 a.m.
Bethel Seminary has named author, speaker, and professor Karen Swallow Prior as the 2025-2026 Karlson Scholar. A respected voice in evangelical thought, Prior brings decades of academic and cultural engagement to the role—offering students and the broader Bethel community a unique opportunity to explore the intersections of calling, narrative, and spiritual formation.
Prior will teach a Seminary for Everyone class, be a featured guest of the “Whole & Holy” podcast, and speak in Chapel.
“She seeks to serve and advance the kingdom of God in part by offering thoughtful critique of the church and evangelical culture from the perspective of someone within it who loves it,” says Bethel Seminary Dean Peter Vogt. “We want our community to be able to experience and engage with that.”
Established in 2022, the Karlson Scholar program connects Bethel with influential evangelical leaders who engage students and faculty in meaningful dialogue about faith, leadership, and ministry. The program equips future leaders to apply those insights in their own ministry contexts. Prior follows in the footsteps of Francis Chan and Christopher Watkin, continuing the seminary’s commitment to equipping church leaders with insight from some of today’s leading Christian thinkers.
In her new book You are Called: Finding your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful, Prior explores how passion and calling are often conflated in ways that can mislead people seeking God’s direction for their lives. “Passion comes from inside and calling comes from outside,” she explains. “In getting these two things confused, it’s easy to be disappointed or disillusioned about the work we’ve been given. But passion for what we do tends to grow as we develop competence and confidence.”
That message resonates deeply for those in seminary. “Calling is really about the body of Christ working as a body with all its parts functioning together well,” she says. “As the Karlson Scholar, I look forward to encouraging and modeling for others how their own particular specialties, passions, and experiences can be woven into theological education, ministry application, and entire lives.”
— Karen Swallow Prior
She also wrote The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis, which examines the ways we take meaning from the narratives—the stories—we construct about our lives and the world. “Reading, writing, and enjoying human stories is a practice in understanding God’s story and our place in it,” she says. “Telling better, truer stories ultimately helps us have a better understanding of ourselves and each other and of God and our relationship with him.”
A former professor at Liberty University and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Prior earned her Ph.D. in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is a contributing writer at The Dispatch, a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a columnist at Religion News Service. Bringing her background, interests, and a deep faith, she is excited to be part of a Christian community that emphasizes the same things she does.
“The Bethel community exudes commitment to a holistic approach to Christian education, one that emphasizes biblical fidelity, character formation, and transformative ministry. This is the kind of education that seeks to change the world by changing the student first,” says Prior. “My own approach to teaching has always been, similarly, about reaching the heart then the head—cultivating godly desires in order to pursue godly callings—in service to the church and to the world.”
Follow your calling at Bethel Seminary
We believe God calls us to the collaborative work of transformation—in our own lives first, then in the lives of others. Through a holistic approach to education, Bethel Seminary equips you to serve with integrity, compassion, and humility.