Karen Swallow Prior, Ph.D., is professor of English and Chair of the English and modern languages department at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. She and her husband, Roy, serve as deacons in their church and keepers of their 100-year-old homestead, where they live with their horses and dogs—and, more recently, Karen's mom and dad.
Theology on a Tightrope: Nik Wallenda's High-Wire Walk and Our Longing for God | Why we can't get enough of death-defying feats. (June 22, 2012)
Ditch the Diploma: Why College Graduates Are Questioning Their Education | And why you might question whether God is calling you to get a bachelor's degree. (June 12, 2012)
Why Facebook Removed Photos of a Baby | The site's banning of photos of Heather Walker's dying infant reveals a culture terrified of death. (May 25, 2012)
Amazing Grace, How Slow the Work: Why We Still Have Slaves | We often expect spiritual change to happen overnight. Sometimes it takes the course of human history. (May 8, 2012)
The Wall Builders: A Parable about the Gender Debates | A tale about a small kingdom, the kingdom-dwellers, and the great wall that divided them. (April 27, 2012)
Trayvon Martin, Hoodies, and the Power of Images | Understanding our visual writing helps explain how we respond to the case. (March 30, 2012)
Why 'Slut' Cuts to the Core—of All of Us | The furor over Rush Limbaugh's comments illustrates the power of a single word. (March 8, 2012)
What the 'After-Birth Abortion' and 'Personhood' Debates Have in Common | If there is 'no moral difference' between infants and fetuses, where do we draw the line? (March 5, 2012)
Want to Follow God? Go to Sleep | Why rest is paramount to a "successful" spiritual life. (February 21, 2012)
Scared to Death of Death: Facing More Than Gramma's Mortality | When my family moved my grandma cross-country to a nearby nursing home, I had no idea she would bring with her a reminder of irrevocable loss. (February 7, 2012)
Marriage: Creating a Partnership, Not Reeling in a Catch | The old traditions of luring in a spouse still linger today. (January 27, 2012)
When the State Took Away My Life: North Carolina Grapples with Sterilization Practice | It all began just a mile down the road from my house. (January 18, 2012)
Why 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' Is Hurting Women | Lisbeth Salander is less a female role model than a projection of a base male fantasy. (January 4, 2012)
Beards: A Hairy Topic in My Household | The cultural and religious significance of the manly mane. (December 21, 2011)
Perfection Obsession: What It Looks Like to Accept Limitations | Amy Julia Becker finds perfection in her daughter's limitations in her award-winning book, 'A Good and Perfect Gift.' (November 7, 2011)
Tattooed Barbie: You've Come a Long Way! | Barbie is art imitating life (and vice-versa). (October 27, 2011)
Exotic Animals and Kingdom Ethics | Principles for why we should avoid treating all animals as possessions. (October 21, 2011)
Ben & Jerry's 'Schweddy Balls' and Scatological Humor | Why I'm not joining 'one million moms' in a boycott. (September 27, 2011)
Welcoming Doubt to Christian Education | Reflections on the Cardus Education Survey from a department chair at the world's largest evangelical university. (September 16, 2011)
Inside the Heart of an Animal Hoarder | When a love for pets goes terribly awry. (September 7, 2011)
The Female Friendship Crisis | Friends are an indispensable part of growing in Christ. So why do many of us have so few? (August 2, 2011)
The Redemptive Narrative in Jaycee Dugard's Captivity Story | Why children play a vital role in the stories from women who were abducted. (July 29, 2011)
Doing Authentic Ministry with My Smokin' Hot Bride | A list of the worst ever Christian cliches. (July 19, 2011)
An Open Letter to Donald Miller on Your Engagement | First, congratulations. Second, let's talk about that list of qualities we should want in a spouse. (June 23, 2011)
Anthony Weiner, Gnostic | The embroiled congressman's defense that sexting is not adultery reveals a mind-body dualism long resisted by Christian tradition. (June 9, 2011)
Sex and Salvation according to Picasso | Seeing the huge Picasso exhibit now touring the world reminded me of why Christians should make time for the fine arts. (May 26, 2011)
Confessions of a Breadwinner Wife | Most American women still want to 'marry up' on the socioeconomic scale. How I hit the jackpot on a totally different scale. (May 3, 2011)
Liberty U. Students on Interracial Marriage Trends | I asked five female alumni whether their marriages mirrored recent sociological data on mixed-race marriages in the South. Here's what they told me. (April 5, 2011)
The Gospel of Grace for Women Who Self-Injure | How the church can respond as cutting and other forms of self-harm are increasingly glamorized online. (February 28, 2011)
Michael Vick's Long Road to Recovery | A Christian animal-welfare activist reflects on the NFL quarterback and dogfighter's restoration. (February 16, 2011)
Surprised by Beauty at the March for Life | The people who caught my eye—the ones the mainstream media overlooked—at this year's march. (January 27, 2011)
Skins Prompts Call for Child Porn Investigation | This time, the Parents Television Council is probably right about the British export that spotlights teens (and teen actors) engaging in a sexual free-for-all. (January 21, 2011)
Honeymoon with Mom and Dad | How I spent the holidays with my live-in parents. (January 5, 2011)The Best Ever Christmas Gift | Women in particular, it seems to me, have a hard time thinking of themselves as gifts. (December 22, 2010)What Is the Stay-at-Home Daughters Movement? | What the branch of the Christian Patriarchy Movement believes about family and young women. (December 20, 2010)
A Peter Singer Sympathizer Changes His Mind | After his infant son, August, suffers irreparable brain damage, professor Chris Gabbard re-thinks what makes a life worth living. (December 7, 2010)
When Mom and Dad Move In | Dispatches from a member of the half-a-sandwich generation. (November 23, 2010)
