August 01, 2025

Dr. Karen Swallow Prior: You Have a Calling – Beyond Following Your Passions

56 minutes

Today we are joined by a favourite past (and future) summer professor who teaches in the Literary Arts, Dr. Karen Swallow Prior. We are focusing on her new book, You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful, which releases on August 5, 2025. In our conversation, Karen dismantles some contemporary thought around calling (in the Instagram world) to present a vision of a good, true and beautiful life – even when we are not paid to do what we love. She brings years of mentoring and advising college students to her book, while drawing on her own recent experience with unexpected direction changes. Her extensive knowledge of literary characters who grapple with questions of work and vocation is also carefully woven in, giving helpful examples. Karen’s main premise is that in order to have a calling, you need to be called. She also identifies ways in which the culture around us is skewing our understanding of passion and purpose. Listen in and consider: who is calling you, and who are you calling into a true, good and beautiful life with God?

Karen's Bio

Dr. Karen Swallow Prior is a writer, speaker, and columnist for Religion News Service. Her work has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others. She is well-known for bridging literature, faith, and ethics. A professor of English and Christian thought, she writes on the intersection of classic literature and contemporary culture. Her books include On Reading Well, Booked, and The Evangelical Imagination. Karen brings a unique voice that challenges and inspires listeners to think deeply and live with conviction. Karen taught a course on Christian Poetics here at Regent in summer 2024. Today we will be talking with her about her soon-to-be-released book You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful.

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