An interview with author Karen Swallow Prior
John Woods & Andrew Roycroft
Date posted: 29 Dec 2025
Writer and academic Professor Karen Swallow Prior has written and contributed to numerous books. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic magazine, The Washington Post, and on the Gospel Coalition website, among other places. Her latest book, You Have a Calling was reviewed in last month's print edition of en (see review here).
Here, en Reviews Editor John Woods and Andrew Roycroft of Grace Publications speak to her about it and some of the issues raised. Quotes in blue type are from the new book.
helping children find faith
Parents need the church
Ed Drew
Date posted: 28 Dec 2025
Our first child was born at about 6am. It had been a long night. I am clear that my wife had more reason to be tired than me. Giving us some early respite, our child slept through that first day. Parenting seemed easier than childbirth. It came to chucking out time, when I was being sent home for the night. I looked forward to a good night’s sleep. I was smart enough not to say that out loud. Just as my hand was on the door to leave, my wife asked a question that sent a thunderbolt through my body: “What do I do if she wakes up?”
That was the moment when I realised we were in big trouble. I knew that I had no idea what I was doing, but how could she not know? I had quietly assumed that I would be in my wife’s parenting wake. How could it be possible for us to have a child when neither of us knew what to do next?
'A joyful Christmas is not a consumerist Christmas'
James Burnett
Date posted: 26 Dec 2025
My best Christmas Day celebration was a present-less gathering in Malawi.
The worship was full of percussion, al fresco, around a log fire, and everyone shared in the gift of Jesus.
'The gospel is Jesus Christ'
Dave Burke
Date posted: 25 Dec 2025
A friend of mine is the youngest chaplain in the British Army, so they have sent him to train with the Parachute Regiment because he’s young and fit enough to keep up with them.
The unit he supports call themselves "the tip of the spear" because if there is conflict, they will be going in first.
'A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices!'
Tim Farron
Date posted: 25 Dec 2025
There is a spine-tingling line in the Christmas hymn, O Holy Night: “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices!”
A weary world
Our world is unmistakably weary. More than three-quarters of Brits say the UK is headed in the wrong direction. For the first time, the UK has dropped out of the top 20 happiest countries in the World Happiness Report.
Do you feel like darkness is your 'closest friend'?
Mitch Chase
Date posted: 25 Dec 2025
Near the end of Book Three in Psalms (which is from Pss. 73–89), things grow dark. In fact, when you enter Psalm 88, you feel like you’re in a room so dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face.
Suffering can feel like that. Some trials feel so overwhelming, so disorienting, that the language of Psalm 88 fits them. The psalmist embodies the agonies and despair that a believer can experience in a fallen world. Don’t let anyone tell you that a real believer would never feel overwhelmed and despondent. Psalm 88 would beg to differ!
A familiar sight, an overlooked story
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 24 Dec 2025
Did you know that one of London's most famous Christmas landmarks is rooted in a deeply Christian story of sacrifice, peace, and reconciliation?
I'm talking about the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree. Each December, the Norwegian Pine stands, at an impressive 65 feet tall, in the heart of London . Its lighting ceremony takes place on the first Thursday of December, featuring carols and performances, and the tree continues to grace the UK's capital city until early January. Many people know that the tree comes from Norway, but few pause to ask why.
John 1: 'A rich and beautiful tapestry of the Triune God'
James Cary
Date posted: 24 Dec 2025
I’m a professional writer (believe it or not) but was one of the few in my school year who did not choose English to study at A-Level.
Back then, reading fiction felt like hard work to me. For my GCSE, I had to read Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. It’s a classic. But it’s long, sad and contains an awful lot of dense and wistful description of the Dorset and Somerset countryside. I now live on the border of Somerset and Dorset – in the heart of Hardy’s Wessex. I love Wessex. It’s where I live. I enjoy seeing the hedgerows, oak trees and starling formations. I am still not hungry for lengthy verbal descriptions of all of the above.
Jesus' birth: The fulfilment of ancient promises
Mitch Chase
Date posted: 24 Dec 2025
The Gospel writers boldly associate Jesus’ birth with David’s name. And they do this in order for us to learn about Jesus’ birth as a fulfilment of ancient promises.
In 2 Samuel 7v12–13, God had promised David that a future son—the seed or offspring of David—would rule forever on the throne.
Nunc Dimittis - 'let your servant go in peace'
Tim Chester
Date posted: 24 Dec 2025
Nunc Dimittis, in the New Testament is "a brief hymn of praise sung by the aged Simeon, who had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah."
"Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
Look to the One who broke the stone table
Pod Bhogal
Date posted: 23 Dec 2025
Christmas has a way of unlocking old memories.
My first real exposure to the Christmas story didn’t come through church or Christmas carols.
earth watch
The beginning of the end of the polycrisis
Paul Kunert
Date posted: 23 Dec 2025
We will have been thinking about the coming of the true King. Through the Advent season, we’re sure to have looked back with joy to the announcement of His birth. We’ve likely looked, also, to the future with longing for the day of the return of the King, when all things will be put right. And perhaps we’ve had the space, held between joy and longing, to lament the darkness.
Advent and Christmas are annual reminders that we are uniquely placed as Christians to see both the beauty of creation and its brokenness. Celebrating the One who came to redeem and who will come again to restore all creation, we share both the Creator’s joy and His lament, in the sure expectation of a world-made-right.
pastoral care
Planks and self-awareness
Steve Midgley
Date posted: 23 Dec 2025
Some of the teaching of Jesus can be so familiar that it doesn’t land nearly as richly, and forcibly, as it should. Our familiarity can mean we distil Jesus’ words to an abbreviated version which, while seeming to capture the essence, is missing much of the point.
Jesus teaching about specks and planks (or logs if you prefer) is a case in point. When He first spoke these words, one might imagine the reaction was rather mixed. Some, envisioning the ludicrous picture Jesus was conjuring up, may well have enjoyed the humour of the imagery. But this imagery had an uncomfortable punchline. Thoughtful hearers would soon have been wrestling with the deeper meaning.
defending our faith
Holy Land historicity
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 21 Dec 2025
On tours of the Holy Land over the years, I have found visitors captivated by archaeological ruins but often repelled by churches. Particularly if still in use, they can have all the trappings of religion but lack authenticity. Many evangelical Christians lack enthusiasm for such religious buildings.
This is a shame, as some of the oldest churches in existence have great apologetic value for the historicity and credibility of the Christian faith. Here are my top five, in no particular order, from the Holy Land.
The importance of rest and reset in a frantic world
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 18 Dec 2025
Have you ever stopped to wonder why so many Christian retreats and holiday organisations exist? What is it about the concept of “rest and reset” that leads countless evangelicals to conclude that the “best” holidays are those with an intentional spiritual element?
Rest: What does it look like?
This month, I interviewed individuals who spend their working lives creating spaces for others to rest; they emphasised that rest isn’t optional, it’s essential – and it’s spiritual.
Trusting God when your children walk away from Jesus
Paul Mallard
Date posted: 17 Dec 2025
Rick and Julie have three children. They all grew up in the same home with the same Christian atmosphere. They all went to the same school, the same church youth group and the same Christian camps. All three of them professed faith and were baptised in their late teens. But now the contrast could not be more stark. One of their sons is following Christ and serves in the church; their daughter attends church but is only nominal in her faith; their second son has drifted away from the faith entirely and lives with his girlfriend.
How do you explain the difference? What went wrong?
In a divided world, what does unity look like?
Jason Roach
Date posted: 16 Dec 2025
One of my cousins was killed by a stray bullet. He was not part of a gang but got caught in the crossfire of gang warfare. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, in areas where postcodes have a kind of protected status, can be lethal.
The council estates my church serves have similar challenges: one area will be home to some but an exclusion zone to others. One significant factor is an inordinate loyalty to a certain place; when place gives you your ultimate sense of security, you’ll go to surprising lengths to protect it.
