December 22, 2025: The history behind the beloved hymn, ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem is the story you won’t want to miss on this month’s episode of Rev. Dr. Robert Flanagan’s show, Courage to Thrive, featuring Dr. Karen Swallow Prior
Listen to the podcast on Inkandescent Radio
Step inside the book: While Mortals Sleep
The volume’s eight essays recognize the most recent academic contribution, by Gillis J. Harp, Brahmin Prophet: Phillips Brooks and the Path of Liberal Protestantism (2003), but move beyond it in several crucial ways.
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Father Bob talks with Karen about: “The hymn ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem, which is the focus of Karen’s chapter in Robert’s latest book, While Mortals Sleep.
Dr. Karen Swallow Prior
About our guest: Karen Swallow Prior, Ph. D. is a reader, writer, and professor, Karen is the author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023); On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Brazos 2018); Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson, 2014); and Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (T. S. Poetry Press, 2012).
She is co-editor of Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues (Zondervan 2019) and has contributed to numerous other books. She has a monthly column for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Think Christian, The Gospel Coalition, and various other places. She hosted the podcast Jane and Jesus. She is a Contributing Editor for Comment, a founding member of The Pelican Project, a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a Senior Fellow at the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture.
She and her husband live on a 100-year-old homestead in central Virginia with dogs, chickens, and lots of books.
About While Mortals Sleep: America’s nineteenth-century preachers and religious leaders moved public sentiment and shaped the nation’s moral character. Equally influencing events were America’s preachers and religious leaders who moved public sentiment and shaped the nation’s moral character. In that class of great religious figures is the Episcopal preacher and bishop Phillips Brooks. The Boston Brahmin and Harvard University graduate rose to heights as an anti-slavery clergyman and indefatigable pastor to congregations in Philadelphia and Boston. Yet, his many achievements must be balanced against his youthful arrogance and his shrewdness.
This book examines the spiritual and moral character of Phillips Brooks (1835–1893) as evidenced through his life and ministry. The volume’s eight essays recognize the most recent academic contribution, by Gillis J. Harp, Brahmin Prophet: Phillips Brooks and the Path of Liberal Protestantism (2003), but move beyond it in several crucial ways.
This new work seeks to reevaluate Brooks in light of early twenty-first-century social and racial conflicts and the subsequent cultural soul-searching. The contributors portray Brooks as a man filled at times with hubris, classism, and prejudices, and at other times with creative passion and pastoral concern for all peoples. While Mortals Sleep focuses less on the external influences upon Brooks and more on his actions and works within his historical context. The essays seek to show his legacy in a present-day light, illustrating Brooks at his best and worst. Click here to buy the book.
About our host: An esteemed Episcopal priest and author, Father Bob has dedicated his life to spiritual transformation and caring for others.
With a profound connection to his faith and an unwavering commitment to helping those in need, he has touched countless lives through his ministry, writings, and teachings. Bob’s book, “Letters of an Unexpected Mystic,” was a 2023 Selah Book Award finalist in the Bible study category.
Learn more: robertdflanagan.com
Until next Monday: Wishing you and yours a beautiful holiday! — Hope Katz Gibbs, founder and president, Inkandescent® Inc. Inkandescent.us
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