Karlson Scholar Program

Advancing the gospel in creative, culturally relevant ways. 

In 2022, the seminary established the Karlson Scholar Program, named for Karl J. Karlson who served as Dean of Bethel Seminary from 1925-48. This program fosters partnerships between influential evangelical leaders and Bethel Seminary, facilitating the development of church leaders who will take insights gleaned from the Karlson Scholar into their ministry leadership responsibilities.

The Karlson Scholar Program is designed to be an experience tailored to the strengths of the nominated scholar. Some of the activities that a Karlson Scholar may engage in include teaching a Seminary for Everyone or seminary elective class, being a featured guest of the “Whole & Holy” podcast, and speaking in Chapel.

2025-26 Karlson Scholar: Karen Swallow Prior

Karen Swallow Prior is an author, speaker, and professor. 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. Her most recent book You Have a Calling: Finding your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful explores how passion and calling are often conflated in ways that can mislead people seeking God’s direction for their lives. She also wrote The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis, examining the ways we take meaning from the narratives—the stories—we construct about our lives and the world.