Senior Staff Reading Group: The Bible and the American Founding

Many people today disregard acknowledgements of God, faith, and the Bible in American history. However, the story of the nation’s founding cannot be told accurately or adequately if we miss or dismiss the Bible’s contributions to the American experiment in republican self-government. Drawing on his decades of scholarship, Dr. Dreisbach will reflect on the Bible’s influences on the political principles and constitutional designs of the American founding.

Daniel L. Dreisbach is a professor at American University and a leading scholar of religion, politics, and law in the American founding. A Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Oxford University and the University of Virginia School of Law, he has spent decades examining the role of faith and the Bible in the nation’s founding and constitutional tradition. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation between Church and State, and Faith and the Founders of the American Republic. He is also a recipient of American University’s highest faculty honor, Scholar/Teacher of the Year.