Full Description
No book from the American founding era was more accessible or familiar than the English Bible, specifically the King James Version, and no book was more frequently alluded to or quoted from in the political discourse of the age. Widely respected and referenced by both pious and skeptical founders, the English Bible shaped significant aspects of public culture, including language, letters, arts, education, and law. It was also among the diverse intellectual and political influences--including English constitutionalism, republicanism, and Enlightenment liberalism--that informed the ideas of the American founding. These facts alone, however, reveal little about how and for what purposes the founding generation used the Bible in their political discourse and, more important, how the Bible influenced their political culture. Drawing on some of the most familiar rhetoric of the founding era, Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers examines the founders' diverse uses of the Bible in political discourse, ranging from the essentially literary to the profoundly theological. Recognition of these distinct uses is important, says Daniel Dreisbach, as it is misleading to read spiritual meaning into primarily political or rhetorical uses of the Bible or vice versa. The founding generation looked to the Bible not only for its rich literary qualities but also for insights on human nature, civic virtue, political authority, and the rights and duties of citizens, as well as for political and legal models they sought to emulate in their polities. This exploration of the Bible's often neglected place in late-eighteenth-century political culture enriches our understanding of the ideas that contributed to the founding of the American constitutional tradition.
Contents
Chapter One: Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers: An Introduction
PART I
Chapter Two: The English Bible and American Public Culture
Chapter Three: The Bible in the Lives of the Founding Fathers
Chapter Four: The Bible in the Political Discourse of the American Founding
PART II
Chapter Five: What Does God Require of Us?: Micah 6:8 in the Literature of the American Founding
The Bible in American History 1: Creating a Great Seal for the New Nation
Chapter Six: A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants: The Bible, the Right of Resistance, and the American Revolution
The Bible in American History 2: Benjamin Franklin's Call for Prayer in the Constitutional Convention
Chapter Seven: The Exalted Nation: Proverbs 14:34 and the Characteristics of a Righteous People
The Bible in American History 3: The First Prayer in Congress
Chapter Eight: When the Righteous Rule: Proverbs 29:2 and the Character of a Godly Magistrate
The Bible in American History 4: Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land
Chapter Nine: Stand Fast in Liberty: The Use (and Misuse) of Biblical Symbols and Rhetoric of "Liberty" in the American Founding
The Bible in American History 5: George Washington Takes the Presidential Oath of Office
Chapter Ten: Under Our Own Vine and Fig Tree: Creating an American Metaphor for Liberty in the New Nation
Afterword
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
