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America’s Public Bible: A Commentary

An interactive scholarly work that uncovers the history of the Bible in the 19th- and early 20th-century United States.
by Lincoln Mullen via Stanford University Press on December 13, 2022
The front cover of Peter Manseau's new book, featuring a photo of Jefferson's bible.

Doubting Thomas

Is Jefferson's Bible evidence that the Founding Fathers engaged with scripture to birth a Christian nation? Or that they sought to foster a new secular order?
by Ed Simon via Los Angeles Review of Books on November 6, 2022
Cover of the book "Immigration and Apocalypse"

How End Times Theology Shaped U.S. Immigration Policy

Much of the rhetoric surrounding immigration debates is steeped in the language of Revelation, argues New Testament professor Yii-Jan Lin.
by Brandon Grafius via Sojourners on February 21, 2025
Zora Neale Hurston.

Why Zora Neale Hurston Was Obsessed with the Jews

Her long-unpublished novel was the culmination of a years-long fascination. What does it reveal about her fraught views on civil rights?
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on January 13, 2025
The Battle for the Mind (Tim LaHaye, 1980); from Creationism to Christian Nationalism

The Battle for the Mind (Tim LaHaye, 1980); from Creationism to Christian Nationalism

Tim LaHaye bridged Reagan-era anti-Communism to today’s Christian Nationalism, opposing humanism, evolution, and secularism, emphasizing biblical morality.
by Paul Braterman via 3 Quarks Daily on December 29, 2024
Four men posing with a monument with the Ten Commandments engraved on it.

Thou Shalt Not

How a Hollywood marketing campaign was responsible for the Ten Commandments being displayed in public all across the country.
by Kevin M. Kruse via Campaign Trails on June 19, 2024
George Caleb Bingham, Stump Speaking (1853–54).

How the American Jeremiad Can Restore the American Soul

One of the country’s greatest rhetorical traditions still has the power to remind us of our founding principles.
by Sam B. Girgus via Bulwark+ on March 29, 2024
A presidential portrait of George Washington.

The Enduring Power of Purim

Since colonial times, the Book of Esther has proved a powerful metaphor in American politics.
by Stuart Halpern via Tablet on March 21, 2024
A mother sits behind a sign reading, "I have a Bible, I don't need those dirty books."

The Great Textbook War

What should children learn in school? It's a question that's stirred debate for decades, and in 1974 it led to violent protests in West Virginia.
by Trey Kay, Deborah George, Stan Bumgardner via American Public Media on September 11, 2023
A Denmark Vesey monument in Hampton Park in Charleston, South Carolina.

Denmark Vesey’s Bible

The leader of a would-be South Carolina slave rebellion was hanged 200 years ago. A new account is a must-read.
by Michael Henry Adams via The Guardian on July 2, 2022
A Denmark Vesey monument is seen in Hampton Park in Charleston, S.C., in 2015.
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The Formerly Enslaved Man Whose Faith Inspired a Slave Revolt

Denmark Vesey expressed the Bible’s anti-slavery messages.
by Jeremy Schipper via Made By History on April 7, 2022
Lithograph of an armed mob attacking another group in the street.

The Philadelphia Bible Riots

The debate regarding which Bible kids should read in school was about whether Catholic immigrants should have the full rights of American citizenship.
by John Bicknell via Law & Liberty on October 13, 2021
Illustration of Jesus Christ showing anger at money changers in the temple

When Did Jesus Become a Capitalist?

How did a radical social activist, killed for his politics, become the figurehead of capitalist and imperial power?
by Steve Teare via The Nib on July 19, 2021
Artist's rendition of Omar ibn Said

A Quest for the True Identity of Omar ibn Said, a Muslim Man Enslaved in the Carolinas

Omar ibn Said was captured in Senegal at 37 and enslaved in Charleston. A devout Muslim, he later converted to the Christian faith of his enslavers. Or did he?
by Jennifer Berry Hawes via Post and Courier on May 27, 2021
A collage featuring Thomas Jefferson and passages cut from the Bible.

What Thomas Jefferson Could Never Understand About Jesus

Jefferson revised the Gospels to make Jesus more reasonable, and lost the power of his story.
by Vinson Cunningham via The New Yorker on December 28, 2020
The burning bush from Exodus, against a background of Egypt and the American South.

The Roots of the Black Prophetic Voice

Why the Exodus must remain central to the African American church.
by Jerry Taylor via Christianity Today on September 2, 2020
An image of President Donald Trump holding a Bible in front of a church.

The Dangerous Power of the Photo Op

American photojournalism has always been entangled with race and religion.
by Rachel McBride Lindsey via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on June 9, 2020

The Old Culture War Over Bible Reading in Public Schools is Starting Again

It was among the first social issues to split American Protestants into liberal and conservative camps.
by David Mislin via The Conversation on February 4, 2019

Why Putin is an Ally for American Evangelicals

American evangelicals once saw the Soviet Union and other communist countries as the world’s greatest threat to their faith.
by Melani McAlister via The Conversation on September 4, 2018
Jeff Sessions.

The Fight to Define Romans 13

Jeff Sessions used it to justify his policy of family separation, but he’s not the first to invoke the biblical passage.
by Lincoln Mullen via The Atlantic on June 15, 2018
Protestor outside the Supreme Court, with a Bible and a sign denouncing bigotry.
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Discriminating in the Name of Religion? Segregationists and Slaveholders Did It, Too.

If religious freedom trumps equality under the law, it provides a “cover” that actually encourages discrimination.
by Tisa Wenger via Made By History on December 5, 2017

Our Trouble with Sex: A Christian Story?

"Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion, and Law from America’s Origins to the Twenty-First Century" by Geoffrey R. Stone.
by Annette Gordon-Reed via New York Review of Books on August 17, 2017

A “Thorough Deist?” The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin

Historian Thomas S. Kidd examines the tension between Benjamin Franklin's deism and his frequent religious rhetoric
by Thomas S. Kidd via Age of Revolutions on June 5, 2017
Gen. Lew Wallace, circa 1861.

The Incredible Life of Lew Wallace, Civil War General and Author of Ben-Hur

The incredible story of how a disgraced Civil War general became one of the best-selling novelists in American history.
by John Swansburg via Slate on March 26, 2013

Zora Neale Hurston’s Rediscovered Novel

A new publication obscures the canonical writer.
by Tiana Reid via The Yale Review on March 11, 2025
Former President Jimmy Carter speaking to the congregation at Maranatha Baptist Church before teaching Sunday school in 2019.

Jimmy Carter’s Most Perplexing Legacy

For all of his personal Christian devotion, he could not capture the hearts of white evangelicals.
by Thomas S. Kidd via The Dispatch on December 31, 2024
‘Two girls at Bamberg led to the stake, 1550’; etching by Jan Luyken from the 1685 edition of Thieleman van Braght’s The Bloody Theater, or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians.

Dispirited Away

The rise and fall of an evangelical church, founded with progressive intentions and undone by dissension and bad faith.
by Caroline Fraser via New York Review of Books on December 26, 2024
A mural depicting John Brown amid Bleeding Kansas.

John Brown, Christian Nationalist

To understand discourse around “Christian nationalism,” look no further than the abolitionist hailed by many on the left.
by Shiv Parihar via Providence on December 13, 2024
A black and white photo of an American soldier on patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan, 2005.

God’s Directive

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, evangelical American missionaries followed military tanks into Afghanistan and Iraq to convert Muslims.
by Rozina Ali via New York Review of Books on October 31, 2024
A few people sitting down and reading the bible.

Public Schools, Religion, and Race

It was no coincidence that public school secularization and desegregation were happening, and failing, simultaneously.
by Leslie Beth Ribovich via The Revealer on September 5, 2024
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