The American founders frequently alluded to and quoted the Bible in their political rhetoric. This fact alone reveals little about how and for what purposes the founding generation used the Bible and, importantly, how the Bible influenced the political thought of the founding era.

Drawing on some of the most familiar rhetoric of the founding era, our American Founders Luncheon speaker, Dr. Daniel Dreisbach of American University, will examine the founders' diverse uses of Scripture in political discourse. Recognizing the founders' distinct uses of scripture is important because it can be misleading to read spiritual meaning into purely political or rhetorical uses of the Bible or vice versa.