Welcome to the Faith and Liberty Speakers Bureau. These top scholars can help you unlock the why of American history.
As the United States of America commemorates its 250th anniversary, we’ll be retelling stories about taxes and tyranny, rights and responsibilities, order and liberty. But most of the celebrations will be missing something. Something big.
Where did America’s Founders find courage and inspiration? What makes the United States different?
The Bible. The founding generations infused the new nation’s ideals—and government institutions—with biblical principles. The Bible is the single most influential book in American history. But it’s hard to find people who can explain why that is. And why it still matters.
You’ve got a civic association, a club, a church, a conference. You need someone to inform and inspire your group about the full story of America’s past and present. Our carefully vetted and highly qualified speakers will help you create memorable events.
Our scholars can give formal lectures and informal talks to help your group think carefully about America. From the colonial period to the founding, through abolition and civil rights, and on to today.
What was the influence of the Bible and people of faith on America’s founding?
What role has faith played in shaping and living out America’s ideals?
What wisdom can we draw from those who built, sustained, and reformed our institutions?
Independent scholar and affiliate faculty with the Robertson School of Government at Regent University
Victor Davis Hanson Chair in Classical History and Western Civilization, Hillsdale College
Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Colorado Christian University
Professor and Chair, Department of History at Samford University
Professor of Church History and Philosophy, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Research Professor of Church History, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Executive Director and Chaplain, Hillsdale College’s Blake Center for Faith and Freedom
6 Nov 25
The Core of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Approach to Life and Government In 1899, New York Governor Teddy Roosevelt offered advice for the students at Mount Pleasant Military Academy. The legendary leader of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, known as the Rough Riders, drew from a rather surprising source—the revelation at the foot of […]
24 Jul 25
Thomas Shepard and the “Free Fruition” of Liberty The Puritan pastor Thomas Shepard (1605–1649) is relatively unknown today, but his teaching on the way the Bible ties together civil liberty and order helped shape the first written statement of individual rights in the American colonies, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties (1641). This document protects not […]
1 Jul 25
While this July 4th, most Americans are, amidst the barbecues and jumps in the pool, unlikely to pop open a Bible and start reading the book of Joshua, they might at least take a moment during the festivities to consider how the book’s eponymous Israelite hero helped shape the United States from the colonial period […]
We encourage you to reach out to each speaker directly to arrange a talk for your group. You’ll need to negotiate timing, travel costs, and speaking fees on your own.
American Bible Society is pleased to host this site as part of a wider coalition of organizations that address topics of faith and religious liberty in the United States.
We have helped to vet the speakers, but we do not receive any fees if you contract with our speakers. Our lead scholar is Mark David Hall, PhD.
Our speakers and partners don’t agree on everything, but we do agree that Americans need to know about the key role of the Bible in shaping American ideals and institutions.
Our speakers will not try to persuade you to trust the Bible—though many of them do. But they all agree that faith, generally, and the Bible, more specifically, played an important role in America’s break from Great Britain and the creation of our nation’s constitutional order.
The Bible has inspired and guided our ongoing pursuit of liberty and justice for all.
Its enduring wisdom has shaped our nation. Its stories still shape our culture. Both the why and the how of the American Revolution are tied to the Bible. The founding generations knew the Bible deeply—even those who didn’t believe it—and they infused its principles into our institutions and ideals.
If you don’t know about the Bible, you can’t fully know the America you live in today. People motivated and guided by the Bible have left their mark everywhere in American life, sometimes in surprising ways. Pick a starting point—our intellectual and political history, our structures of government, our buildings and artworks, our family and civic and educational and charitable institutions. Our struggles and our reforms. The Bible will be there.
We’re here to help you discover and rediscover your history—all of it. And once you learn about the book that has shaped our nation and our ideals, we think you’ll want to explore what the Bible says to you—to us—today.
The Faith and Liberty Bible features 813 articles and quotations from people in American history who have drawn on the Bible in their work and writings. Each piece is annotated and reviewed by a team of scholars of American history, law, and religion and placed near a biblical passage it quotes.
Several of our speakers are contributors to the Faith and Liberty Bible. Dig deeper into the role of the Bible in the American experience to inspire and inform your own roles. Available from Amazon and Bibles.com.
