Welcome to the Faith and Liberty Speakers Bureau. These top scholars can help you unlock the why of American history.
Several of our speakers are contributors to the Faith and Liberty Bible, now available as a Print Bible and App. Dig deeper into the role of the Bible in the American experience.
The full Bible with study notes from scholars of American history and religion—800+ articles and quotations from Americans who drew on Scripture.
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?
Professor of Church History and Philosophy, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
3 Nov 26
We live in an age when there is an unfortunate inclination among many in the secular academy, mainstream media, and, increasingly, popular culture to dismiss—even erase—acknowledgements of God, faith, and the Bible in American history. The American founding, which we celebrate in this year of America 250, is typically described as a strictly secular project […]
28 Oct 26
Benjamin Franklin was America’s first and foremost multi-hyphenate. The printer-publisher-author-scientist-postmaster-civic organizer-internationally renowned inventor-diplomat had, unsurprisingly, eclectic religious beliefs. Born in Boston in 1706 into a large, strongly Christian family, Franklin grew up in Puritan-influenced Boston, where churchgoing, prayer, Bible study, and Sabbath observance were central to life. His family attended Old South Church. While his […]
7 Aug 26
Fellow in Public Bible (Contractor, History focus) American Bible Society is hiring for a public-facing contract position focused on developing and publishing materials that help people grow in confidence in the Bible’s truth, reliability, applicability, and goodness. Working primarily in our Faith and Liberty programming area, the person in this Fellowship will help integrate new […]
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 in print from Amazon and Bibles.com—and now as a free native mobile and web app.
