Carl J. Richard
Professor of History, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Carl J. Richard, Ph.D. is a professor of history at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He has written nine books, including The Founders and the Classics (Harvard, 1994), The Founders and the Bible (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), and So Help Us, God: American Presidents and the Bible (Rowman & Littlefield, 2025).
Talks and Topics
The Founders and the Bible
A general discussion of how the founders were influenced by the Bible.
The Founders on Religion, Morality, and Republicanism
The founders agreed that the survival of the republic depended on the piety and morality of the citizens.
The Founders’ Biblical Training
The founders’ sources of biblical knowledge: the home, the school, the church, and society (the latter part focusing on the Great Awakening).
Were the Founders Deists?
Although a few of the founders were biblically unorthodox, none were deists according to a strict definition because all agreed that God intervened in the world.
The Bible’s Impact on the American Revolution
The biblical training of the founders, the influence of the Great Awakening on the American Revolution, and the importance of the biblical doctrine of spiritual equality not only in fomenting the American Revolution, but also in the eventual abolition of slavery.
