The Bible in American Public Life
FAIN: FA-55069-10
Mark A. Noll
University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN 46556-4635)
This proposal seeks support for writing a historical account of the Bible in American experience. Scripture has been central throughout American history, but it has been under-studied because of the sheer vastness of the subject. Yet by strategic selection of episodes, texts, and controversies, it is possible to document and interpret the complex place of Scripture in American history--at the cultural center and on the margins, in personal devotion and public proclamation, by women and children as well as men, for sanctioning slavery and communicating hope to captives, for inspiring high art and fueling pop culture, for defending war and mandating peace, and much, much more. This project takes advantage of excellent scholarship on several aspects of the subject, but represents the first attempt to narrate the whole story. It draws on research I have conducted for over twenty-five years.
Media Coverage
review (Review)
Author(s): Molly Oshatz
Publication: First Things, April 2016, pp. 56-58.
Date: 4/1/2016
Abstract: review
review (Review)
Publication: Claremont Review of Books
Date: 2/1/2016
Abstract: review
review (Review)
Author(s): Christine Leigh Heyrman
Publication: William and Mary Quarterly
Date: 4/1/2016
review (Review)
Author(s): Frank Lambert
Publication: Reviews in American Literature
Date: 6/1/2016
(Media Coverage)
Publication: Law and Liberty
Date: 7/18/2016
Associated Products
William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and the King James Version of the Bible (Article)
Title: William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and the King James Version of the Bible
Author: Mark A. Noll
Abstract: The article explores the speeches that the Bryan, Roosevelt, and Wilson gave in 1911 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the King James Bible
Year: 2011
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Theology, vol. 114 (July 2011)
Publisher: Sage Publications
Theology, Presbyterian History, and the Civil War (Article)
Title: Theology, Presbyterian History, and the Civil War
Author: Mark A. Noll
Abstract: The article explains the effects of the Civil War on American Presbyterian theology, especially Presbyterians' use of the Bible.
Year: 2011
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Journal of Presbyterian History, vol. 89 (Spring/Summer 2011)
Publisher: Presbyterian Historical Society
Long Live the King (Article)
Title: Long Live the King
Author: Mark A. Noll
Abstract: This is a review essay of six books and one DVD concerning the King James Version of the Bible.
Year: 2011
Format: Magazine
Periodical Title: Books & Culture
Publisher: Christianity Today International
A World without the KJV (Article)
Title: A World without the KJV
Author: Mark A. Noll
Abstract: This article sketches the history of the King James Version of the Bible and imagines what would have happened if the translation never appeared.
Year: 2011
Format: Magazine
Periodical Title: Christianity Today, May 2011, pp. 30-37
Publisher: Christianity Today International
The KJV at 300: The Most Democratic Book in the World (Book Section)
Title: The KJV at 300: The Most Democratic Book in the World
Author: Mark A. Noll
Editor: David Lyle Jeffrey
Abstract: This article provides a detailed examination of celebrations for the King James Version of the Bible at its tercentenary in 1911, mostly in the U.S. but some for Canada and Britain as well.
Year: 2011
Publisher: Baylor University Press
Book Title: The King James Bible and the World It Made
The Bible in American Public Life (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Bible in American Public Life
Abstract: This two-lecture series examined several aspects of the use and abuse of Scripture in American life.
Author: Mark A. Noll
Date: 11/1/2010
Location: Davidson College, Davidson, NC
America's Bible Civilization: What It Was, When It Collapsed, and Why (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: America's Bible Civilization: What It Was, When It Collapsed, and Why
Abstract: This paper examined events relating to the publication, translation, distribution, and use of the Bible in the single year 1876.
Author: Mark A. Noll
Date: 11-4-2010
Location: City University of New York, New York
The Place of the Bible in the Modern Christian University (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Place of the Bible in the Modern Christian University
Abstract: This lecture surveyed the place of the Bible in university life from the era of Martin Luther to the present day, with special application to the situation of Valparaiso University, a Lutheran university.
Author: Mark A. Noll
Date: 2-16-2010
Location: Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN
This is the Book of the People: The KJV in America (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: This is the Book of the People: The KJV in America
Abstract: This paper surveyed for an English audience the general history of the King James Version in America.
Author: Mark A. Noll
Date: 4-27-2011
Location: Cambridge University, Cambridge, England
In the Beginning Was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life, 1492-1783 (Book)
Title: In the Beginning Was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life, 1492-1783
Author: Mark A. Noll
Abstract: In the beginning of American history, the Word was in Spanish, Latin, and native languages like Nahuatal. But while Spanish and Catholic Christianity reached the New World in 1492, it was only with settlements in the seventeenth century that English-language Bibles and Protestant Christendom arrived. The Puritans brought with them intense devotion to Scripture, as well as their ideal of Christendom -- a civilization characterized by a thorough intermingling of the Bible with everything else. That ideal began this country's journey from the Puritan's City on a Hill to the Bible-quoting country the U.S. is today. In the Beginning Was the Word shows how important the Bible remained, even as that Puritan ideal changed considerably through the early stages of American history.
Author Mark Noll shows how seventeenth-century Americans received conflicting models of scriptural authority from Europe: the Bible under Christendom (high Anglicanism), the Bible over Christendom (moderate Puritanism), and the Bible against Christendom (Anabaptists, enthusiasts, Quakers). In the eighteenth century, the colonists turned increasingly to the Bible against Christendom, a stance that fueled the Revolution against Anglican Britain and prepared the way for a new country founded on the separation of church and state.
One of the foremost scholars of American Christianity, Mark Noll brings a wealth of research and wisdom to In the Beginning Was the Word, providing a sweeping, engaging, and insightful survey of the relationship between the Bible and public issues from the beginning of European settlement. A seminal new work from a world-class scholar, this book offers a fresh account of the contested, sometimes ambiguous, but definite biblical roots of American history.
Year: 2016
Publisher: New York: Oxford University Press
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes