“The Place of Scripture in the Founding of the United States” – Mark A. Noll
Date: February 27, 2016
Speakers: Dr. Mark A. Noll; responder, Dr. Nicholas Miller
Positions: Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame; Professor of Church History, SDA Theological Seminary, Andrews University
Topic: “The Place of Scripture in the Founding of the United States”
Venue: Chan Shun Hall
Attendance: 100
Presentation: The Great Awakening (1740s-50s) & imperial wars (1740s-60s) attached the colonists to scripture, which they used iconically, typologically, rhetorically, & with principled argumentation. Noll explicated examples from the books & sermons of John Allen (1773), Anthony Benezet (1775), David Griffith (1775), Thomas Paine (1776), John Witherspoon (1776), & Jonathan Boucher (1792) showing how their political biases influenced their exegesis of Ex. 14-15, Judges 4-5, I Kings 12, Ps. 124, Gal. 5, Ps. 76, Rom. 13, & other “patriotic texts.” Miller’s Arminian views differed with Noll’s Puritan views to allow for other 18th C. Dissenting views (Quaker, Baptist, etc.) of scripture.
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