Skip to main content

How the Bible influenced the Founding Fathers


In the midst of political campaigns, including the last election season, one often hears appeals to the American founding principles and the political visions of the founding fathers.

Which political traditions and thinkers shaped the ideas and aspirations of the American founding? Late eighteenth-century Americans were influenced by diverse perspectives, including British constitutionalism, classical and civic republicanism, and Enlightenment liberalism. . .

Another, often overlooked or discounted source of influence is the Bible. Its expansive influence on the political culture of the age should not surprise us because the population was overwhelming Protestant, and it informed significant aspects of public culture, including language, letters, education, and law.

No book at the time was more accessible or familiar than the English Bible, specifically the King James Bible. And the people were biblically literate. . . The phrases and cadences of the King James Bible influenced their written and spoken words. Its ideas shaped their habits of mind and informed their political experiment in republican self-government. Read the complete article at -- https://blog.oup.com/2016/11/bible-influenced-founding-fathers/#__prclt=x69Qgrq8

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why did they lay their coats at Saul's feet?

The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew   sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the   sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Human Lives are Valued more than Religious Institutions and Rituals

Human lives are valued more than religious institutions and rituals by the unnamed god in the first account in Genesis . That message is repeated throughout the  Hebrew Scriptures  and the  teachings of Jesus  in the  Synoptic Gospels. Read the complete short articles at - https://mailchi.mp/2116c809b552/human-lives-are-valued-more-than-religious-institutions-and-rituals
Post a Comment
Read more

The Moment the Humans Created Shame in the Garden in Eden

For readers of most English translations, this is a story about two naked people who didn’t know they were naked until they ate the forbidden fruit . The reason God told them to not eat that fruit was because he didn’t want them to know they were naked or he was testing their obedience to him . As I pointed out in earlier emails, the serpent wasn’t Satan and this was not a battle between God and Satan over the souls of all people who will ever live. So what did the original author of the story want his readers to learn? Continue to read at - https://mailchi.mp/3e270c10e81d/the-moment-the-humans-created-shame-in-the-garden-in-eden
Post a Comment
Read more