Ballots and Bibles: Why and How Americans Bring Scriptures into Their Politics

In 2018, the US attorney general used a scriptural passage to defend tougher implementation of immigration laws. His reference bewildered observers who were unaware of a long tradition of citing Romans 13 in American political controversies and conflicts, including the American Revolution and the crisis over slavery. This course introduces students to a complex history of political invocations of scripture. Students engage thoughtfully with primary sources (campaign speeches, Congressional debates, and civil rights slogans) and scholarly literature, such as the wealth of research on the history of biblical justifications for war, biblically inflected calls for social justice, and scripturally resonant theories of Constitutional interpretation. The objective of the course is to equip students to recognize the historical legacies that contemporary political conversations carry, to engage critically the modes of textual interpretation that inform political rhetoric, and to write cogently about the complex implications of political appeals to scriptural authority.