Christianity and the Constitution

Modern textbooks often sever America’s political order from its religious soil. John Eidsmoe, a seasoned constitutional lawyer and professor, argues otherwise, contending that biblical conviction and Reformation thought informed the Founders’ vision of liberty, law, and limited government. With a foreword by D. James Kennedy, he writes with legal precision and pastoral clarity, inviting readers to read the Constitution in the moral universe the Framers inhabited rather than through today’s secular filters.

Part One sketches the background — Calvinism, Puritan covenantalism, encounters with deism, Freemasonry, and science, plus the English common law. Part Two offers crisp portraits of key founders such as Witherspoon, Madison, Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and John and Samuel Adams. Part Three returns to Philadelphia to show where biblical principles surface in the Declaration and the Constitution, warning also of modern threats to them — including the notion of a “living Constitution” that detaches the text from original meaning.

Features include a suggested reading list, subject index, and appendices with foundational texts — the Treaty of Tripoli, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Articles of Confederation. A useful resource for scholars, educators, and serious learners, this work documents the Christian influences on America’s founding without caricature. Use it to anchor courses and conversations about church and state, natural law, and ordered liberty — and to think more faithfully about our constitutional future. (1987ed, 473pp, pb)