Events & Calendars American Scripture: The Long Evangelical Fight for a Literalist Bible and an Originalist Constitution

Earlier this year, former President Donald Trump advertised a “God Bless the USA” Bible aimed in particular at his evangelical supporters. It included key American texts like the U.S. Constitution alongside the King James Bible. This pairing was far from accidental. In fact, it reflected a century of conservative evangelical ideology with an intense focus on literal scriptural texts, religious and legal, as the source of truth and moral guidance for American life. 

Austin Steelman’s work examines the long development of these ideas: biblical inerrancy, constitutional originalism, and the Christian nationalist intertwining of both from the early 20^th century to the present. From the New Deal to abortion, school integration to school prayer, this talk focuses on the evangelical grievances against the Supreme Court that helped fuel the rise of the Religious Right and create a constitutional framework for the conservative movement in the mold of evangelical theology.