Mark Noll on the Bible in American Public Life

Mark Noll, leading American historian and evangelical Christian, gave this lecture, "The Bible in American Public Life, 1860-2005," in April at the Library of Congress.  It's a rich account of how the Bible has been variously used in American history by some people at the top (Puritans, presidents) and some people who were or are at the margins (Catholics, Jews, African-Americans).  It contains a wonderful reminder of how the Bible has inspired our greatest orations, from Lincoln's to King's, in both their sustance and their stirring cadences.  The whole thing is very much worth reading, but here are Noll's concluding prescriptions for using the Bible in public life today:

Premise 1: [T]he Bible is true for all people in all times and in all places.

Premise 2: Therefore, the Bible can never be the possession of only one modern nation or of only one faction within a particular nation.

Premise 3: While everything in the Bible can be construed as political, politics can never exhaust, equal, or contain the message of the Bible.

Implication 1: American society would be immeasurably poorer if it was no longer possible to bring the universal message of Scripture to bear on the particulars of American public life as did Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., with such memorable effect.

Implication 2: Narrow use of the Bible for partisan political advantage violates what the Bible itself says about the dignity of all human beings under God and also what it says about political power as a stewardship bestowed by God for the maintenance of order, the guarantee of justice, and the care of the powerless.

Implication 3: Given the current American situation, the only hope for using the Bible in public life that conforms to the Bible's own message is to employ it humbly, wisely, and on behalf of all people.

Tom