Thursday, April 23, 2009
Thu, 12 Apr 2007
The Christianity and American History Conference will be held at Liberty University School of Law on Friday, April 20, and Saturday, April 21. Dr. Douglas Mann and Dr. Samuel Smith, Program Chairs of the Liberty University History Department, have asked Dr. Daniel L. Dreisbach and Dean Mathew D. Staver to speak during the plenary sessions held in the Supreme Courtroom.
Dr. Dreisbach, a Professor of Justice, Law, and Society in the School of Public Affairs at American University, will be speaking on both Friday evening and Saturday morning. He also serves Princeton University as the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions in the Department of Politics. He received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia. Following law school, he served as a judicial clerk for Circuit Judge Robert F. Chapman of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. For two years he practiced public interest law specializing in civil and religious liberties.
The title of his first session on Friday is "How Thomas Jefferson's 'Wall of Separation' Redefined Church-State Law and Policy." He will discuss the prudential and constitutional role of religion in public life, devoting special attention to Thomas Jefferson's contribution to a distinctive American approach to church-state relationships.
On Saturday he will be speaking on: "How the English Bible Shaped American Public Culture". This talk will explore how the Bible, especially the Authorized or King James version, influenced the most basic elements of American culture, including language, literature, education, law, and politics.