Saturday, September 28, 2002 at 9:30 AM in the Kellogg Center Auditorium, the Institute for the Study of Christianity and Culture presents a lecture by Mark Noll with responses from the Michigan academic community.

The Bible and Slavery in the Era of the American Civil War.

This talk will be related to the final section of Noll's book, America's God, From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln (Oxford University Press, fall 2002), in which he gives his explanation as to why so many Christian believers, both North and South, felt that the Scriptures sanctioned the slave system then in place in the United States. Only by noting how important trust in the bible was for putting together American civilization is it possible to grasp why the issue of Scripture and slavery was so significant in this contentious era.

The talk will be followed by a break and then five short responses by:

Amy DeRogatis,
Religious Studies, Michigan State University
Arthur Versluis,
American Thought and Language, Michigan State University
Robert Bonner,
History, Michigan State University
Timothy Hall,
History, Central Michigan University
David Bailey,
History, Michigan State University

This session will be moderated by Sam Thomas,
History, Michigan State University