An upcoming lecture at the University of Texas at Austin will explore Biblical influences on the American founders.
“[T]he Bible was the most accessible and authoritative text in eighteenth-century America, and it was the most referenced work in the political literature of the era,” reads the event’s invitation page. “Many in the founding generation appealed to the sacred text for principles, precedents, and normative standards to govern their polities.”
“They looked to the Bible for insights into human nature, civic virtue, political authority, the rights and responsibilities of citizens, and other concepts essential to the establishment of a well-ordered political society.”
The university’s School of Civic Leadership, in conjunction with the UT-Austin Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center at the UT School of Law, will host the lecture.
The School of Civic Leadership, an effort to expand classical education, was originally conceived by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Patrick first proposed it in 2021 and included seed funding in the state budget. From the beginning, it engendered significant pushback.
It opened in 2023 and has hosted events ever since. In 2025, UT System Regents committed $100 million to the program.
“Biblical literacy, the language of the Bible in public rhetoric, and a shared sense of higher moral order were part of the cultural soil in which the principles of equality and consent could take root,” Thomas Lindsay, the higher education director at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told Texas Scorecard.
“Dr. Dreisbach’s project is a useful corrective to secularist distortions of the Founding and is evidence that American democracy presupposes moral and religious supports.”
UT Austin is a component of the University of Texas System. The UT System is overseen by a Board of Regents that is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Texas Senate. Kevin Eltife of Tyler is the current board chair.
