Introduction

The lectures published in this volume were delivered at Brigham Young University from January to March 2002, when the Library of Congress exhibition entitled Religion and the Founding of the American Republic was on display at the university in Provo, Utah, during the same season in which the Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City. The exhibition in Provo was cosponsored by BYU Studies and the Harold B. Lee Library. It was a rare privilege for us to work with James Hutson, director of the exhibition and head of the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress.

The documents and artifacts in the exhibition show that America was settled by deeply religious men and women, who from 1620 to 1850 wrestled with the problem of how their personal religious convictions should manifest themselves in the social and political fabric of their new and dynamic nation. This exhibition, which can still be visited online at loc.gov, vividly shows the religious dedication, the debates and choices, and the prayers and conflicts of many different peoples involved in the founding of the American republic.

Interestingly, the exhibition begins with documents concerning the persecution and execution of Jesuits in Europe and the flight of Puritans to America, and it ends with an account of the persecution and martyrdom of Joseph Smith and flight of the Latter-day Saints to the Rocky Mountains. But in the end, viewers are not simply back where they began. Between these bookends, this exhibition takes its guests on a fascinating journey of development and understanding. Religion played a much more significantly formative role in the history of the United States than is typically portrayed in the standard American history textbooks.

On Wednesday evenings during the ten weeks that the exhibition was open, the following lectures, organized by BYU Studies, were presented by scholars from various disciplines, including history, religion, law, political science, English, and other fields. They offer insights, enriching details, and clear explanations that not only augmented the enjoyment of the exhibition to visitors in 2002 but now allow all readers to approach the founding of America more perceptively.

The opening lecture was delivered by Chief Justice Richard C. Howe of the Utah Supreme Court, who gave a concise overview of the main themes presented in the exhibition. We express our deep gratitude not only to him and to the professors from Brigham Young University who participated in this lecture series, but we extend special thanks to James Hutson of the Library of Congress, Professor Laurie Maffly-Kipp from the University of North Carolina, Rabbi Fred Wenger from Salt Lake City, and the Most Reverend George Niederauer, Ph.D., Bishop of Salt Lake City, for their superb contributions.

We enthusiastically recommend that the present collection of lectures be read in conjunction with the richly illustrated exhibition catalogue, authored by James H. Hutson and still available from University Press of New England. Also valuable is another volume containing seven papers delivered at Library of Congress in connection with this exhibition and entitled Religion and the New Republic: Faith in the Founding of America (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000). Edited by Hutson, that book examines mainly the history of separation of church and state. Its excellent articles discuss John Adams and the Massachusetts experiment, Thomas Jefferson and the wall of separation, the experiences of women and Evangelicals in the religious life of the early republic, and the religious character of the new American nation.

We are grateful to many people who made this exhibition and lecture series such a success, most notably Cali O’Connell of the Harold B. Lee Library staff and the generous donors who are friends of the library. We hope that the topics raised in the exhibition and explored in this volume will continue to stimulate reflection and strength for generations to come.

Randy J. Olsen
University Librarian

John W. Welch
Editor in chief of BYU Studies

Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah