This past September 17 was Constitution Day, the anniversary of the 1787 signing of the US Constitution, and this year it anchors what is often called Constitution Month, a stretch of civic remembrance running through the second half of September. Classrooms review the founding documents, news segments trot out the Founding Fathers, and somewhere in the mix, someone inevitably invokes the Bible to settle an argument about how church and state are supposed to relate.
The trouble is that both sides tend to treat the Bible as though it hands down a clear verdict. It doesn't. What it offers instead is more interesting: ancient texts written under empires that knew nothing of the US Constitution and that wrestled with power in ways that don't map neatly into modern debates.
The United States founders were not of one mind. Some, like Jefferson, wanted a “wall of separation between church and state.” Others, like John Adams, believed religion was vital for public virtue to flourish. Before the constitution was ratified, several states like Virginia had continued to support the Church of England as a state-level religious establishment. The First Amendment’s religion clauses were a compromise, not a consensus, and that unresolved tension is exactly why the argument still has not ended 239 years later.
Turn to the biblical texts looking for a governing philosophy, and you'll find a patchwork instead. Though Romans 13:1–7 is a later addition to Paul's letter, we still find there an admonition for believers to submit to governing authorities as instituted by God.[1] The Book of Revelation, written under Roman persecution, does nearly the opposite, casting the empire as a beast to be resisted, not obeyed. Jesus's own line about rendering “to Caesar what Caesar deserves and to God what God deserves” is an ambiguous and playful saying. Perhaps it calls for a separation of church and state, but it also sounds like a jab at Rome’s claim to authority. After all, what does Rome really deserve?
None of these texts were written with modern nation-states in mind. Historical-critical scholarship, the kind of close, contextual reading Westar has built its work around for four decades, treats that as a feature, not a problem. Reading these passages in their own historical setting, rather than importing them wholesale into today's headlines, is what actually clarifies the debate instead of just fueling it.
That ancient ambiguity has real consequences today. Movements that explicitly fuse Christian identity with American national identity, often grouped under the label Christian nationalism, frequently lean on selective biblical proof-texts to argue that the country was founded as, and should remain, a Christian nation. Critics counter with their own proof-texts, or with the founders’ own words, to argue the opposite. Both sides are usually skipping the harder, more honest work: reading these sources in context before pressing them into service.
That is the gap Westar scholars Chad Venters and Arthur J. Dewey set out to close in their recent book, Revelation and Revenge: Confronting Christian Nationalism. Venters, who studies apocalyptic literature and teaches humanities and philosophy at Truckee Meadows Community College, and Dewey, a Harvard-trained New Testament scholar at Xavier University and Westar's own Polebridge Press publisher, trace how the Book of Revelation, written by a first-century dissident resisting Roman power, has been inverted over time into a tool for claiming, rather than resisting, earthly power. As Venters puts it, the antidote is “the light of education and understanding.”
Instead of asking, “what does the Bible say about church and state,” more honest questions might be: which biblical text is being quoted, who wrote it, under what empire, and what were they actually trying to say to their own community? Those questions won't resolve a twenty-first-century political argument. But learning to ask them will make you a much harder person to mislead with a cherry-picked verse which, this Constitution Month, might be the most useful civic skill of all.
[1] Scholars consider Romans 13:1–7 ( “be subject to the governing authorities”) to be a later addition to the letter. It is believed that Paul’s authentic letter goes from Romans 12:21 directly to 13:8. Verses in 13:1–7 contradict the letter to the Romans as a whole, particularly verse 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world” (RSV).
About This Article
This article is published by Westar Institute in furtherance of its educational and scholarly mission. The content reflects historical-critical research and analysis of biblical, historical, and cultural topics and is intended to encourage informed public discussion. Publication of this article does not constitute endorsement of or opposition to any candidate for public office, political party, or legislative proposal. The article is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, political, or theological advice.
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