Mark David Hall (born 22 February 1966)[1] is a professor in Regent University's Robertson School of Government and a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy, an initiative of the First Liberty Institute. Mark is also Distinguished Scholar of Christianity & Public Life at George Fox University, a Seniro Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, and a Senior Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion. In 2022-2023, he was a Garwood Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s James Madison Program and a Visiting Scholar at the Mercatus Center.
Hall is the author of a number of books on religion and politics in America. The majority of his research has been in religion in the American founding era. His most recent book, "Who's Afraid of Christian Nationalism? Why Christian Nationalism is Not an Existential Threat to America or the Christian Church" was published in April 2024.
In 1988, Hall received a BA in political science from Wheaton College (Illinois) and in 1993 received his PhD in government from the University of Virginia.
Before his 2023 hiring at Regent University, Hall taught at George Fox University (2001-2023) and at East Central University (1993 to 2001). His primary teaching fields are political theory, constitutional law, and religious liberty / church–state relations in America.
Hall's scholarly work is focused on issues of religion in the American founding era. In particular, his writing is often concerned with the perception that the Founders were deists who desired the strict separation of church and state. Instead, he argues that there are good reasons to believe that many founders were influenced by orthodox Christianity and that virtually none of them favored anything approximating a contemporary understanding of a wall of separation.[2] Hall argues that the modern conception has negatively affected how the Supreme Court has interpreted the religion clauses of the First Amendment.[3]
Hall, Mark David. "Who's Afraid of Christian Nationalism? Why Christian Nationalism is Not an Existential Threat to America or the Christian Church." Fidelis Publishing, 2024.
Hall, Mark David. Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land: How Christianity Has Advanced Freedom and Equality for All Americans. Fidelis Publishing, 2023.
Hall, Mark David. Did America Have a Christian Founding? Separating Myth from Historical Truth. Thomas Nelson, 2019.
Hall, Mark David and Daniel L. Dreisbach, ed. Great Christian Jurists in American History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Hall, Mark David and Daryl Charles, ed. America and the Just War Tradition: A History of U.S. Conflicts. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2019.
Hall, Mark David, ed. Collected Works of Roger Sherman. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund Press, 2016.
Hall, Mark David. Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American Republic. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Hall, Mark David. Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American Republic. Oxford Scholarship Online: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Hall, Mark David and Gary L. Gregg II. America's Forgotten Founders. Wilmington: ISI Books, 2011.
Hall, Mark David and Daniel L. Dreisbach, ed. The Sacred Rights of Conscience: Selected Readings on Religious Liberty and Church-State Relations in the American Founding. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund Press, 2009.
Hall, Mark David, Daniel L. Dreisbach, and Jeffry H. Morrison, ed. The Forgotten Founders on Religion and Public Life. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009.
Hall, Mark David, Kermit L. Hall, and James Wilson, ed. Collected Works of James Wilson, 2 Vols. Indianapolis: Liberty Funds Press, 2007.
Hall, Mark David, Daniel L. Dreisbach, and Jeffry H. Morrison, ed. The Founders on God and Government. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004.
Hall, Mark David. The Political and Legal Philosophy of James Wilson, 1742-1798. Columbia: University of Missouri, 1997.
Christianity
Law
Biography
United States
