Mark David Hall

Mark David Hall (born 22 February 1966) Mark David Hall 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 First Liberty Institute. As well, Mark is Distinguished Scholar of Christianity & Public Life at George Fox University, Associate Faculty 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.
Mark 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, Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land: How Christianity Has Advanced Freedom and Equality for All Americans, was published in April of 2023.
Education
In 1988, Hall received a BA in political science from Wheaton College (Illinois) and in 1993 received his PhD in government from University of Virginia.
Early career
Prior to his 2023 hiring at Regent University, he 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.
Later career
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 many founders were influenced by orthodox Christianity and that virtually none of them favored anything approximating a contemporary understanding of the separation of church and state. Hall argues that this has impacted how the Supreme Court has interpreted the religion clauses of the First Amendment.
Mark has served or is serving as an expert witness for the United States Department of Justice, the Alliance Defending Freedom, the State of Arkansas, and the Institute for Justice.
Selected bibliography
Books
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.
Journal articles
Pdf.
References
External links
Hall's Author Page
Link to "Jeffersonian Walls and Madisonian Lines," which surveys the Supreme Court's use of history in First Amendment jurisprudence
Hall's Lecture at the Heritage Foundation on "Religious Liberty and the Founding of America"
1966 births
Living people
Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni
George Fox University faculty
University of Virginia alumni
East Central University faculty