Dr. Kristina Benham, “The Exodus to Independence”
While the Declaration of Independence declares that such foundational rights as the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are self-evident, many scholars argue these “self-evident” truths are not as evident today as they once were. Behind these truths, these scholars argue, lies a biblical worldview, especially the ideas of a single, rational Creator and the inherent dignity of humans as bearers of the imago Dei, the “image of God.”
Join us for The Bible and America 250: These Truths Are Not Self-Evident Lecture Series, commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States. This thought-provoking event brings together a host of renowned scholars and historians to explore the profound influence of the Bible on America's founding principles, values, and institutions.
In this lecture, Dr. Kristina Benham examines how Americans used the Exodus story to interpret the Revolution, frame resistance to British rule, and understand independence as providential.
Sep 27, 2026 - Sep 27, 2026
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM EDT
Scholars Initiative Conference Room, Floor 5R
Free Admission (Event Ticket Required)
In Person Event
Virtual Event
Abstract
The Exodus narrative became one of the most important ways that Americans understood their transition from British colonies to a new nation. While reviving a deep English tradition of Hebraic nationalism, Americans set themselves up for a providential interpretation of deliverance from British rule. They at first sought a defense of political resistance based on biblical principles but later tapped into a ready revolutionary potential unleashed with the opening of war and the Declaration of Independence. Uses of the Exodus story were some of the most important applications of America’s new supposed providential destiny. This narrative appeared everywhere, including occasional sermons, newspaper debates, legislative declarations, official seals, songs and poems, and even diaries and personal correspondence. Providential applications, however, could take multiple forms, and the years of resistance and revolution provoked competing national providential applications of the Exodus narrative. Before independence, uses of the Exodus to explain oppression and warn both rulers and subjects of God’s judgment appealed to a timeless principle of judicial providence. This interpretation could be used to criticize British rulers and to hope for God’s intervention, but it could also be used to turn criticism on American society itself, especially to address chattel slavery. While these interpretations continued to hold broad appeal, the experience of civil war and the declaration and peaceful settlement of independence led Americans to the application of a historical providence. This kind of interpretation focused on God’s deliverance of his particular people and divine purpose for their new nation. The practical exercise of finding in the Exodus principles of resistance to tyranny transformed into the emergence of Americans as the people of God in the promised land of a new expansive empire.
Get Tickets
Schedule
/
1:30 p.m. | Welcome & Check In
1:30–2:00 p.m. | Refreshments
2:00–3:00 p.m. | Lecture
3:00–3:30 p.m. | Panel Q&A
3:30–5:00 p.m. | Self-Guided Tour of the Bible in America Gallery
Lecturer
Dr. Kristina Benham
Kristina Benham is Assistant Professor of US History at the University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minnesota. She received her PhD in history at Baylor University, her MA in history at the University of Cincinnati, and her BA in history at Liberty University. She studies the ways that people in early America combined political and religious ideas, particularly how scriptural texts were used to define competing national identities. A version of her dissertation chapter on uses of the Exodus narrative from the Christian Old Testament during the American Revolution is a published chapter in Every Leaf, Line, and Letter: Evangelicals and the Bible from the 1730s to the Present, edited by Timothy Larsen (IVP Academic, 2021).
Explore our Bible & America 250 exhibits, lectures, and more.
