John Witherspoon and the Spirit of 1776

The life of John Witherspoon (1723-1794) falls neatly into two halves: the first part of his career as a parish minister in Scotland and the second half of his career as college president at Princeton and founding father in America.  But Witherspoon’s foray into politics will be misunderstood if it is thought that in joining the cause of independence, he left his concerns as an evangelical Christian behind. Witherspoon was always eager to enter into the national fray—whether that be against the Young Pretender as a young man in Scotland and, later, in opposition to the Moderate-led state church, or whether that be against British rule in America. The setting changed, and so did the perceived enemies, but Witherspoon’s insistence on true religion and civil liberty remained constant on both sides of the Atlantic.

Lecture Series

America at 250 Lecture Series

An Alpheus T. Mason Lecture on Constitutional Law and Political Thought: The Quest for Freedom James Madison Program Initiative on Politics and Statesmanship at Princeton University.

Kevin DeYoung is the senior pastor at Christ Covenant Church (PCA) in Matthews, North Carolina and associate professor of systematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary.