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Mark David Hall (born 22 February 1966) is a professor in
Regent University Regent University is a Private university, private Christian university in Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States. It was founded by Pat Robertson in 1977 as Christian Broadcasting Network, Christian Broadcasting Network University and chang ...
'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 Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at
Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...
, and a Senior Fellow at
Baylor University Baylor University is a Private university, private Baptist research university in Waco, Texas, United States. It was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Te ...
’s Institute for Studies of Religion. In 2022-2023, he was a Garwood Visiting Fellow at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
’s James Madison Program and a Visiting Scholar at the
Mercatus Center The Mercatus Center is an American libertarian, free-market-oriented non-profit think tank. The Mercatus Center is located at the George Mason University campus, but it is privately funded and its employees are independent of the university. It ...
. 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.


Education

Hall graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
degree in
Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
from Wheaton College (IL) in 1988 and received his
Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...
in from the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
in 1993.


Early career

Before his 2023 hiring at Regent University, Hall taught at
George Fox University George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Gior ...
(2001-2023) and at
East Central University East Central University (ECU or East Central) is a public university in Ada, Oklahoma. It is part of Oklahoma's Regional University System. Beyond its flagship campus in Ada, the university has courses available in McAlester, Shawnee, and Duran ...
(1993-2001). 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 The separation of church and state is a philosophical and Jurisprudence, jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the State (polity), state. Conceptually, the term refers to ...
. 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. Hall argues that the modern conception has negatively affected how the
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
has interpreted the religion clauses of the
First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...
.Pdf.
/ref> Mark has served or is serving as an expert witness for the
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
, the
Alliance Defending Freedom The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to expand Christian religious practices within public schools and in government. ADF is most known ...
, the State of
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
, and the
Institute for Justice The Institute for Justice (IJ) is a non-profit public interest law firm in the United States. It has litigated twelve cases before the United States Supreme Court dealing with eminent domain, interstate commerce, public election finance, public ...
.


Selected bibliography


Books

*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 Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an early American politician, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign all four great state papers of the United States: the Continental Association, ...
''. 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

Hall's Faculty Profile (Regent University)



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"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Mark David 1966 births Living people Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni George Fox University faculty University of Virginia alumni East Central University faculty