If Men Were Angels: Biblical Influences on the Founders’ Political Anthropology

The American founders, with a few exceptions, agreed that humans were fallen, sinful creatures, a view rooted in the Bible and Reformed Protestant theology. They believed this inherent depravity made individuals prone to aggrandizing and abusing any power entrusted to them. Consequently, their "political anthropology" dictated that human authority must never be absolute but must instead be strictly limited. This theological starting point was not merely a private belief; it was the essential framework for their political thought, driving the conviction that a government’s primary duty is to restrain the darker impulses of those who lead.

This view of human nature became the blueprint for the founding generation’s constitutional designs. By institutionalizing a system of checks and balances, they sought to ensure that no single branch of government could operate without oversight. They effectively turned their theological concerns into a practical political science, creating a structure where "ambition must be made to counteract ambition."

This lecture led by professor Daniel Dreisbach will explore how these biblical influences shaped the founders' specific understanding of man’s nature and, by extension, the enduring mechanisms of American governance.

Speaker: Daniel Dreisbach

Daniel L. Dreisbach is a professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, DC. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia. His research interests include the intersection of religion, politics, and law in American public life. He has authored or edited eleven books, including Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers (Oxford University Press, 2017), Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation between Church and State (New York University Press, 2002), and Faith and the Founders of the American Republic (Oxford University Press, 2014)(co-editor). He has published numerous book chapters, reviews, and articles in scholarly journals, including American Journal of Legal History, Constitutional Commentary, Journal of Church and State, Politics and Religion, and William and Mary Quarterly. Professor Dreisbach is a past recipient of American University’s highest faculty award for teaching and research. 

Speaker: Pete Peterson

Pete Peterson is a leading national speaker and writer on issues related to civic participation, and the use of technology to make government more responsive and transparent. He was the first executive director of the bi-partisan organization, Common Sense California, which in 2010 joined with the Davenport Institute at the School of Public Policy to become the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership.

Peterson has co-created and currently co-facilitates the training seminar, "Public Engagement: The Vital Leadership Skill in Difficult Times" a program that has been attended by over 4,500 municipal officials, and he also helped to develop the program, "Leading Smart Communities," which explores the ways in which technology is changing local government processes. Peterson has served as the chair of the Governance Committee for the Public Interest Technology-University Network.

Peterson writes widely on public engagement for a variety of major news outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle, as well as numerous blogs. He contributed the chapter, "Place As Pragmatic Policy" to the edited volume, Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in Modern America (New Atlantis Books, 2014), and the chapter "Do-It Ourselves Citizenship" in the volume, Localism in the Mass Age (Wipf & Stock, 2018).

Peterson serves on the boards of the Jack Miller Center and the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, as well as the National Advisory Council for the Ashbrook Center, and on the Scholars Council for Braver Angels. He represents the School of Public Policy in the Public Interest Technology-University Network (PIT-UN).  Peterson has served as a member of the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, organized by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the nonprofit, Sophos Africa. Peterson has served on the Leadership Council of the bipartisan reform organization, California Forward, and has been a public affairs fellow at The Hoover Institution.

Peterson was the Republican candidate for California Secretary of State in 2014. 

Speaker: Abbylin Sellers

Abbylin H. Sellers is the Edward L. Gaylord Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University in the School of Public Policy.  She teaches welfare policy and the core curriculum courses on great books and foundations of American constitutionalism, which lay a foundation for effective public policy solutions being guided by moral and ethical principles.

Before joining Pepperdine University, she was a professor of American Politics at Azusa Pacific University where she taught courses on the constitutional presidency, Congress and the legislative process, women and the political process, civil discourse in an age of political polarization, and served as a faculty fellow in the Honors College teaching American democracy for the Honors College. Sellers was awarded the university’s highest honor for teaching, the Teaching Excellence award in 2017.

Her research focuses on welfare policy, political behavior, and immigrant entrepreneurship, with her work appearing in Political Psychology; Politics, Groups, and Identities; Presidential Studies Quarterly; and the Journal of Military History.  Her co-authored work has been recognized by the American Political Science Association for “Best Paper” for the Representation and Electoral Systems section in 2018.  Sellers was awarded as a 2022-2023 Fulbright Scholar to teach American constitutionalism and the constitutional presidency in Japan at Yokohama National University and Hosei University (Tokyo). She annually serves on the summer faculty for the James Madison Foundation’s Summer Institute in Washington, DC.

Sellers earned her B.A. from Westmont College, M.A. in public policy from Regent University, and Ph.D. in political science from Claremont Graduate University.