Author talk with Professor Seth Perry: ‘In the beginning’ . . . America and Bible culture

Watch the replay of our May 9 event

Join us for an insightful conversation with Prof. Seth Perry. He discusses his new book, Bible Culture and Authority in the Early United States, which explores the emergence of American Bible printing and publishing immediately following the Revolution.

About Seth Perry and his book

Dr. Seth Perry is an author and Assistant Professor of Religion at Princeton University. He is interested in American religious history, with a particular focus on print culture and religious authority. His current book project is a biography of Lorenzo Dow, the early-national period’s most famous itinerant preacher (his article on Dow appeared in 2015). Perry’s work has appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Common-place, The Huffington Post, and the LA Review of Books.

Bible Culture and Authority in the Early United States explores the emergence of American Bible printing and publishing immediately following the Revolution. How did it shape the new nation’s civic life and identity? Bible producers sought out a broad market in which democratization of scripture and of the young republic were closely linked. Author Seth Perry notes in his introduction that this “created a space for readers to imagine the self-sufficient authority of their own bible reading.”