The conference is free and open to the public. Livestreaming is available. Registration for in-person attendance required.
PROVO, UT, UNITED STATES, February 11, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — In partnership with Brigham Young University’s history and political science departments, the Wheatley Institute, and America250 Utah, the National Museum of American Religion announces its “Religion and the American Founding” conference, to be held March 11–12, 2026, on the campus of Brigham Young University. American religious historians and religious archivists will gather to discuss the religious landscape on the eve of the American revolution, religions’ engagement with the revolution and founding eras, and what meaning religions find in their memory of those events 250 years later.
The keynote address will be given by Dr. Thomas S. Kidd. Dr. Kidd is a celebrated scholar of religion and the founding of the United States. He serves as Research Professor of Church History at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and is the John and Sharon Yeats Endowed Chair of Baptist Studies. Dr. Kidd completed a PhD in history at the University of Notre Dame, where he worked with historian of religion George Marsden. He is the author of many books, including “Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh”, “Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father”, and “George Whitefield: America’s Spiritual Founding Father.”
Archives represented at the conference include the Indigenous Values Initiative; Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, a division of Hebrew Union College; Congregational Library & Archives; Disciples of Christ Historical Society; Friends Historical Association; Historical Society of the Episcopal Church; American Baptist Historical Society; Shaker Heritage Society; Presbyterian Historical Society; E&R Library & Archives; Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives; General Commission of Archives and History of the United Methodist Church; Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Archives of the Dominican Sisters of Peace; and Lutheran Archives Center at Philadelphia.
Scholars include Philip Arnold, Kate Carté, Christopher Jones, Lerone Martin, Spencer McBride, Munir Shaikh, and Sandy Bigtree.
The conference is free and open to the public, with livestreaming available. Registration for in-person attendance is required. The Religion and the American Founding Conference has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: “Democracy demands wisdom.” Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this conference do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Christopher Quayle Stevenson
National Museum of American Religion, Inc.
+1 540-454-7458
cstevenson@nmar.org
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