Mark Noll, author of In the Beginning Was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life, 1492-1783 (Oxford University Press, 2015), will present “The Bible in Early America: Colonies, Empire, Revival, War ” on Oct. 29 at 5 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 101. His talk will explore the presence of Scripture from the era of Christopher Columbus through the American Revolution. As guidance for the first American colonies, a polemical prop for the expanding British Empire, the source of personal empowerment during periods of revival, and then a much-bandied rhetorical weapon during the struggle for American Independence, the Bible remained ubiquitous in American consciousness. Noll is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame and author of several books, including America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln and Protestantism: A Very Short Introduction. Sponsor: Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life.