Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution
June 11, 2026 · 1:12:24 · with Camden Bucey, Darryl G. Hart
We welcome Darryl G. Hart back to Christ the Center to discuss Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution (University of Notre Dame Press). Hart traces the transatlantic story of Presbyterianism from the Reformation through the age of revolutions, asking why presbyterian polity so often became a political irritant in Britain, Ireland, North America, and beyond.
The conversation ranges from Calvin’s Geneva and the French Reformed connection to the Scottish Covenanters, the English civil wars, John Witherspoon, the American founding, the 1788 revision of the Westminster Confession, and contemporary debates over Christian nationalism. Along the way, Hart helps us see how questions of church government, civil authority, establishment, liberty, and public memory are bound up with the church’s confession that Christ alone is head of his church.
Chapters
- 0:00 Introduction and the road to episode 1,000
- 2:00 Protestants and Patriots and the Presbyterian question
- 3:10 The project’s origins and teaching the big picture
- 5:12 Calvin’s ecclesiastical ordinances and Presbyterian polity
- 7:26 Was the American Revolution a Presbyterian revolution?
- 10:12 Lumpers, splitters, and Presbyterian identity
- 11:09 Reformed and Presbyterian: why the names matter
- 15:01 Presbyterians, nationalism, and the godly society
- 16:12 Covenanters, national covenanting, and regicide
- 19:31 Geneva, exiles, and the French connection
- 22:26 The true Presbyterian revolutionary moment: the 1630s and 1640s
- 24:21 Why Scotland became a Presbyterian laboratory
- 28:29 Why England and Scotland became Reformed rather than Lutheran
- 30:52 What did Presbyterians want? Church independence and state support
- 34:43 The Glorious Revolution, moderation, and establishment compromises
- 39:15 Regium donum, Canada, Ireland, and voluntary giving
- 42:34 John Witherspoon and Presbyterian moderation in the American founding
- 48:16 Revising Westminster Confession chapter 23
- 55:30 American Heretics, Two Sons of Oil, and anti-liberal Presbyterianism
- 60:30 Further conversations and Protestants and Patriots
- 65:05 Independence Hall, historic preservation, and public memory
- 70:07 Conclusion
Resources mentioned
- Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution by D. G. Hart
- University of Notre Dame Press interview with D. G. Hart
- American Heretics by Jerome Copulsky
- Two Sons of Oil by Samuel B. Wylie
- Independence National Historical Park
Participants: Camden Bucey, Darryl G. Hart