Palm Beach Atlantic will host historian and award-winning author Dr. John Fea for the return of the President’s Distinguished Scholar Lecture.
Fea is distinguished professor of American history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where he has taught since 2002. He will give a public lecture 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 4 exploring the topic “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?”
Earlier in the day, Fea will give an 11 a.m. chapel lecture on “The Study of History as a Spiritual Discipline.” On Tuesday, Fea will speak in chapel on “Taking Risks, Seeking Wisdom: A Vision for Christian Higher Education.” Throughout his visit, Fea will meet with various history and ministry classes.
Fea earned his doctorate in American history from Stony Brook University in 1999. His essays and reviews on the history of American culture have appeared in scholarly journals and national publications. His first book, The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America, was chosen as the Book of the Year by the New Jersey Academic Alliance and an Honor Book by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. His book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction was one of three finalists for the George Washington Book Prize, one of the largest literary prizes in the United States. It was also selected as the Foreword Reviews/INDIEFAB religion book of the year.
Fea is co-editor with Jay Green and Eric Miller of Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian’s Vocation, a finalist for the Lilly Fellows Program in Arts and Humanities Book Award. Fea is also the author of Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past and other books.
He blogs daily at The Way of Improvement Leads Home, a blog devoted to American history, religion, politics and academic life. Fea is executive editor of Current, an online journal of commentary and opinion that provides daily reflection on contemporary culture, politics and ideas.
Fea is a distinguished lecturer with the Organization of American Historians. He has lectured widely at public and private institutions, as well as museums, libraries and historical societies.
The most recent President’s Distinguished Scholar Lecture was in 2019, when Dr. Michael Ward, senior research fellow at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, spoke on C.S. Lewis’ Christian Imagination.
