In the Valley of the Dry Bones: Lincoln’s Biblical Oratory and the Coming of the Civil War.

Abstract

Co-authored by the Straus Center’s Resident Scholar, Dr. Matthew Holbreich, this article investigates Lincoln’s public use of the Bible before he became President of the United States. The rhetorical tropes of covenant, purification, sacrifice and rebirth illuminate a previously under-appreciated dimension of Lincoln’s Biblical oratory. A close study of those themes reveals a consistently radical and polarizing Lincoln from his early speeches (Lyceum and Temperance) to his late pre-Presidential ones (Peoria and House Divided). At the heart of this unity was an uncompromisingly moral vision of the Union. The article concludes with some reflections on the enduring importance of the Bible.