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Reflecting on Christian Patriotism: A Reformed Perspective
October 4 @ 9:00 am - 11:00 am
Free
We live in a time when waving the flag and raising the cross go hand in hand for some Americans. But which one takes priority? Should Christians offer patriotic support or prophetic critique of the state in a time such as this? What are faithful alternatives to the religious nationalism we see all around us? The Reformed tradition has engaged nations and the state in different ways over time, always asking, “What does God call this country to be?”
Join the Reformed Institute to hear Dr. Mark Valeri’s address: “Reflecting on Christian Patriotism: A Reformed Perspective.” The event takes place on Saturday, October 4, 2025 at the National Presbyterian Church (4101 Nebraska Ave. NW) in Washington, D.C. Registration and coffee begin at 8:45, program begins at 9 a.m. and ends at 11 a.m. Please RSVP below. There is a virtual option for those who live outside of the Washington, D.C. area.
About the Speaker
Dr. Mark Valeri is the Reverend Priscilla Wood Neaves Distinguished Professor of Religion and Politics at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Valeri’s areas of specialization include religion and social thought, especially economics, in America; Reformation theology and the political history of Calvinism; Puritanism; and enlightenment moral philosophy.
His latest book describes how Anglo-American Protestant descriptions of other religions, and conversion from one religion to another, changed from 1650 to 1765: The Opening of the Protestant Mind: How Anglo-American Protestants Embraced Religious Liberty (Oxford University Press, 2023). Heavenly Merchandize: How Religion Shaped Commerce in Puritan America, (Princeton University Press, 2010), received the 2011 Philip Schaff Prize from the American Society of Church History.
Dr. Valeri earned the Ph.D. from Princeton University, his M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, and his B.A., summa cum laude, from Whitworth College. He is currently working on religious persuasion, evangelicalism, and secularism in the eighteenth century.