Dr. James P. Byrd is the Associate Professor of American Religious History and Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Research at Vanderbilt Divinity School. His research interests center on theology and biblical interpretation in American history, religion and war, and the history of Baptists and Methodists in America. His latest book is Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013). He is currently writing a book on the Bible and the American Civil War.