North Greenville University will host its inaugural Boggs-Hickson Lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 5, at 7 p.m. at Hayes Ministry Center on the NGU campus.

John Fea, a professor of American history at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., and a distinguished lecturer with the Organization of American Historians, will present his lecture, “Was America Founded As a Christian Nation?”

“Dr. John Fea is one of the most prolific and high-profile Christian historians of our day. His scholarship, which spans from the colonial era to the 21st century, is highly relevant to many contemporary religious, social, and political questions,” said H. Paul Thompson Jr., dean of NGU’s College of Humanities and Sciences and chair of the history department.

Fea’s 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 in 2008 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.

He is also 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. His book “Why Study History? Reflecting on the Importance of the Past” was published in 2013 with Baker Academic. Fea’s book “The Bible Cause: A History of the American Bible Society” appeared in March 2016 with Oxford University Press.

His most recent book is “Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump.”

He speaks regularly to churches, school and teacher groups, civic groups, and historical societies and has appeared on CNN, C-SPAN, National Public Radio, and dozens of radio programs across the country.

Thompson said there will be time to interact individually with Fea following the lecture.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Paul Thompson, paul.thompson@ngu.edu.