Constitution Day and America 250: Faith, the Founding, and The Federalist

Dr. Matt Van Hook, Lt Col (ret), USAF, the associate dean of strategic initiatives for the School of Arts and Letters and the founding director of Biola University’s Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) B.A. program, will deliver Biola’s 2026 Constitution Day Lecture in celebration of America’s semiquincentennial! His lecture will explore the intersection of the Christian faith of the three authors of the Federalist Papers — Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison — and their work in securing lasting liberty after 1776.

About Dr. Van Hook: After an Air Force career spanning over two and a half decades, Van Hook joined Biola and the Torrey Honors College in 2021. He is a former KC-135 aircraft commander with several hundred combat flying hours in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. He has also served as a T-6 instructor and evaluator pilot, and as the Deputy Chief of Staff, United States Air Forces Central Command, Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, from 2018 to 2019. He taught political science at the United States Air Force Academy for over eight years, where he served as the American and Policy Studies Division Chief in the Department of Political Science and the Social Sciences division lead for the Academy Scholars Program.

Dr. Van Hook holds an M.A. and PhD in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame, an M.A. in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and a B.S. in Political Science with a minor in philosophy from the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he graduated with academic distinction in the class of 1999. His most recent article, “Federalism and the National Defense Case for National Education,” was released this summer in Publius: The Journal of Federalism with free early access. He has also published on topics ranging from John Jay’s judicial statesmanship to Harper Lee’s novels to Abraham Lincoln’s theory of union.