James Hutson will discuss his new book “The Founders on Religion: A Book of Quotations” at the Library of Congress at noon on Thursday, Feb. 2, in Room 119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S. E., Washington, D.C.

The event, which is sponsored by the Library’s John W. Kluge Center, is free and open to the public; no reservations are required.

“The Founders on Religion” is a lively collection of quotations on everything from the relationship between church and state to the status of women. The founders quoted here range from the most pious to the steadfastly unorthodox. The book illuminates the founders’ positions on more than 70 topics, including death, the afterlife, divorce, the raising of children, the reliability of biblical texts and the nature of other religions.

In compiling his book, Hutson, who is chief of the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress, conducted careful examinations of original documents, many from the collections of the Library.

Hutson has been a faculty member of the history departments at Yale University and the College of William and Mary. His books include “Religion and the Founding of the American Republic” and “Forgotten Features of the Founding: The Recovery of Religious Themes in the Early American Republic.”