PHILADELPHIA — The $60 million Faith and Liberty Discovery Center, scheduled to open on Independence Mall in 2019, will use innovative technology to explore the role the Bible has played in the development of the United States.
American Bible Society CEO Roy Peterson said the center will explore the relationship between faith and liberty in America from its founding through today.
“The Bible is woven into the fabric of the American experience. You have to know something about the Bible to understand America,” said American University professor Daniel Dreisbach, a scholar of constitutional law and church-state relations whose new book is “Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers.”
“In the city where William Penn chartered religious freedom, I am excited that the Faith and Liberty Discovery Center will help tell an overlooked story of our history,” said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.
“This experience will use groundbreaking technologies to allow visitors to not just witness history, but participate in it,” said Jake Barton, principal of the award-winning firm Local Projects, which is developing the center’s immersive experience.
Local Projects spearheaded the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City, Gallery One at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.
