David Lyons is a historian who studies the emergence of and reactions to political modernity, particularly as they relate to pre-modern forms of religion. In particular, Lyons is interested in the Enlightenment and critical engagements with the its post-eighteenth century reception. Lyons received his PhD from the University of Chicago and his JD from the University of Michigan. Before returning to school to pursue graduate study, Lyons practiced law in both the private and public sectors. At Chicago, Lyons has taught courses on modernity and its discontents, the Enlightenment, the history of church-state relations, religious freedom and the liberal order, and totalitarianism. Lyons also teaches in the History of European Civilization and Classics of Social and Political Thought sequences and has taught Legal Reasoning.