Robert Lewis Dabney

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Lewis Dabney (March 5, 1820 — January 3, 1898) was an American Christian theologian, a Southern Presbyterian pastor, and Confederate Army chaplain. He was also chief of staff and biographer to Stonewall Jackson.

Dabney and James Henley Thornwell were two of Southern Presbyterianism's most influential scholars. They were both Calvinist, Old School Presbyterians[1], and social conservatives. The pair also held racial views that were common to their generation, but which are controversial now. Conservative Presbyterians still study their theological works, particularly in the Presbyterian Church in America and Orthodox Presbyterian Church, though these churches almost universally reject their support of antebellum slavery.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Major works 3 Resources 4 External links

[edit] Biography

Dabney studied at Hampden-Sydney College and the University of Virginia (M.A., 1842), and graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1846.

He was then a missionary in Louisa County, Virginia from 1846 to 1847 and pastor at Tinkling Spring, Virginia from 1847 to 1853, being also head master of a classical school for a portion of this time. From 1853 to 1859 he was professor of ecclesiastical history and polity and from 1859 to 1869 adjunct professor of systematic theology in Union Theological Seminary, where he later became full professor of systematics. In 1883, he was appointed professor of mental and moral philosophy in the University of Texas.

By 1894 failing health compelled him to retire from active life, although he still lectured occasionally. He was co-pastor, with his brother-in-law B. M. Smith, of the Hampden-Sydney College Church 1858 to 1874, also serving Hampden-Sydney College in a professorial capacity on occasions of vacancies in its faculty. During the summer of 1861 he was chaplain of the 18th Virginia regiment in the Confederate army, and in the following year was chief of staff to Stonewall Jackson during the Valley Campaign. While at the University of Texas he practically founded and maintained the Austin School of Theology (which later became Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary), and in 1870 was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.

[edit] Major works

• Memoir of Rev. Dr. Francis S. Sampson (1855), whose commentary on Hebrews he edited (1857);
• Life of General Thomas J. Jackson (1866)
• A Defense of Virginia, and Through Her, of the South, in Recent and Pending Contests Against the Sectional Party (1867), an apologia for the Confederacy.
• Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric (1870)
• Syllabus and Notes of the Course of Systematic and Polemic Theology (1871; 2nd ed. 1878), later republished as Systematic Theology.
• Sensualistic Philosophy of the Nineteenth Century Examined (1875; 2nd ed. 1887)
• Practical Philosophy (1897)
• Penal Character of the Atonement of Christ Discussed in the Light of Recent Popular Heresies (1898, posthumous), on the satisfaction view of the atonement.
• Discussions (1890-1897), Four volumes of his shorter essays, edited by C. R. Vaughan.

Also, the Banner of Truth Trust reprinted many of Dabney's theological works in the late 20th Century.

[edit] Resources

• Johnson, T. C. J (1903). Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney.
• Lucas, Sean Michael (2005). Robert Lewis Dabney: A Southern Presbyterian Life.
• Smith, Morton H. (1962). Studies in Southern Presbyterian Theology. ISBN 0-87552-449-4
• Woods, Henry M. (1936) "Robert Lewis Dabney: Prince Among Theologians and Men", a memorial address delivered at Stonewall Church, Appomattox, Virginia, celebrating the founding of the Southern Presbyterian Church in 1861. (PDF)

[edit] External links

• "Christ Our Substitute", a Dabney message later published as a tract
• "From the Seventh Day to the First", Dabney's discussion of the proper day of the week for the Christian Sabbath.
• "A Defense of Virginia and the South", Dabney's defense of State's rights and exposition of various Biblical texts in support of slave-holding.

This article includes content derived from the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914, which is in the public domain.