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Robert Lewis Dabney

Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898) was a Presbyterian theological and educator who served on the faculties of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, the University of Texas, and Austin Theological Seminary. Those who knew him--both friends and foes--viewed him as larger than life, "closer to a biblical prophet than a theological professor," writes Sean Lucas. As this biography explains, "Dabney was far more complex than either historians or admirers concede." He was "in many ways a representative man, one who embodied the passions and contradictions of nineteenth-century Southerners." As such he "provides a window into the postbellum Southern Presbyterian mind" and a reminder of how important nineteenth-century theology is for contemporary issues and debates. Because the past is parent of the present, recognizing Dabney's flaws can help us implement the biblical motto on his tombstone: "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Before the Civil War, Dabney was a sectional moderate, but he soon became a Confederate sectionalist, serving as chaplain in the Confederate Army and then as an officer under General Stonewall Jackson. Dabney's systematic theology text was used at Union for more than forty years after his death. In the 1980s, publishers began to reprint this and other works. Dabney has been described as an "apostle of the Old South," a perception that may explain why this biography is the first of this key nineteenth-century leader in more than one hundred years. It is also the inaugural volume in the American Reformed Biography series.

Lucas's brisk, delightfully clear writing masks the great difficulty of his achievement. He gets closer to the ideal of objectivity than Dabney's contemporaries--let alone Lucas's own contemporaries--could probably imagine. This book is a tremendous feat of scholarly labor and intellectual discipline.

David L. Chappell, Author

A model biography--accurate, interesting, sympathetic, and critical. Dr. Lucas has mastered his material, and the result is a portrait of Dabney that will live on. Not only do we come to know the great Virginian better in this book, but we are also given a wonderfully nuanced treatment of the political, intellectual, and ecclesiastical climate of the nineteenth-century South.

David B. Calhoun, Professor of Church History

An important resource. Lucas draws on the many sources for knowledge of Dabney's life and thought, places him squarely in his historical setting, and appropriately balances and relates the biographical and theological parts of his task. He also points out, and wrestles ably with, some of the knotty questions that Dabney's story and his legacy still pose for his present-day admirers and critics.

Jack P. Maddex Jr., Professor of History

The nineteenth-century Southern church boasted intellectually and morally impressive men who exercised considerable influence over political and social life. Among them, none overmatched Robert Lewis Dabney as a theologian, teacher, and social critic. Sean Lucas has provided a long-needed critical study of this great if problematic man, thereby illuminating our time as well as his.

Eugene D. Genovese
Dr. Sean Michael
Dr. Sean Michael Lucas

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