Overview

Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898) was a Presbyterian theologian 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.

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9780875526638

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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 also are given a wonderfully nuanced treatment of the political, intellectual, and ecclesiastical climate of the nineteenth-century South.--David B. Calhoun, professor of church history, Covenant Theological Seminary 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, University of Oregon 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 of A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow 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, past president, The Historical Society

Author Information

Sean Michael Lucas (PhD, Westminster Theological Seminary) is senior pastor of Independent Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Memphis, Tennessee. He has taught at Covenant Theological Seminary and Reformed Theological Seminary and authored several books of church history.

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