Robert Lewis Dabney: A Southern Presbyterian Life (American Reformed Biographies)

Presents Dabney (1820-1898), a leading theologian of his day, as a representative southern Presbyterian who provides a window into the postbellum southern Presbyterian mind.

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 office 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.

Sean Michael Lucas (Ph.D., Westminster Theological Seminary) teaches church history and is coordinator of candidate relations at Covenant Theological seminary. He co-edited The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards and, with D. G. Hart, is the co-editor of the American Reformed Biographies series.