Great Theologians: Robert Dabney

Robert Lewis Dabney and the Greatness of Old Southern Presbyterianism

I’m a bit of a book collector. I love getting my hands on an old volume from some obscure theologian and basking in the riches of God’s goodness and grace, flowing from the pen of an old and departed saint. But, every now and again, I’ll encounter a theologian that so encourages my heart and soul, I will immediately set about the work of trying to find more works from them to study.

This was my experience with Robert Lewis Dabney back in about 2019. The trouble, I quickly found, was that his works were almost all out of print (at the time). Doing a bit of research, I soon found out why.

Born in the nineteenth century, Dabney really was one of America’s premiere theologians. He lived from 1820-1898 and served on no less than three academic faculties—Union Theological Seminary, the University of Texas, and Austin Theological Seminary. He was, by all accounts, a brilliant theologian and scholar. In fact, his first appointment at Union in 1853 was as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity at the age of thirty-three.

His interests, hobbies, abilities, and expertise varied greatly, as he worked various professions from architect, to planter, to teacher, to pastor. His biographies report that he built a stone house for his family with his own hands. He was not, as some may expect, just a scholarly theologian, but a very hands-on scholarly theologian.

He also wrote extensively and prolifically. Some of his most important works (in my humble estimate) would include a fantastic biography The Life and Campaigns of Lieut.-Gen. Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), Evangelical Eloquence: A Course of Lectures on Preaching, and Systematic Theology. He also wrote countless articles and essays on topics as various as education, theology, and history, and which are almost always a pleasure to read.

But perhaps the profession that Dabney is most remembered for is his time under the service of Brigadier General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson during the Civil War. He had become a chaplain with the Eighteenth Virginia Volunteers in 1861 and by 1862 found himself being offered the position of Adjutant-General, rank of Major, under Jackson’s command. Along with this, he would be permitted the opportunity to preach to the troops on Sundays.

It is for this position within the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and various writings and speeches in favor of slavery, that would later be detrimental to the republication of his works and the reception of his theological contributions. While it is understandable why his actions and views would make some uncomfortable, the truth is that, much like his commanding officer Jackson, Dabney is a lot more complex than most 21^st century caricatures would permit.

To understand Dabney, one must take into consideration his reformed theology and joyful faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. While it may seem strange to explain Dabney as joyful, the truth is that his life is marked by the indelible signs of joyful regeneration in Christ—despite some of the clumsiness and—sometimes—sinfulness of theological and political positions he would take. While far from perfect, he was a man of his times who loved the Lord Jesus, loved the church, and earnestly desired to serve God through the spread of the gospel. Along with these desires came a total commitment to Christ and His Word, and a surrender to the sovereign power of God in all things.

To understand Dabney’s faith in and reliance on God’s sovereignty in all things, one only need to consider his work on preaching. In Evangelical Eloquence, he defined preaching in this way:

The preacher's task may be correctly explained as that of (instrumentally) forming the image of Christ upon the souls of men. The plastic substance is the human heart. The die which is provided for the workman is the revealed Word; and the impression to be formed is the divine image of knowledge and true holiness. God, who made the soul, and therefore knows it, made the die. He obviously knew best how to shape it, in order to produce the imprint he desired. Now the workman's business is not to criticise, recarve, or erase anything in the die which was committed to him; but simply to press it down faithfully upon the substance to be impressed, observing the conditions of the work assigned him in his instructions… The preacher’s business is to take what is given him in the Scriptures, as it is given to him, and to endeavour to imprint it on the souls of men. All else is God’s work.[1]

This quote not only helps one to understand Dabney’s Calvinism, but also his humility in teaching and preaching. For Dabney, preaching was not a fundamentally man-driven task dependent upon the preacher’s ability to convert sinners, but a fundamentally God-driven task, dependent upon God to convict, wound, save, sanctify, edify, mold, shape, and make listeners into the people God would have them to be.

Yet, despite his total reliance on God, and his love for the Word of God, he still placed a great deal of emphasis on the pastor becoming a pastor-theologian. He saw great value in education and, as such, devoted himself not only to preaching the gospel and pastoring, but lecturing and writing, to train up young men into those sorts of men who would be well-suited for gospel ministry.

At the same time, it was his fundamental belief that Christianity is the source of all truth, and to try to divorce Christian truth from any discipline with some sort of secular/sacred divide would rob God of glory and that discipline of any meaningful substance. He wrote:

Every line of true knowledge must find its completeness as it converges on God, just as every beam of daylight leads the eye to the sun. If religion is excluded from our study, every process of thought will be arrested before it reaches its proper goal.[2]

Thus, Dabney taught that a Christian worldview is a complete and holistic program that speaks to every discipline and area of life as true, authoritative, and instructive.

Christians today would do well to read and learn from many of Dabney’s teachings once more. The church of America could use more of the Old School Southern Presbyterian spirit he so beautifully encapsulated.

Jacob Tanner is the pastor of Christ Keystone Church in Middleburg, PA. He is married to his wife, Kayla, and together they have two sons, Josiah and Owen. He is the author of The Tinker’s Progress: The Life and Times of John Bunyan, Wait and Hope: Puritan Wisdom for Joyful Suffering, and Resist Tyrants, Obey God: Lessons Learned from the Life and Times of John Knox.