ENTRY

Robert Lewis Dabney (1820–1898)

SUMMARY

Robert Lewis Dabney was a Presbyterian minister who, during the American Civil War (1861–1865), emerged as one of the most influential leaders of the southern Presbyterian Church. Born in Louisa County, he was educated at the Union Theological Seminary and served on the school’s faculty, becoming chair of theology in 1859 and preaching Calvinist orthodoxy. Dabney opposed secession but served as chaplain to the 18th Virginia Infantry Regiment and, for several months in 1862, as adjutant, or chief of staff, to Confederate general Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. Ill health forced him to return to the seminary, but he later wrote a biography of Jackson. Dabney was an ardent defender of slavery and the Old South, opposed the Progressive Movement, and was skeptical of modern science. As an important Presbyterian leader in the South, he opposed reunifying the southern church with its northern counterpart. In 1883, he left Virginia to teach at the new University of Texas, in Austin, where he helped to found the Austin School of Theology. He died in Victoria, Texas, in 1898.

Dabney was born in Louisa County on March 5, 1820, the son of Elizabeth Randolph Price Dabney and Charles Dabney, a member of the county court and an elder in the local Presbyterian church. At age seven he began his education in a small log school near his home. He learned Latin from an elder brother and later began to study Greek. Following several months of tutoring in mathematics, Dabney entered Hampden-Sydney College as a sophomore in June 1836. He left after September 1837, returned home to assist his widowed mother, and found time to teach two terms at a local school. In the autumn of 1839 he matriculated at the University of Virginia and in 1842 received an MA.

For the next two years Dabney helped his mother manage the family plantation, taught school, and began his long and productive career as an author by writing articles for Richmond newspapers. Having joined the Presbyterian Church in 1837, he enrolled in November 1844 at the Union Theological Seminary, then affiliated with Hampden-Sydney College. After graduating in June 1846, Dabney returned to Louisa County and preached at Providence Presbyterian Church. On July 16, 1847, he was ordained and installed as minister of Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church, in Augusta County. Dabney married Margaretta Lavinia Morrison in Rockbridge County on March 28, 1848. Of their six sons, three died as children.

The Union Theological Seminary (later Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education) awarded Dabney a doctor of divinity in 1852, and in August of the following year he joined the faculty as professor of church history and church government. In 1859 he took over the duties of the chair of theology and began teaching systematic theology with a rigorous emphasis on Calvinist orthodoxy. The following year he declined offers of a prestigious pulpit in New York and a position on the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary.

Life and Campaigns of Lieut.-Gen. Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson)

Initially opposed to secession, Dabney sided with his state after Virginia joined the Confederacy in the spring of 1861. In May of that year he began four months of service as chaplain to the 18th Virginia Infantry Regiment before returning to his duties at the seminary. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson often heard Dabney preach during those months and asked Dabney to serve as his adjutant, or chief of staff, a position for which he had neither experience nor skill. Although Dabney preferred resuming the role of chaplain, Jackson was persuasive, and Dabney was commissioned a major, to rank from April 22, 1862. Illness forced him to resign on August 15, but his respect for Jackson never wavered. When Jackson’s widow later asked Dabney to write a biography of the general, Dabney threw himself into the effort. His Life and Campaigns of Lieut.-Gen. Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), which highlighted the subject’s fervent piety, appeared in a two-volume edition published in London between 1864 and 1866 and a one-volume edition published in New York in 1866.

Spirit of the South

As soon as his health allowed, Dabney resumed teaching at the Union Theological Seminary. He had been a reluctant secessionist but steadfastly defended the Confederate cause until the day of his death. Terribly embittered by the defeat of the South and by the end of slavery, Dabney was decidedly undemocratic in his politics and racist to the core. He defended an idealized version of the Old South as the very apex of Christian civilization. He spoke and wrote against allowing freedpeople to vote and denounced free public education for blacks and whites. Dabney was as opposed to new theories in science as he was to new ideas about politics, education, and a whole range of so-called progressive concepts, and his Calvinism grew more inflexible as his social and political views calcified. He employed his formidable learning to defend a variety of reactionary causes. From Dabney’s pen flowed a series of publications, mounting a rearguard defense of older ways as suggested by the titles: A Defence of Virginia, [and Through Her, of the South] in Recent and Pending Contests Against the Sectional Party (1867), Ecclesiastical Relation of Negroes (1868), A Caution Against Anti-Christian Science (1871), The Sensualistic Philosophy of the Nineteenth Century, Considered (1875), and The Practical Philosophy (1897).

Ecclesiastical Relation of Negroes

Dabney emerged as one of the most influential leaders of the southern Presbyterian Church. In 1863 he chaired a committee that brought about the merger of new school and old school factions in the South to create the Presbyterian Church in the United States. While serving as moderator of the denominational general assembly in 1870, Dabney helped scuttle efforts to promote fraternal relations between southern and northern Presbyterians, and he vehemently opposed any efforts toward reunification. His essays and sermons appeared frequently in Presbyterian periodicals or in pamphlet form. The publication of his theological texts, Sacred Rhetoric (1870) and Syllabus and Notes of the Course of Systematic and Polemic Theology (1871), both of which went through several editions, ensured that his influence over southern Presbyterian divinity students was unmatched.

Dabney’s unhappiness with the postwar situation led him to consider leaving the United States, and in 1883 health problems convinced him to leave Virginia and accept the professorship of moral philosophy at the new University of Texas, in Austin. He liked the climate and at first was optimistic about the prospects for Christian society in Texas, where he helped to found the Austin School of Theology. But modernity soon intruded there, too, and an exasperated Dabney grew ever more embittered. In 1894 the university asked for his resignation, and the following year he and his wife moved to the home of a son in Victoria, Texas.

Though a spirited lecturer and prolific writer, Dabney suffered from ill heath for much of his life, and toward the end his afflictions were multiplied by blindness. He nevertheless saw through to publication Discussions (1890–1897), a four-volume collection of his writings. Dabney died in Victoria, Texas, on January 3, 1898. At his request he was buried at the Union Theological Seminary in Virginia Cemetery, at Hampden-Sydney College.

Major Works

  • Life and Campaigns of Lieut.-Gen. Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson) (1866)
  • A Defence of Virginia, [and Through Her, of the South] in Recent and Pending Contests Against the Sectional Party (1867)
  • Ecclesiastical Relation of Negroes (1868)
  • Sacred Rhetoric (1870)
  • Syllabus and Notes of the Course of Systematic and Polemic Theology (1871)
  • A Caution Against Anti-Christian Science (1871)
  • The Sensualistic Philosophy of the Nineteenth Century, Considered (1875)
  • Discussions (1890–1897)
  • The Practical Philosophy (1897)

MAP
TIMELINE
March 5, 1820
Robert Lewis Dabney is born in Louisa County.
1827
Robert Lewis Dabney begins his education in a small log school near his home.
June 1836
Robert Lewis Dabney enters Hampden-Sydney College as a sophomore.
1837
Robert Lewis Dabney joins the Presbyterian Church.
September 1837
Robert Lewis Dabney leaves Hampden-Sydney College and returns home to Louisa County to assist his widowed mother. He teaches two terms at a local school.
Autumn 1839
Robert Lewis Dabney matriculates at the University of Virginia.
November 1844
Robert Lewis Dabney enrolls at the Union Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with Hampden-Sydney College.
June 1846
Robert Lewis Dabney graduates from the Union Theological Seminary and returns home to Louisa County to preach at Providence Presbyterian Church.
July 16, 1847
Robert Lewis Dabney is ordained and installed as minister of Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church, in Augusta County.
March 28, 1848
Robert Lewis Dabney marries Margaretta Lavinia Morrison in Rockbridge County. They will have six sons, three of whom will die as children.
1852
The Union Theological Seminary awards Robert Lewis Dabney a doctor of divinity.
August 1853
Robert Lewis Dabney joins the faculty of the Union Theological Seminary as professor of church history and church government.
1859
Robert Lewis Dabney takes over the duties of the chair of theology at the Union Theological Seminary and begins teaching systematic theology with a rigorous emphasis on Calvinist orthodoxy.
1860
Robert Lewis Dabney declines offers of a prestigious pulpit in New York and a position of the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary in order to remain at the Union Theological Seminary.
May 1861
Robert Lewis Dabney begins four months of service as chaplain to the 18th Virginia Infantry Regiment. He then returns to the Union Theological Seminary.
April 22, 1862
Robert Lewis Dabney is commissioned a major in the Confederate army in order to serve as adjutant, or chief of staff, to Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.
August 15, 1862
Illness forces Robert Lewis Dabney to resign as adjutant, or chief of staff, to Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.
1863
Robert Lewis Dabney chairs a committee that brings about the merger of new school and old school factions in the South to create the Presbyterian Church in the United States.
1864—1866
At the request of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's widow, Robert Lewis Dabney completes a two-volume biography of the Confederate general.
1870
Robert Lewis Dabney helps to scuttle efforts to promote fraternal relations between southern and northern Presbyterians, and he vehemently opposes any efforts toward reunification of the church.
1883
Health problems convince Robert Lewis Dabney to leave Virginia and accept the professorship of moral philosophy at the new University of Texas, in Austin. He helps to found the Austin School of Theology.
1894
The University of Texas, in Austin, asks for Robert Lewis Dabney's resignation as professor of moral philosophy.
1895
Robert Lewis Dabney and his wife move from Austin, Texas, to the home of a son in Victoria, Texas.
January 3, 1898
Robert Lewis Dabney dies in Victoria, Texas. He is buried at the Union Theological Seminary in Virginia Cemetery, at Hampden-Sydney College.
FURTHER READING
  • Boles, John B., “Dabney, Robert Lewis.” In Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Vol. 3, edited by Sara B. Bearss, 650–652. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2006.
CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
Boles, John & Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Robert Lewis Dabney (1820–1898). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/dabney-robert-lewis-1820-1898.
MLA Citation:
Boles, John, and Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "Robert Lewis Dabney (1820–1898)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 31 May. 2023
Last updated: 2021, December 22
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