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This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
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First published January 1, 1994
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About the author
Robert Lewis Dabney
153 books42 followersRobert Lewis Dabney (March 5, 1820 – January 3, 1898) was an American Christian theologian, a Southern Presbyterian pastor, and Confederate Army chaplain. He was also chief of staff and biographer to Stonewall Jackson. His biography of Jackson remains in print today.
Dabney studied at Hampden-Sydney College and the University of Virginia (M.A., 1842), and graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1846.
He was then a missionary in Louisa County, Virginia, from 1846 to 1847 and pastor at Tinkling Spring, Virginia from 1847 to 1853, being also head master of a classical school for a portion of this time. From 1853 to 1859 he was professor of ecclesiastical history and polity and from 1859 to 1869 adjunct professor of systematic theology in Union Theological Seminary, where he later became full professor of systematics. In 1883, he was appointed professor of mental and moral philosophy in the University of Texas.
By 1894 failing health compelled him to retire from active life, although he still lectured occasionally. He was co-pastor, with his brother-in-law B. M. Smith, of the Hampden-Sydney College Church 1858 to 1874, also serving Hampden-Sydney College in a professorial capacity on occasions of vacancies in its faculty. Dabney, whose wife was a first cousin to Stonewall Jackson's wife, participated in the Civil War: during the summer of 1861 he was chaplain of the 18th Virginia regiment in the Confederate army, and in the following year was chief of staff to Jackson during the Valley Campaign and the Seven Days Battles.
After the Civil War Dabney spoke widely on Jackson and the Confederacy. He continued to hold racial views typical in the South before the Civil War, and his continued support of slavery in speeches and a book published after the war and his strong loyalty to the Confederacy until the 1890s made him a visible figure in the post-war South (Hettle, 2003).
While at the University of Texas he practically founded and maintained the Austin School of Theology (which later became Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary), and in 1870 was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.
Major works
Memoir of Rev. Dr. Francis S. Sampson (1855), whose commentary on Hebrews he edited (1857);
Life of General Thomas J. Jackson (1866)
A Defense of Virginia, and Through Her, of the South, in Recent and Pending Contests Against the Sectional Party (1867), an apologia for the Confederacy.
Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric (1870)
Syllabus and Notes of the Course of Systematic and Polemic Theology (1871; 2nd ed. 1878), later republished as Systematic Theology.
Systematic Theology (1878)
Sensualistic Philosophy of the Nineteenth Century Examined (1875; 2nd ed. 1887)
Practical Philosophy (1897)
Penal Character of the Atonement of Christ Discussed in the Light of Recent Popular Heresies (1898, posthumous), on the satisfaction view of the atonement.
Discussions (1890-1897), Four volumes of his shorter essays, edited by C. R. Vaughan.
Dabney studied at Hampden-Sydney College and the University of Virginia (M.A., 1842), and graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1846.
He was then a missionary in Louisa County, Virginia, from 1846 to 1847 and pastor at Tinkling Spring, Virginia from 1847 to 1853, being also head master of a classical school for a portion of this time. From 1853 to 1859 he was professor of ecclesiastical history and polity and from 1859 to 1869 adjunct professor of systematic theology in Union Theological Seminary, where he later became full professor of systematics. In 1883, he was appointed professor of mental and moral philosophy in the University of Texas.
By 1894 failing health compelled him to retire from active life, although he still lectured occasionally. He was co-pastor, with his brother-in-law B. M. Smith, of the Hampden-Sydney College Church 1858 to 1874, also serving Hampden-Sydney College in a professorial capacity on occasions of vacancies in its faculty. Dabney, whose wife was a first cousin to Stonewall Jackson's wife, participated in the Civil War: during the summer of 1861 he was chaplain of the 18th Virginia regiment in the Confederate army, and in the following year was chief of staff to Jackson during the Valley Campaign and the Seven Days Battles.
After the Civil War Dabney spoke widely on Jackson and the Confederacy. He continued to hold racial views typical in the South before the Civil War, and his continued support of slavery in speeches and a book published after the war and his strong loyalty to the Confederacy until the 1890s made him a visible figure in the post-war South (Hettle, 2003).
While at the University of Texas he practically founded and maintained the Austin School of Theology (which later became Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary), and in 1870 was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.
Major works
Memoir of Rev. Dr. Francis S. Sampson (1855), whose commentary on Hebrews he edited (1857);
Life of General Thomas J. Jackson (1866)
A Defense of Virginia, and Through Her, of the South, in Recent and Pending Contests Against the Sectional Party (1867), an apologia for the Confederacy.
Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric (1870)
Syllabus and Notes of the Course of Systematic and Polemic Theology (1871; 2nd ed. 1878), later republished as Systematic Theology.
Systematic Theology (1878)
Sensualistic Philosophy of the Nineteenth Century Examined (1875; 2nd ed. 1887)
Practical Philosophy (1897)
Penal Character of the Atonement of Christ Discussed in the Light of Recent Popular Heresies (1898, posthumous), on the satisfaction view of the atonement.
Discussions (1890-1897), Four volumes of his shorter essays, edited by C. R. Vaughan.
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May 12, 2020
We come to bury Dabney, not to praise him. We should go ahead and call him out for his racism, the same as we would call out General Sherman for his. There’s no way to defend it. Why would we read Dabney? I suppose for starters he did see where many trends would lead. And he could write well. His prose routinely reaches Johnsonian heights.
Politics
His essay “The New South” is a tragedy on Hamlet-like levels. I can’t go with him on the Lost Cause mythology, but I can certainly agree with individual insights. He defines the true wealth of a nation consisting in “cultured, heroic men who intelligently know their duty and are calmly prepared to sacrifice all else, including life, to maintain the right” (Dabney 19).
The true enemy in any society is the demagogue who seeks “only the good of the dear people” (53).
As to his famous essay on women voting, I’ll just say this: his argument, if consistent, only proves that land-owning gentlemen should vote. That’s not such a terrible idea, and it has worked quite well at times. But if that’s his argument, then he needs to change the thrust of his essay.
Education
Throughout this volume Dabney’s thesis on education is that education is training for virtue, not just throwing book facts at the child. The art of reading or literacy is not education; it is a means to education (189). This will be reflected in good literature, which is always identified “by all that is decent in manner, elevated in sentiment, and thorough and just in argument” (204).
Review of Negro Education:
Dabney makes a number of very good and very flawed points. He is absolutely correct that throwing books at young students, whether black or white, is not education. Behind this is a subtle presupposition that the State is God.
Dabney says the Negro will be better served by manual labor than by education. Here is where his reasoning, while occasionally on point, gets sloppy. On one hand he is right in a general observation: people who have to work hard on the farm all day do not have time for literary pursuits. The point I think he is trying to make is that a season or a generation of manual labor will instill values that will better serve them for literary pursuits. As it stands, he is wrong because he does not go far enough. He is right that manual labor can teach discipline and virtue, but he does not develop his logical conclusion: supposing this works for the Negro, will not later generations be fit statesmen? I do not know how Dabney can logically say no.
Let’s take his argument in another direction: many white people will be better served by learning trades than going to college.
Another error he makes is an economic one: he says that the time spent in labor will be too much for literary pursuits. In 1880 that was true, but one of the truths of dominion labor theory (think of a non-gangster free market) is that technology and specialization reduce the costs of labor while increasing the output. Translation: more time for books.
The argument for public education is that education the urchins of society now keeps them out of jail later. Dabney counters that prisons in the North and in Prussia are filled with educated urchins. I think the truth is somewhat in the middle. The schools generally don’t teach good morals, but neither is it a cause-effect relationship as Dabney maintains.
Dabney’s next argument is that the lot of mankind has always been manual labor. If a man will be working in farms and factories, does he need abstract learning? On one hand, no. On the other hand, this abstract learning has today given us medical and technological advances. Dabney’s argument fails on this point.
And while Dabney’s argument that public education would bring blacks and whites in the same classroom is morally wrong, it is prophetically accurate in what would happen as a result: whites would leave. If you want to find the most racist, segregated places today, find where white liberals are.
Economics
Throughout his Discussions, Dabney is plagued by several tensions. While he correctly holds to natural theology, his discussions of education come very close to theonomy While he excoriates high church culture, his beloved South was far closer to Toryism than it was to Whiggism. John Knox would not be at home among the cavaliers in the Carolinas.
Against the labor unions he correctly points out that it raises prices and by forcing its workers to go on strike, makes them eat up their savings (295). Strikes and forced higher wages follow an economic law: the hardships are always shifted down to the lower aspects of the community.
Strikes always interfere with the law of supply and demand, which is ruthless in its consequences.
Even worse, in states with anti-right-to-work laws, I am forbidden to do what I want with my labor. When someone owns and dictates my labor, I am there slave.
Philosophy
Somewhat counterintuitively, Dabney was a strong a philosopher but an underwhelming apologist. His lectures on the study of philosophy and the new infidelities are worth your consideration.
Politics
His essay “The New South” is a tragedy on Hamlet-like levels. I can’t go with him on the Lost Cause mythology, but I can certainly agree with individual insights. He defines the true wealth of a nation consisting in “cultured, heroic men who intelligently know their duty and are calmly prepared to sacrifice all else, including life, to maintain the right” (Dabney 19).
The true enemy in any society is the demagogue who seeks “only the good of the dear people” (53).
As to his famous essay on women voting, I’ll just say this: his argument, if consistent, only proves that land-owning gentlemen should vote. That’s not such a terrible idea, and it has worked quite well at times. But if that’s his argument, then he needs to change the thrust of his essay.
Education
Throughout this volume Dabney’s thesis on education is that education is training for virtue, not just throwing book facts at the child. The art of reading or literacy is not education; it is a means to education (189). This will be reflected in good literature, which is always identified “by all that is decent in manner, elevated in sentiment, and thorough and just in argument” (204).
Review of Negro Education:
Dabney makes a number of very good and very flawed points. He is absolutely correct that throwing books at young students, whether black or white, is not education. Behind this is a subtle presupposition that the State is God.
Dabney says the Negro will be better served by manual labor than by education. Here is where his reasoning, while occasionally on point, gets sloppy. On one hand he is right in a general observation: people who have to work hard on the farm all day do not have time for literary pursuits. The point I think he is trying to make is that a season or a generation of manual labor will instill values that will better serve them for literary pursuits. As it stands, he is wrong because he does not go far enough. He is right that manual labor can teach discipline and virtue, but he does not develop his logical conclusion: supposing this works for the Negro, will not later generations be fit statesmen? I do not know how Dabney can logically say no.
Let’s take his argument in another direction: many white people will be better served by learning trades than going to college.
Another error he makes is an economic one: he says that the time spent in labor will be too much for literary pursuits. In 1880 that was true, but one of the truths of dominion labor theory (think of a non-gangster free market) is that technology and specialization reduce the costs of labor while increasing the output. Translation: more time for books.
The argument for public education is that education the urchins of society now keeps them out of jail later. Dabney counters that prisons in the North and in Prussia are filled with educated urchins. I think the truth is somewhat in the middle. The schools generally don’t teach good morals, but neither is it a cause-effect relationship as Dabney maintains.
Dabney’s next argument is that the lot of mankind has always been manual labor. If a man will be working in farms and factories, does he need abstract learning? On one hand, no. On the other hand, this abstract learning has today given us medical and technological advances. Dabney’s argument fails on this point.
And while Dabney’s argument that public education would bring blacks and whites in the same classroom is morally wrong, it is prophetically accurate in what would happen as a result: whites would leave. If you want to find the most racist, segregated places today, find where white liberals are.
Economics
Throughout his Discussions, Dabney is plagued by several tensions. While he correctly holds to natural theology, his discussions of education come very close to theonomy While he excoriates high church culture, his beloved South was far closer to Toryism than it was to Whiggism. John Knox would not be at home among the cavaliers in the Carolinas.
Against the labor unions he correctly points out that it raises prices and by forcing its workers to go on strike, makes them eat up their savings (295). Strikes and forced higher wages follow an economic law: the hardships are always shifted down to the lower aspects of the community.
Strikes always interfere with the law of supply and demand, which is ruthless in its consequences.
Even worse, in states with anti-right-to-work laws, I am forbidden to do what I want with my labor. When someone owns and dictates my labor, I am there slave.
Philosophy
Somewhat counterintuitively, Dabney was a strong a philosopher but an underwhelming apologist. His lectures on the study of philosophy and the new infidelities are worth your consideration.
August 10, 2021
Very good. Some of the essays are reproduced from earlier volumes. But these redundant essays are some of the best, and worth revisiting.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews