Robert Lewis Dabney

Robert Lewis Dabney (March 5, 1820 – January 3, 1898) was a Southern Presbyterian pastor and theologian, Confederate army chaplain, and architect from Virginia. He was also chief of staff and biographer to Stonewall Jackson; his biography of Jackson remains in print today.

Dabney and James Henley Thornwell were two of Southern Presbyterianism's most influential scholars. They were both Calvinist, Old School Presbyterians, and social conservatives. Some conservative Presbyterians, particularly within the Presbyterian Church in America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, still value their theological writings, although some within these churches have repudiated Dabney's and Thornwell's beliefs in support of white supremacy and antebellum slavery.

Early life

Robert Lewis Dabney was born on March 5, 1820. He was the sixth child (third son) of Charles William Dabney (1786–1833) and Elizabeth Randolph Price Dabney, and a descendant of Cornelius Dabney, who settled in Virginia in the 17th century. His brother, Charles William Dabney (1809–1895) was the captain of Company C, 15th Virginia Infantry Regiment.

Dabney graduated from Hampden-Sydney College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1837, and received a master's degree from the University of Virginia in 1842. He graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1846.

Career

Dabney served as a missionary in Louisa County, Virginia, from 1846 to 1847 and a pastor at Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church from 1847 to 1853, being also head master of a classical school for a portion of this time. He is considered a distinguished son of Providence Presbyterian Church. It was at Tinkling Spring that he met Margaret Lavinia Morrison. They were married on March 28, 1848. They had six sons together, three of whom died in childhood from diphtheria (two in 1855, the other in 1862). From 1853 to 1859, he was professor of ecclesiastical history and polity and from 1859 to 1869 adjunct professor of systematic theology in Virginia's Union Theological Seminary, where he later became full professor of systematics.