Systematic Theology

ENDORSEMENT

‘R.L. Dabney was the most conspicuous figure and the leading theological guide of the Southern Presbyterian Church, the most prolific theological writer that Church has as yet produced, and for a period of over forty years one of the most distinguished and probably the most impressive teacher of its candidates for the ministry. As a preacher, as a teacher and as a writer equally he achieved greatness, and in the counsels of the State and of the Church alike he was a factor of importance. In the wider theological history of the country and of the epoch he finds a worthy place as one of the younger members of a remarkable company of theologians to whose lot it fell to reassert and reorganize the historical faith of the Reformed Churches in the face of the theological ferment which marked the earlier years of the Nineteenth Century.’– B.B. WARFIELD

‘Hodge gives an excellent, general statement of the Reformed Faith, yet Dabney adds something beyond the general treatment of most subjects. When his method of teaching is recalled, of sending his students to the standard texts on theology (including Hodge), and then adding his own observations on each doctrine in the class from which his “Theology” was derived, it is to be expected that his work would have a certain freshness to it, and this is just what is found. He begot in his men something akin to his own vigor and strength, his love of truth and of God.’– Morton H. Smith

Book Description

Although the Southern Presbyterian Church of the last century produced many volumes of enduring spiritual importance, it was only this work which came ‘nearest to a complete text of Systematic Theology’. For its preparation Robert L. Dabney, ‘the best teacher of theology in the United States, if not in the world’ (A.A. Hodge), was certainly suited. While his exposition and vindication of credal Christianity is akin to that of other reformed authors, he has a literary force and ability to stimulate thought which is distinctive. In his concern to see the truth understood and lived, in his wrestling with hard points and his mastery of detail, Dabney is second-to-none. The fact that his Systematic Theology, first published in 1871, is now in its ninth edition is proof in itself that the volume is not superfluous.

His biographer, Thomas Cary Johnson, wrote of him: ‘He believed that “feeling s the temperature of thought” and was not ashamed to be seen to feel for the truth. Hence the truth he taught burnt in on the student, and made an indelible impression. He begot in is men something akin to his own vigor and strength, his love of truth and of God’.

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Review

• Review by Paul Wells