Lyman Abbott

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Lyman Abbott
Born December 18, 1835(1835-12-18)
Roxbury, Massachusetts
Died October 22, 1922(1922-10-22) (aged 86)
Resting place New Windsor Cemetery
Children Lawrence Fraser Abbott

Lyman Abbott (December 18, 1835 – October 22, 1922)[1] was an American Congregationalist theologian, editor, and author.[2]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years

Lyman Abbott was born at Roxbury, Massachusetts on December 18, 1835, the son of the prolific author, educator and historian Jacob Abbott. Lyman Abbott grew up in Farmington, Maine and later in New York City.[3]

He graduated from the New York University in 1853, where he was a member of the Eucleian Society, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1856. Abbott soon abandoned the legal profession, however, and after studying theology with his uncle, John Stevens Cabot Abbott, was ordained a minister of the Congregational Church in 1860.

[edit] Career

He was pastor of the Congregational Church in Terre Haute, Indiana from 1860 to 1865 and of the New England Church in New York City in 1865-1869. From 1865 to 1868 he was secretary of the American Union Commission (later called the American Freedmen's Bureau). In 1869 he resigned his pastorate to devote himself to literature.

Abbot worked variously in the publishing profession as an associate editor of Harper's Magazine, and was the founder of a publication called the Illustrated Christian Weekly,[4] which he edited for six years. He was also the co-editor of The Christian Union with Henry Ward Beecher from 1876 to 1881. Abbott later succeeded Beecher in 1888 as pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn.

From 1881 Abbott was editor-in-chief of The Christian Union, renamed The Outlook in 1893; this periodical reflected his efforts toward social reform, and, in theology, a liberality, humanitarian and nearly unitarian. The latter characteristics marked his published works also.

Abbott's opinions differed from those of Beecher. Abbott was a constant advocate of social reform, and was an advocate of Theodore Roosevelt's progressivism for almost 20 years. He would later adopt a pronouncedly liberal theology. He was also a pronounced Christian Evolutionist.[5] In two of his books, The Evolution of Christianity and The Theology of an Evolutionist, Abbott applied the concept of evolution in a Christian theological perspective. Although he himself objected to being called an advocate of Darwinism, he was an optimistic advocate of evolution who thought that "what Jesus saw, humanity is becoming."

Abbott was a religious figure of some public note and was called upon on October 30, 1897, to deliver an address in New York at the funeral of economist, Henry George.[6] He ultimately resigned his pastorate in November 1898.[4]

His son, Lawrence Fraser Abbott, accompanied President Roosevelt on a tour of Europe and Africa (1909–10). In 1913 Lyman Abbott was expelled from the American Peace Society because military preparedness was vigorously advocated in the Outlook,[7] which he edited, and because he was a member of the Army and Navy League. During the World War I he was a strong supporter of the government's war policies.

[edit] Death and legacy

Lyman Abbott died on October 22, 1922 and was buried in the New Windsor Cemetery in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York.

[edit] Works

  • Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher (Editor). (2 vols., 1868)
  • Jesus of Nazareth (1869)
  • Illustrated Commentary on the New Testament (4 vols., 1875)
  • A Study in Human Nature (1885)
  • Life of Christ (1894)
  • The Evolution of Christianity (Lowell Lectures (1896, reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 9781108000192)
  • The Theology of an Evolutionist (1897)
  • Christianity and Social Problems (1897)
  • Life and Letters of Paul, (1898)
  • The Life that Really is (1899)
  • Problems of Life (1900)
  • The Rights of Man (1901)
  • Henry Ward Beecher (1903)
  • "The Other Room" (1903)
  • The Great Companion(1904; new edition published September 1906)
  • The Christian Ministry (1905)
  • The Personality of God (1905)
  • Industrial Problems (1905)
  • "Impressions of a Careless Traveler" (1907)
  • Christ's Secret of Happiness (1907)
  • The Home Builder (1908)
  • The Temple (1909)
  • The Spirit of Democracy (1910)
  • America in the Making (Yale lectures on the responsibility of citizenship, 1911)
  • Letters to Unknown Friends (1913)
  • Reminiscences (1915)
  • The Twentieth Century Crusade (1918)
  • What Christianity Means to Me (1921)

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Carey, Patrick W.; Joseph T. Lienhard (2000). Biographical Dictionary of Christian Theologians. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 2–3. ISBN 9780313033445. 
  2. ^ LCMS.org, Abbott, Lyman in the Christian Cyclopedia
  3. ^ Van Doren, Charles and Robert McHenry, ed., Webster's American Biographies. (Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 1984) p. 4
  4. ^ a b Lewis Randolph Hamersly (ed.), Who's Who in New York: A Biographical Dictionary of Prominent Citizens of New York City and State. Seventh Edition, 1917-1918. New York: Who's Who Publications, 1918; pg. 2.
  5. ^ "Lyman Abbott's sermon; the last in "The Theology of an Evolutionist" series.". The New York Times. May 4, 1896. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9805E6D7123EE333A25757C0A9639C94679ED7CF. 
  6. ^ http://cooperativeindividualism.org/georgists_unitedstates-aa-al.html
  7. ^ New International Encyclopedia

[edit] Further reading

  • Reid, Daniel G., et al. Dictionary of Christianity in America. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990.

[edit] External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article Abbott, Lyman.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lyman_Abbott&oldid=472611235"
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