Lyman Abbott

Lyman Abbott (December 18 1835 - October 22 1922) was an American Congregationalist theologian, editor, and author.

Abbott was born at Roxbury, Massachusetts, the son of the prolific author, educator and historian Jacob Abbott. Lyman Abbott grew up in Farmington, Maine and latter in New York City. [Van Doren, Charles and Robert McHenry, ed., "Webster's American Biographies". (Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 1984) p. 4]

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; but soon abandoned the legal profession, and, after studying theology with his uncle, John Stevens Cabot Abbott, was ordained a minister of the Congregational Church in 1860. He was pastor of the Congregational Church in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1860-1865, 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. He was an associate editor of "Harper's Magazine", was editor of the "Illustrated Christian Weekly" for six years, and was co-editor (1876-1881) of "The Christian Union" with Henry Ward Beecher, whom he succeeded in 1888 as pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. From this pastorate he resigned ten years later. From 1881 he 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.

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"New International Encyclopedia which he edited and because he was a member of the Army and Navy League. During the War he was a strong supporter of the government's war policies.

Works

*"Jesus of Nazareth" (1869);
*"Illustrated Commentary on the New Testament" (4 vols., 1875);
*"A Study in Human Nature" (1885);
*"Life of Christ" (1894);
*"Evolution of Christianity" (Lowell Lectures, 1896);
*"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 Christian Ministry" (1905);
*"The Personality of God" (1905);
*"Industrial Problems" (1905);
*"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); and
*"What Christianity Means to Me" (1921).

He edited "Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher" (2 vols., 1868).

In two of these works, "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 obtimistic advocte of evolution who though that "what Jesus saw, humanity is becoming."

References

Reid, Daniel G., et al. "Dictionary of Christianity in America". Downers Grove, IL:InterVarsity Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8308-1776-X.

External links

* [http://virtualology.com/lymanabbott/ Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889]
*gutenberg author|id=Lyman_Abbott|name=Lyman Abbott

References

*1911