Lyman Abbott

Abbott was born at Roxbury, Massachusetts, on December 18, 1835, the son of the prolific author, educator and historian Jacob Abbott, and his mother being Harriet Vaughan.{{cite web|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0800006 |title=Abbott, Lyman |last=Frank |first=Thomas E. |website=American National Biography |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0800006 |access-date=August 22, 2022 |quote=Abbott, Lyman (18 December 1835–22 October 1922), Congregational clergyman and editor of the Outlook, Congregational clergyman and editor of the Outlook, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the son of Jacob Abbott, a pastor and author of the “Rollo” children’s books, and Harriet Vaughan.}} Abbott grew up in Farmington, Maine, and later in New York City.Van Doren, Charles and Robert McHenry, ed., Webster's American Biographies. (Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 1984) p. 4 Abbott's ancestors were from England, and came to America roughly twenty years after Plymouth Rock.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EO4-AQAAMAAJ&q=twenty+years&pg=PA76|title=The American Review of Reviews|year=1916|access-date=December 27, 2015}}

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.{{BDA1906 |inline=1 |wstitle= Abbott, Lyman |volume=1 |pages=29–30}} He was married October 14, 1857, to Abby F. Hamlin, whose father Hannibal Hamlin (1809-1863) was the cousin of the politician Hannibal Hamlin of Boston, Mass.

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 and Union Commission). In 1869 he resigned his pastorate to devote himself to literature.

File:Booker Washington and some of his distinguished guests LCCN2004679030.jpg and other dignitaries]]

Abbott 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,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. 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. He also wrote the official biography of Beecher and edited his papers.

From 1881 Abbott was editor-in-chief of The Christian Union, renamed The Outlook in 1891; this periodical reflected his efforts toward social reform, and, in theology, a liberality, humanitarianism 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 Industrial Democracy,{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76626904/lyman-abbott-fears-worse-than-hearst/ |title=Lyman Abbott Fears Worse Than Hearst; Says Leaders to Industrial Democracy Are Needed. Appreciates the President: Striking Address Made at the Fourth Annual Dinner of the Maine Society |newspaper=The New York Times |page=4 |date=1906-11-16 |access-date=2021-04-27 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=April 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429173233/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76626904/lyman-abbott-fears-worse-than-hearst/ |url-status=live }} and was an advocate of Theodore Roosevelt's progressivism for almost 20 years. He later adopted a pronouncedly liberal theology.

He was a pronounced Christian Evolutionist.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76627221/lyman-abbotts-sermon/ |title=Lyman Abbott's sermon; the last in "The Theology of an Evolutionist" series. |newspaper=The New York Times |page=2 |date=May 4, 1896 |access-date=2021-04-27 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=April 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430094123/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76627221/lyman-abbotts-sermon/ |url-status=live }} In two of his books, The Evolution of Christianity and The Theology of an Evolutionist (1897), Abbott applied the concept of evolution in a Christian theological perspective. Although he objected to being called an advocate of Darwinism, he was an optimistic advocate of evolution, once saying "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.{{Cite web |url=http://cooperative-individualism.org/georgists_unitedstates-aa-al.html |title=A Biographical History of the Georgist Movement |publisher=The School of Cooperative Individualism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205030233/http://cooperative-individualism.org/georgists_unitedstates-aa-al.html |archive-date=2016-02-05 |url-status=dead |access-date=2021-04-27}} He ultimately resigned his pastorate in November 1898.

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 World War I, he supported the government's war policies.

He received the degree D.D. from the University of the City of New York in 1879; from Harvard in 1891, from Yale in 1903, and LL.D. from Western Reserve in 1900.

Lyman Abbott died on October 22, 1922, and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery at New Windsor, New York.

The editors of The Outlook kept their normal routine, publishing without "departure from the normal course of publication" since that was what their departed colleague would have wanted. The issue asked readers for understanding as the paper "wait[ed] until [the] next week to give to his friends, known and unknown, a record of his life and of the tributes which marked his passing."{{cite web |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Eem9pK5oIhsC&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA360 |title=Outlook 132, no. 9 (November 1, 1922): 360 |access-date=18 December 2012}} A brief tribute appeared in that issue, but the November 8th edition contained the official remembrance and tributes. Fifteen pages in that issue dealt with Abbott, and the publishers included "several long essays in Abbott's honor from close relatives, shorter tributes from friends and past associates, and blurbs from many American press companies."{{cite web | url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6575677/CHAPLAIN%20OF%20PROGRESS-%20%20THE%20ROLE%20OF%20PROGRESS%20AND%20EVOLUTION%20IN%20LYMAN%20ABBOTT%E2%80%99S%20JUSTIFICATION%20FOR%20AMERICAN%20EXPANSION%20IN%201898-1900%20-%20Caleb%20Lagerwey.pdf | title=Chaplain of Progress: The Role of Progress and Evolution in Lyman Abbott's Justification for American Expansion in 1898–1900 | author=Caleb Lagerwey | year=2012 | publisher=Calvin College | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303201920/https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6575677/CHAPLAIN%20OF%20PROGRESS-%20%20THE%20ROLE%20OF%20PROGRESS%20AND%20EVOLUTION%20IN%20LYMAN%20ABBOTT%E2%80%99S%20JUSTIFICATION%20FOR%20AMERICAN%20EXPANSION%20IN%201898-1900%20-%20Caleb%20Lagerwey.pdf | archive-date=March 3, 2016 | df=mdy-all }}, p. 8

The many diverse and prominent author who contributed tributes "demonstrated the scope and magnitude of Lyman Abbott's influence within American religious and intellectual culture during his long career."Lagerwey, "Chaplain," 8. Prominent examples include a re-published 1915 tribute from former United States president Theodore Roosevelt and articles from prestigious newspapers such as The New York Times and the New York Herald. Roosevelt praised Abbott for being "one of those men whose work and life give strength to all who believe in this country," and the New York Herald recalled Abbott's ability to "convey his valuable opinions to the entire intellectual public."{{cite web |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Eem9pK5oIhsC&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA415 |title=Outlook 132, no. 10 (November 8, 1922): 415|access-date=18 December 2012}} Dr. Henry Sloane Coffin noted at a later memorial service, "Measured by the number of people he reached, Dr. Abbott was unquestionably the greatest teacher of religion of this generation."{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/11/01/99092841.pdf |title=Many Honor Memory of Lyman Abbott |newspaper=The New York Times |page=19 |date=November 1, 1922 |access-date=2021-04-27 |archive-date=September 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927125114/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/11/01/99092841.pdf |url-status=live }}Lagerwey, "Chaplain," 7–8.

Abbott's lasting influence and widespread appeal is readily apparent in later evaluations of his life. Abbott's one biographer, Ira V. Brown, confirmed Abbott's importance via "testimonials by the dozen," and added that Abbott "directly reached several hundred thousands of people" through his work as a "minister, lecturer, author, and editor."{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=67HRAAAAMAAJ |title=Lyman Abbott, Christian evolutionist: A Study in Religious Liberalism | author=Ira V. Brown | year=1953 | publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780837128290 }} p. 240, 2. Abbott was "something of a national patriarch" by the time of his death, and according to Brown, he was "no less than a modern oracle" to thousands of followers. Abbott influenced hundreds every week through his sermons at the prestigious Plymouth Avenue Congregationalist Church. He also gave speeches at many American colleges, published several books that sold between five and ten thousand copies, and edited the Outlook that, at its peak, sold "about 125,000 copies a week."Brown, Lyman Abbott, 117–119, 140. The magazine "was a prominent news source for Protestant ministers and laypeople all over the United States, demonstrating Abbott's lasting influence."Lagerwey, "Chaplain," 9.

{{div col}}

• 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)
• [https://archive.org/stream/ArenaMagazine-Volume03/9012-arena-volume03#page/n43/mode/2up What is Christianity?] in: The Arena (1891)
• Life of Christ (1894)
• The Evolution of Christianity (1896) (Lowell Lectures, reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-108-00019-2}})
• The Theology of an Evolutionist (1897)
• Christianity and Social Problems (1897)
• Life and Letters of Paul (1898)
• The Life that Really is (1899)
• Why Go To Church? (1900) (Published in "The Day's Work Series" by L. C. Page)
• 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 (1911) (Yale Lectures on the Responsibility of Citizenship)
• Letters to Unknown Friends (1913)
• Reminiscences (1915)
• The Twentieth Century Crusade (1918)
• What Christianity Means to Me (1921)

{{end div col}}

{{Reflist}}

• Brown, Ira V. Lyman Abbott, Christian Evolutionist: A Study in Religious Liberalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953.
• Lagerwey, Caleb. "Chaplain of Progress: The Role of Progress and Evolution in Lyman Abbott's Justification for American Expansion in 1898–1900." Thesis, Calvin College, 2012. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303201920/https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6575677/CHAPLAIN%20OF%20PROGRESS-%20%20THE%20ROLE%20OF%20PROGRESS%20AND%20EVOLUTION%20IN%20LYMAN%20ABBOTT%E2%80%99S%20JUSTIFICATION%20FOR%20AMERICAN%20EXPANSION%20IN%201898-1900%20-%20Caleb%20Lagerwey.pdf] Retrieved December 18, 2012.
• Reid, Daniel G., et al. Dictionary of Christianity in America. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990.
• Wetzel, Benjamin James. "A 'Scourge and Minister': Lyman Abbott, Liberal Protestantism, and American Warfare, 1861–1920" Master's thesis, Baylor University, 2011. Retrieved from [https://beardocs.baylor.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2104/8178/benjamin_wetzel_masters.pdf?sequence=1 PDF – Baylor University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520015651/https://beardocs.baylor.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2104/8178/benjamin_wetzel_masters.pdf?sequence=1 |date=May 20, 2014 }} Retrieved December 18, 2012.
• Wetzel, Benjamin James. "Onward Christian Soldiers: Lyman Abbott's Justification of the Spanish–American War." Journal of Church and State 53, no. 3 (Summer 2012): 406–425. [http://jcs.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/11/13/jcs.csr110.full.pdf PDF]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} Retrieved January 22, 2013.

{{Commons category|Lyman Abbott}}

{{Collier's Poster|Abbott, Lyman}}

• {{Wikisource author-inline}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071012144529/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=1604| name=Lyman Abbott}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Lyman Abbott}}
• {{Librivox author |id=9546}}
• {{ChoralWiki|Lyman Abbott}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbott, Lyman}}

Category:1835 births

Category:1922 deaths

Category:19th-century American Congregationalist ministers

Category:New York University alumni

Category:19th-century American male writers

Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers

Category:American religious writers

Category:Abbott family

Category:Writers from Boston

Category:American Christian pacifists

Category:People from Farmington, Maine

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:Activists from New York (state)

Category:People from Roxbury, Boston

Category:Theistic evolutionists

Category:20th-century American male writers