Abstract

Ezekiel Gilman Robinson became professor of biblical theology at Rochester Theological Seminary in 1853. From 1860 until 1872 he was president of that institution and from 1872 until 1889 was president of Brown University. During the middle and late nineteenth century, he was very influential among Baptists in the North. Very little has been written about him, and no complete assessment of his theology or his theological development exists. This dissertation attempts to discern how Robinson's context shaped his thought and to determine the overall shape of his theology. Following this purpose, the scope of this study encompasses Robinson's context, middle nineteenth-century American Protestant theology, and Robinson's theology as revealed in his writings. ;The method of research is primarily documentary. It centers around an investigation of Robinson's writings and related material. A twofold approach provides its critical edge. First, the contours of Robinson's context are traced by investigating the impact of the American Evangelical awakenings and the European philosophical and theological developments on the American theological tradition. Robinson's autobiography serves as a guide in tracing these influences upon his thought. Second, Robinson's writings are examined to determine the main lines of his theology. The program laid out in his Christian Theology serves as the fulcrum for the investigation of his other works. ;The principal conclusions reached are as follows. The overall shape of Robinson's theology is that of a moral matrix in which God and humans relate as moral beings. His theology was shaped by the convergence of the Reformed tradition with the American Evangelical awakenings and the Enlightenment. A crucial element in this convergence was the transition from Scottish "Common Sense" Realism to Kantianism. Within the context of nineteenth-century American Protestant theology, Robinson appears to have been basically an Old School type of theologian who attempted to come to terms with the challenges of modernity within the framework of Evangelical moral philosophy. In so doing, he seems to have avoided both the radical side of liberalism and the stagnant side of conservatism. Within the context of Baptist theology, he was a transitional figure, who introduced broader theological elements into Baptist life and thought