Abbott, Lyman

Abbott, Lyman,

1835–1922, American clergyman and editor, b. Roxbury, Mass., son of Jacob Abbott. He was ordained a minister in 1860 and was pastor in several churches before succeeding Henry Ward Beecher at the Plymouth Congregational Church, Brooklyn, in 1888. With Beecher he had begun in 1876 to edit the Christian Union, the name of which he changed in 1893 to the Outlook. He championed a modern rational outlook in American Christianity. His works include The Theology of an Evolutionist (1897), Henry Ward Beecher (1903), and Reminiscences (rev. ed. 1923).

Bibliography

See biography by I. V. Brown (1953, repr. 1970).

Abbott, Lyman

(1835–1922) Congregational clergyman, editor; born in Roxbury, Mass. He graduated from New York University (1853) and joined a law firm before turning to the ministry and becoming ordained in 1860. Between 1860–65, he had a parish in Terre Haute, Ind. At the end of the Civil War, he went to New York City, where, in addition to serving a parish, he worked with the American Union Commission for more sympathetic reconstruction policies in the South. He became editor of a new periodical, The Illustrated Christian Weekly (1870–76), then joined Henry Ward Beecher at the Christian Union; Abbott replaced Beecher as editor in 1881 and the magazine's name was changed to Outlook in 1893. When Beecher died in 1890, Abbott took over his Brooklyn parish; he retired in 1899 to devote his final years to editing, writing, and guest preaching and speaking. He was noted for the intelligence, balance, and tolerance that he combined with traditional Christian teachings.