William Porcher DuBose

Over the years, most of the great theologians have come to us from outside the United States, but William Porcher DuBose is a home grown exception. He was born in 1836 in South Carolina and educated at the University of Virginia. He was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1861, and became an officer and chaplain in the Confederate Army. Lesser Feasts and Fasts at 296 (1980).

DuBose was professor at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and he published his first major work at the age of 56. Id.

For DuBose, life and doctrine should always be in dialogue. Id. He brought contemporary to his own strong faith resulting in a personal and scriptural universal theology. Id. As the Lesser Feasts and Fasts notes, it is not easy to capture DuBose’s thoughts easily. Id. Here is a sample of his writing and thought: “God has placed forever before our eyes, not the image but the Very Person of the Spiritual Man. We have not to ascend into Heaven to bring Him down, nor to descend into the abyss to bring Him up, for He is with us, and near us, and in us. We have only to confess with our mouths that He is Lord, and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead – and raised us in Him – and we shall live.” Id.