Frederick Douglass

In Frederick Douglass D. H. Dilbeck offers a religiously oriented study—not a conventional biography—of Frederick Douglass, emphasizing the pervasive importance of Christianity in his life and thought. Dilbeck relies heavily on Douglass's speeches, in which “more than anywhere else, Douglass most clearly voiced his prophetic theology” (p. 7). This work is compact and attractively written, and is a concise biographical treatment. Dilbeck effectively treats the significant episodes and themes of Douglass's story, from his early life in slavery to his later public life in which he is portrayed as a “hopeful prophet” (p. 91). Dilbeck wants readers to observe that Douglass's thoughts on slavery were theologically framed and essentially prophetic. For instance, Douglass often used religious polemics against slavery; he drew a clear distinction between the nature of white Christianity and the religion of Jesus; and he “crafted his own theodicy” so that God's mysterious ways were justified despite the evil of humanity (p. 18). Douglass's religious life began in pious Methodism and ended in a kind of nonaffiliated theism, in which he saw God's role in human progress as foundational rather than immediate in providence. In 1870 Douglass controversially questioned Christians thanking God alone for their progress, stating that credit should also be given to “good men—who are God in the flesh” (p. 145

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