Albert Elijah Dunning

Background

Albert Elijah Dunning was born on January 5, 1844 in Brookfield, Connecticut, United States. He was the only son of Elijah Starr Dunning, a farmer of Brookfield, Connecticut, and his wife, Abigail Emily Beach.

Education

When Dunning was six years old, the family moved to the neighboring town of Bridgewater, where Albert’s boyhood was spent in farm work and at the district school. He spent a year at the Institute at Fort Edward, New York, and graduated at Bryant & Stratton’s Business College at Albany in 1862. He prepared himself for Yale and entered the class of 1867 in the spring of its freshman year. Graduating with high academic and social honors, he proceeded to Andover Seminary where he graduated in 1870. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Beloit College in 1889.

Career

Dunning's only pastorate was that of the Highland Congregational Church in the Roxbury district of Boston, where he was ordained and installed September 29, 1870.

He was secretary of the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society from 1881 to 1889, and editor of The Congregationalist from 1889 to 1911. Dunning’s remarkable aptitude as an interpreter of the Bible began to show itself during his pastorate, especially in connection with the Sunday school, and his important work with men’s Bible classes, begun then, continued in various connections throughout his life.

He was a member of the International Sunday School Committee from 1884 to 1891 and was for several years in charge of the Sunday-school normal work at Chautauqua.

The earlier years of Dunning’s editorship of The Congregationalist were a period of theological transition. The Congregational churches were passing from the older orthodoxy of the New England theology to a larger way of looking at the Bible and religious truth; and his true liberality, coupled with his rare tact and wisdom, did much toward bringing his denomination through this critical period without disruption.

He was the author of the following books: The Sunday School Library (1883); Bible Studies (1886); Congregationalists in America (1894) ; and The Making of the Bible (1911).

After the close of his editorship, he engaged in varied professional and literary labor till a few months before his death which occurred at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts.

During his latter years he served for several periods as acting pastor of the Congregational Church at Bowdon, Cheshire, England, performing an especially valuable wartime service there in 1916. He traveled extensively, making a trip around the world in 1911-12.

Achievements

• Through his varied activities in this department, Dunning's contribution toward bringing the instruction in the Sunday schools of the country into line with modern biblical study was important.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Our Heritage, Old South Church, 1669-1919

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Bible studies for normal classes, assemblies, Bible students, & Sunday-school teachers
  • Congregationalists in America: A Popular History of Their Origin, Belief, Polity, Growth and Work

Personality

Dunning was endowed with the social graces, had a keen sense of humor, and his circle of friends was international.

Connections

On December 27, 1870 Dunning married Harriet Westbrook of Kingston, New York, who survived him with their three sons and one daughter.

Father:

Elijah Starr Dunning

Mother:

Abigail Emily Beach

Spouse:

Harriet Westbrook