The Bible against Slavery

Abstract This section contains some of Pennington’s most powerful sermons, speeches, and published letters which articulate his political theology. 3.1: The 1842 sermon “Covenants Involving Moral Wrong Are Not Obligatory Upon Man,” which builds a human rights argument on the foundation of Reformed covenant theology and republican ideas. 3.2 and 3.5: Two sermons (“The Bible against Slavery,” 1845, and Christian Zeal, 1854) which argue for the Bible’s antislavery character and defend biblical authority from proslavery theologians. 3.4: The 1854 sermon The Government of God Over Nations, in which Pennington theorizes the relation between human moral agency and divine sovereignty. 3.5: A 1843 speech condemning of racial discrimination in Christian churches. 3.6 adds some important context: Two criticisms of Pennington from antislavery activists which show Pennington’s precarity as a Black, abolitionist, New School Presbyterian minister (1853, 1854). 3.7: Three published letters by Pennington on African missions and European imperialism (1841).