Career

Asa Mahan graduated from Hamilton College in 1824, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1827. On November 10, 1829, he was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Pittsford, New York, and in 1831 he was called to the pastorate of a Presbyterian church in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a trustee of the new Lane Seminary, the only Lane administrator to vote in favor of the students' right to debate "immediatism", setting all slaves free immediately, versus colonialism, sending them to Africa. When a majority of Lane's students resigned as a group (the Lane Rebels), to end up at Oberlin a year later (1835), he did as well. At the students' insistence he was appointed President of the newly founded Oberlin Collegiate Institute, simultaneously serving as the chair of intellectual and moral philosophy (ethics) and professor of theology. The students also insisted, as a condition of their enrollment, that Oberlin admit students of all races, which Mahan's liberal views towards abolitionism and anti-slavery helped get the approval of the reluctant trustees. Oberlin was the second college to admit African Americans;^[2] the first was the Oneida Institute, a short-lived predecessor of Oberlin, which did not admit women.

"Historians...are in disagreement over the merits of succeeding quarrels between Mahan and the Oberlin faculty." Mahan was blunt and tactless, because he was so committed to reform. With hindsight, we can see how Mahan was ahead of the faculty: advocating for female equality, and defending those who were for the "immediatist" abolitionism (setting all slaves free immediately) of William Garrison.^[3]: 25

In 1844 the faculty "decided they had had enough of him" and attempted to have him removed, but "influential colleagues", including Finney, prevented it. Another attempt in 1847 also failed. In 1850, this time with Finney's support, the faculty prepared a "searing ten-count indictment" of his "overbearing behavior". He resigned.^[3]: 26 In his place, famed abolitionist and preacher Charles Finney (already an Oberlin professor) was made president of Oberlin College. Heartbroken, Mahan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and participated in the founding of Cleveland University, located in the Tremont District of the city, where he was chosen president of the school and also professor of mental and moral philosophy. However, the school had trouble attracting students and went bankrupt after only a few years, and Mahan was forced out.^[4]

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. (1 Peter 2.9, King James translation, quoted by Mahan at the beginning of Out if Darkness into Light.)

Pastoral work

In 1855, he resumed pastoral work, and had charge of Congregational parishes at Jackson, Michigan in 1855-57 and at Adrian, Michigan in 1857–60. In 1859 Mahan became the first President of Adrian College, a position he still held in 1873.^[5] Mahan moved to Eastbourne, England in 1874, where he published frequently until his death on April 4, 1889.^[6]