Gordon Haddon Clark (August 31, 1902-April 9, 1985) was an American philosopher and Calvinist theologian. He was a primary advocate for the idea of presuppositional apologetics and was chairman of the Philosophy Department at Butler University for 28 years. He was an expert in pre-Socratic and ancient philosophy and was noted for his rigor in defending Platonic realism against all forms of empiricism, in arguing that all truth is propositional, and in applying the laws of logic.

Biography

Clark was raised as a Christian, and studied Calvinist thought from a young age. In 1924, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree and earned his doctoral degree from the same institution in 1929. The following year, he studied at the Sorbonne.

He began teaching at the University of Pennsylvania after receiving his bachelor's degree and also taught at Reformed Episcopal Seminary in Philadelphia. In 1936, he accepted a professorship in philosophy at Wheaton College, where he remained until 1944, when he accepted a position at position at Butler University. In 1974, he left Butler and taught at several institutions, including Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia and Sangre de Cristo Seminary in Westcliffe, Colorado.

In 1944, Clark was ordained as a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In the years that followed, Clark would change denominations several times: first to the United Presbyterian Church of North America in 1948 following the Clark-Van Til Controversy and then to the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, General Synod in 1957. Clark was there instrumental in arranging a merger with another Presybterian denomination to form the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod in 1965. When this last denomination merged with the Presbyterian Church in America in 1983, Clark refused to join, and instead entered the Covenant Presbytery in 1984.

After his death in 1985, his funeral services were held in Westcliffe, Colorado, where his body is interred.

Publications

Clark was a prolific author who wrote around forty books ranging from texts on ancient and contemporary philosophy to volumes on individual Christian doctrines to essays on education and politics to commentaries for laymen on the epistles of the New Testament:

Philosophy

• An Introduction to Christian Philosophy, in which Clark's thought is well summarized in three lectures given at Wheaton College (ISBN 0940931389)
• Three Types of Religious Philosophy (ISBN 0940931214)
• Thales to Dewey, a history of philosophy (ISBN 0940931265)
• Ancient Philosophy, Dr. Clark's section of a History of Philosophy, which he co-published with three other authors; also includes eleven major essays, including his doctoral dissertation on Aristotle (ISBN 0940931494)
• William James and John Dewey (ISBN 0940931435)
• Behaviorism and Christianity (ISBN 9997791185)
• Philosophy of Science and Belief in God (ISBN 0940931850)
• Historiography: Secular and Religious (ISBN 0940931397)
• A Christian View of Men and Things, which develops Clark's Christian worldview (ISBN 1891777017)
• A Christian Philosophy of Education (ISBN 0940931206)
• Logic, a text book on logic for students (ISBN 0940931974)
• Essays on Ethics and Politics (ISBN 094093132X)
• Lord God of Truth printed with Concerning the Teacher by St. Augustine (ISBN 0940931400)
• Selections from Hellenistic Philosophy edited by Clark (ISBN 0891973966)
• Readings in Ethics edited by Clark and T. V. Smith (ISBN 0390195456)
• Clark Speaks from the Grave written just before Clark died and published posthumously responding to some of his critics (ISBN 0940931125)

Theology

• In Defense of Theology (ISBN 0880621230)
• Religion, Reason, and Revelation, Clark's major work on apologetics (ISBN 0940931869)
• God's Hammer : The Bible and Its Critics (ISBN 0940931885)
• What Do Presbyterians Believe?, a commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith (ISBN 0940931605)
• Predestination, the combined edition of Biblical Predestination and Predestination in the Old Testament; a study of the idea of election in the Bible (ISBN 087552169X)
• Karl Barth's Theological Method (ISBN 0940931516)
• Language and Theology (ISBN 0940931907)
• The Johannine Logos (ISBN 0940931222)
• Faith and Saving Faith (ISBN 0940931958); reissued as What is Saving Faith? (ISBN 0940931656)
• Today's Evangelism: Counterfeit or Genuine? (ISBN 0940931281)
• The Biblical Doctrine of Man (ISBN 0940931915)
• The Incarnation (ISBN 0940931230)
• The Holy Spirit (ISBN 0940931370)
• The Atonement (ISBN 0940931176)
• Sanctification (ISBN 0940931338)
• The Trinity (ISBN 0940931923)

Commentaries

• First Corinthians: A Contemporary Commentary (ISBN 094093129X)
• Ephesians (ISBN 0940931117)
• Philippians (ISBN 0940931478)
• Colossians (ISBN 0940931257)
• First and Second Thessalonians (ISBN 0940931141)
• The Pastoral Epistles on the first and second letters to Timothy and Titus (ISBN 189177705X)
• New Heavens, New Earth on the first and second letters of Peter (ISBN 0940931362)
• First John (ISBN 094093194X)

Additionally, Ronald Nash edited a Festschrift The Philosophy of Gordon H. Clark (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1968), which presented a summary of Clark's thought (viz., the Wheaton lectures mentioned above), critiques by several authors, and then a response by Clark.

External links

• The Trinity Foundation reprints Clark's works and publishes those of his followers. They have books, articles, and audio available for free and for a fee.
• Summaries of Clark has chapter-by-chapter summaries by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon of some of Clark's most well-known works.
• The Gordon Clark Papers, archived by the Presbyterian Church of America.

Miscellaneous Articles

• "Natural Law and Revelation", a paper by Gordon Clark, published by The Christian Statesman.
• The Trinity Review, a publication of the Trinity Foundation that has articles by Clark and his followers.

Audio

• The Trinity Lectures in MP3 format free for download (but not streaming), including Clark's Lectures in Apologetics, Lectures on Theology, and Lectures on the Holy Spirit.