I’ve now received all of Gordon Clark’s correspondence kept at the PCA Archives in St. Louis and have read through the majority of it. Combined with material from other archives I now have 314 letters, 102 sermons, and countless articles written by Gordon Clark. Here are some items of interest: 1. There are extant a …
With all his ecclesiastical controversy and time spent defending the faith, it could almost be overlooked that Dr. Gordon Clark was firstly a philosophy professor. A summary of the courses he taught in his years at Butler University and Covenant College is shown. Perhaps the funniest part here is that he had to teach “Introduction …
With all his ecclesiastical controversy and time spent defending the faith, it could almost be overlooked that Dr. Gordon Clark was firstly a philosophy professor. A summary of the courses he taught in his years at Butler University and Covenant College is shown. Perhaps the funniest part here is that he had to teach “Introduction …
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From the Indianapolis News, with multiple spelling errors: On the defense of compulsory unionism which alleges that unions confer benefits on all laborers, Dr. Clark says: “The unions make a spacious [sic] defense by claiming that all workmen should help pay for the privileges that the unions have won. “This piece of propaganda is exploded …
This letter is notable for a couple reasons. Firstly, it notes that the Calvinist booklets Hamilton sent to the College were “accidentally” trashed. Secondly, Hamilton expresses his concern for Wheaton College’s actions which led to the resignation of Gordon Clark.
Although this copy comes from the file of Wheaton President, V. Raymond Edman, it is unsigned. Its context may be related to discussions with Edman and and Butler University who was making an inquiry into Dr. Clark’s job history prior to hiring him.
In this article Dr. Gordon Clark critiques hyper-calvinism and argues that we should preach the Gospel to “all that we possibly, or at least conveniently, can.”
From the “Clark Collection” at Sangre de Cristo.
It is surprising how little information on Dr. Clark there is in his faculty file at Butler University considering the fact that he taught there for 28 years. Unlike Wheaton College, which has a collection of letters between Dr. Clark and two presidents of the institution, Butler has just a few scraps of information. One …
The oldest letter in the Gordon Clark collection is one of his father’s. In 1880 James Brush of Mount Union College sent a letter of recommendation for David Scott Clark. It would have been in the summer after David Scott Clark’s first year at the college. In reads: Mount Union, July 18, 1880 To whom …
Last fall at the Sangre de Cristo Seminary I spent a few long evenings in the “Clark Library” perusing material from the Gordon Clark Collection. The collection of books towers to the extent of your reach and stretches to just a few inches off the floor on bookshelves forming the entire interior western wall of …
The law of contradiction requires that a word have a definite meaning. Now if a word has all possible meanings, it means nothing. Suppose there was a word in the dictionary and you look it up in the dictionary and the meanings were all other words in the dictionary. Suppose the word were automobile. The …
The picture below is of an original note of Gordon Clark’s on the topic “The Word Knowledge.” Harkening back to the “Clark-Van Til Controversy” he writes about a distinction between the “mode” and “object” of knowledge. This distinction, seemingly ungrasped by the authors of “The Complaint”, would have, if accepted, helped clarify a major misunderstanding …
One of the interesting letters I’ve found in the “Clark Library” at Sangre de Cristo Seminary is from Bernard Ramm to Gordon Clark. Unfortunately, no date is listed on this letter. Bernard Ramm (1916-1992) was a leading Baptist theologian and apologist. It reads in part: Dear Gordon: This is just a word of thanks! Last …
In a letter from Gordon Clark to Cornelius Van Til, August 28, 1937, he writes: ; “Perhaps you will admit this criticism so far as it goes, and reply that you rest your proposition on the necessity of solving the one and many problem. To this I would suggest that Christianity does not face the …
Gordon Clark and the "non-problem" of the One and the Many Read More »
For part of the biography I’m writing on Gordon Clark I’m researching into the relationship of Clark to his later philosophic adversary, Cornelius Van Til. In 1936 (and perhaps in later years) Clark actually taught from Van Til’s material at Wheaton College. In prior years it seems they knew each other in Philadelphia and often …
The complaint against the ordination of Gordon Clark to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1944 consisted of four theological issues (The incomprehensibility of God, divine sovereignty and human responsibility, the faculties of knowledge, and the Free Offer of the Gospel ) but underlying these issues was a single concern; one of hermeneutical method. The method …
I’ve been continuing to make significant progress on the biography of Gordon Clark I am researching and writing. Here are a number of items I’ve recently discovered. 1. I’ve found that in the 1940’s there was a movement started in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church to form a Christian University. They had already had a seminary …
Notes on the Progress of the Gordon Clark Biography Read More »
