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 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

He died in 1985 and was buried in Westcliffe, Colorado.

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 (ISBN 0940931389), in which Clark's thought is well summarized in three lectures given at Wheaton College, reissued in Christian Philosophy (ISBN 1891777025)
• Three Types of Religious Philosophy, reissued in Christian Philosophy (ISBN 1891777025)
• Thales to Dewey, a history of philosophy (ISBN 1891777092)
• 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 0940931044)
• 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 1891777009)
• A Christian Philosophy of Education (ISBN 1891777068)
• Logic, a text book on logic for students (ISBN 0940931710)
• 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, a book critical of Barth (ISBN 0940931516)
• Language and Theology (ISBN 0940931907)
• The Johannine Logos, on John the Evangelist's use of the term 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 0940931877)
• 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 1891777041)
• 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.

Miscellaneous Articles

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

Audio

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