The Clark-Van Til Controversy

by Herman Hoeksema

Non-fiction

Genres: Theology

94 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965), a Dutch Reformed theologian, was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to the USA in 1904. After studying at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he began his ministerial career in the Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church of Grand Rapids - at that time one of the largest reformed congregations in the United States.

Hoeksema was one of the principal founders of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC). Founded as a separate denomination of Reformed churches in 1924, the PRC stand in the tradition of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Their origin as a denomination was the doctrinal controversy over "common grace" within the Christian Reformed Church in the early 1920s, occasioned by that church's adoption of the doctrine of common grace as official church dogma. The result of the controversy was that several ministers with their congregations were put out of the Christian Reformed Church. These men then established the Protestant Reformed Churches.

The newly-formed PRC denomination established the Protestant Reformed Seminary where Hoeksema served as professor of theology for 40 years.

Reviews

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having completed this excellent summary of the controversy, it is difficult to dismiss the possibility that Van Til, at certain points, was not at all Reformed in outlook. Clark acquitted himself masterfully in the controversy while the complainants are found to be arguing in a thoroughly Arminian vein at several points themselves. Having accused Clark of indulging rationalism in his interpretation of the incomprehensibility of God, they appear to be guilty of some projection. Hoeksema demonstrates the woeful inadequacy of the complainants in their accusations, particularly on this question of Clark's alleged 'rationalism.'

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting reading. I find I fall in line completely with Clark on each point of the controversy. A shame that Van Til has such glory and Clark is almost unknown.

[Wayne Larson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Someone needs to tell these guys that the postmodern train has left the station. This whole debate is utterly irrelevant to anything.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the second read-through, some of the flaws that bothered me in passing came into sharp relief. It's not that the author doesn't have a point about power politics and the church - it's that he has a very definite agenda. Nearly anything that the Van Til crowd does is shown in rather a boorish, foot-stomping light of tantrums, while anything that Clark does seems to be shown in a martyr-to-the-cause light. I'm not impressed by the author's apparent desire to appear as a mediator and objective observer of both sides. If that were so, Hoeksema might have done his own and Gordon Clark's opponents the grace of offering Clark's justifications in Clark's own words. There's a shadowed attempt to cast Clark in a Jesus-like role of silence before his accusers, punctuated by random outbursts of philosophical justification.

The legal style of the book masks the fact that Clark is repeatedly denying that he said or meant this or that, but hardly ever explaining (a) why his appointment as a teaching elder in the OPC was such a sticky point, and (b) what his odd theological views really are. The back-and-forth between the Clark followers versus the Van Til followers make me convinced that, even if both of these men were the towering giants of intellect that their followers say they are, both teachers let their followers do and say far more than was beneficial to the church at large. I especially liked the kindly but firm slap given to the Philadelphia Presbytery branch of the OPC's, in that they had allowed a small controversy to flame into a much larger issue by allowing Gordon Clark to be nominated to a position of authority in an irregular fashion.

Church politics usually offer a great deal of heat and smoke without much light. Whether or not the author intended to show this aspect of human behavior, it's clear to me why the Apostle Paul had a great deal of strong words to say about man's desire to puff himself up (and his ideas) by virtue of world-centered philosophy, rather than dealing with fellow believers in light of their relation to Christ. This book centers around man and the outworking of his conception of God, and doesn't give much glory to God at all.

[Ryan Watkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been trying to learn more of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s history. This book explains the controversy involving Gordon Clark and his departure from the denomination. The author primarily defends Clark against the accusations brought against him. Cornelius Van Til: Reformed Apologist and Churchman by John Muether gives a good account of the controversy from a pro-Van Til perspective.

[Kevin Alawine · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all it wasn't written by John Robbins. Second, it was a very enlightening book on the controversy. Some seem to believe that Hoeksema was biased in Clark's favor. I don't get that from the book.