500th Post: An Indulgent Look Back

This will be the fifth post in this series of reflections (link, link, link, link). In the past half year, I've only written three original posts: one on original sin, one on Eastern Orthodoxy, and one in which I finally finished a review of Shawn Lazar's book, Scripturalism and the Senses. 

I plan to revisit the first two topics in the future, but I am particularly pleased with the result of the review series. In fact, I am satisfied that the entire series (link) gives a good summary of the way I think about Christian epistemology and apologetics. It might even be thought of as my first, shadowy attempt at a book length treatment on the subjects (made easier by the fact that they heavily engage an actual book).

The vast majority of my last 100 posts, however, have been transcribing or editing various works by Gordon Clark into a legibly digitized and searchable format. I was able to do a lot of this over Christmas break, doing 96 (!) in the last three weeks. I don't know how often I will get a stretch of time off from work at the same time I have the inclination to sit down and work on an ongoing Gordon Clark project, so I have tried to strike while the iron is hot. 

To outline in what way the Clark project I have in mind has developed, I now view it in four phases:

Phase 1: I have nearly finished creating a chronological bibliography of Gordon Clark's works. By that, I mean that I have nearly put everything of which I am aware - his letters, sermons, reviews, articles, books - in historical order. 

Additionally, for as many works as possible, I am creating embedded hyperlinks to online, searchable formats of them. The reason why I have been recently putting out a high number of posts on Clark is that these works are not readily available in digitized, searchable format. That is, the transcribed posts I've created are searchable formats of Clark's works that cannot be found publicly here, here, etc. I am hoping to complete this aspect of the project relatively soon (or as much as can be done without visiting locations with special archives). 

The point of phase 1 is twofold: 1) to enable others to research or read Clark's works more easily, and 2) to make the subsequent phases easier. 

Phase 2: Phase 2 will be the updating of the original Gordon Clark project in which I plan to document what I have found to be the most interesting and informative philosophical or theological thoughts and arguments Clark made throughout his works. My most recent published edition of what I have in mind when I talk about phase 2 can be found here (795 pages), and since then, I have a document that is well over a 1,000 pages of searchable material.

I am also now reediting this phase 2 document so that whatever I end up choosing as Clark's most interesting and informative philosophical or theological thoughts and arguments follows the chronological order of the bibliography from phase 1. That is, people not only will be able to more understand what Clark said but also when Clark said it. This, in turn, will help with phase 3.

Phase 3: I want to show how Clark thought over time. Many people have written books on what Gordon Clark thought, but there has not been as much said, for example, about whether or how his thought changed over time. Still less is there justification for some assertions that have been made to this end. I have tried to show indications of such changes here and there on this blog (examples: link, link, link), but once phase 2 is complete, I should be able to evidence claims I make more easily. This also would help to show in what ways Clark's thought did not change, in what ways Clark was able to develop his own thought, etc.

Phase 4: Once I have created an ordered, linked list of Clark's works, selected what I find to be important thoughts from them, and make inferences about what this means Clark thought over time, the final phase I have in mind is to further develop Clark's thought along lines that I think would be most advantageous. I've actually done this many times on this blog (see any post related to contemporary epistemology), but the goal of phases 3 and 4 in particular will be to write a more scholarly, thorough, and grounded (e.g. in prior phases) presentation - something worth publishing not only on my blog but also for the benefit of a much wider audience.

In short, the point of this project will be to write real books. I've mentioned (in person and on this blog, link) that I have mostly blogged or podcasted for my own benefit and/or for the benefit of those nearest to me. As someone who was, when I started blogging, new to Reformed theology, apologetics, and epistemology, I think the right approach (at the time) was to consider the point of this blog as an outlet for reflection as I tried to grow in knowledge of the faith. 

There comes a time to be somewhat more ambitious, however. Humility is not an excuse for laziness, and I do not want to put what talents I think God has given me to waste. I have plenty of areas in which I lack talent. But I do have reason to think I have some talent for teaching (I am a teacher, after all) and for writing about Christian philosophy and theology. Myself and many others have been helped in their thoughts on these subjects by Gordon Clark. Even if God may have only gifted me one or two talents rather than five, I hope and pray I can make some sort of contribution to the benefit of others as Clark and others have. That will be the goal of this project, to the glory of God.