William Newton Clarke

Background

William Clarke was born on December 2, 1841, in Cazenovia, New York. He was the son of William, a Baptist minister, and Urania Clarke.

Education

William Clarke attended Madison University (now Colgate University), where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1861. Also, he graduated from the Colgate Seminary (now Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School). There Clarke earned a Bachelor of Divinity in 1863.

Career

William Clarke was ordained a Baptist minister in 1856. He was pastor of Baptist churches in Keene in 1856-1869, Newton Center in 1869-1880, Montreal in Canada in 1880-1983, and Hamilton in 1887-1890.

Moreover, William Clarke was an educator. He was a teacher of the New Testament at the Baptist Theological School in Toronto in 1883-1887. Then, from 1890 to 1908, he served as a J. J. Joslin Professor of Christian Theology at Colgate Seminary in Hamilton. Clarke also was a lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University in 1899, Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1901, Harvard University in 1903, and at Yale University in 1905.

Additionally, William Clarke was a writer. The truth and charm of his first well-known work, An Outline of Christian Theology, was at once recognized, and each succeeding book met a hearty welcome from readers. In 1900, William Clarke published a chastened theological evaluation of the American missionary enterprise, A Study of Christian Missions, delineating in the process a severe "crisis in missions" that helped to initiate a radical rethinking of Protestant foreign missions in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Achievements

• William Clarke was widely known as a minister, educator, and writer. He was a Pastor in the United States and Canada and taught for more than thirty years. Furthermore, William Clarke was the author of more than a dozen writings. A considerable number of letters from persons who expressive of keen interest and deep gratitude came to him for his work.

Works

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• book

  • Immortality

    (The book was published after William Clarke's death in 1912.)

    1920
  • Commentary on the Gospel of Mark 1881
  • An Outline Of Christian Theology 1894
  • Can I believe in God the Father? 1899
  • What Shall We Think of Christianity? 1899
  • A Study of Christian Missions 1900
  • The Use of the Scriptures in Theology 1905
  • The Christian Doctrine of God 1909
  • Sixty Years with the Bible a Record of Experience 1909
  • The Ideal of Jesus 1911
  • Mystery in Religion 1897

Religion

Rejecting older views of biblical inspiration and the "proof-texting" use of Scripture revered by many evangelicals, William Clarke argued that the "religious feeling" was the source of all particular faiths and norms. So that other religions differ from Christianity, not as the false differs from the true, but rather as the "less complete differs from the fuller form." Also, Clarke rejected traditional motives for "saving the lost" and criticizing Western nations for the often-imperialistic motifs masked in their support of non-Western missions. He called for a more culturally sensitive missionary enterprise, preaching a simpler and more "scientific" faith marked as much by service as by preaching.

Views

Quotations: "Faith is the daring of the soul to go farther than it can see."

Connections

William Clarke married Emily Smith on September 1, 1869.

Father:

William Clarke

Mother:

Urania Clarke

Urania Clarke's maiden name was Miner.

Wife:

Emily A. Smith