Howard Evan Runner Collection, 1928-2004 | Heritage Hall, Hekman Library

By Paul Bremer, March 2011

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Collection Overview

Title: Howard Evan Runner Collection, 1928-2004

ID: COLL/509

Primary Creator: Runner, Howard Evan (1916-2002)

Extent: 35.0 Boxes. More info below.

Arrangement: Folder level description

Date Acquired: 00/00/2008

Abstract

Professor of philosophy at Calvin College. The collection includes biographical and autobiographical information; course notes; correspondence; speeches, lectures, and sermons; materials regarding the Groen van Prinsterer Club; articles and book reviews; positions papers; D. H. Vollenhoven and H. Dooyeweerd material; creation/evolution debate material; an unpublished book, Perspectives in Philosophy, material; subject files with comments and reflections; Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship (AACS), Association of Reformed Scientific Studies (ARSS), Christian Labor Association (CLA), Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC ), National Association for Christian Political Action (NACPA), and Institute for Christian Studies (ICS) materials; and select papers written by other authors. [See also the Campus Titles Database.]

Biographical Note

Howard Evan Runner, known as H. Evan Runner or simply Evan Runner, was born in 1916 in Oxford, Pennsylvania, to Howard Clinton Runner and Sara Mabel Watterson. In his early years Runner had a love of philosophy and language-and a desire to be a missionary. He graduated from West Philadelphia High School in 1932; from Wheaton College in 1936. Although he received a scholarship to study at the University of Illinois, he went to Westminster Seminary for advanced studies. Cornelius Van Til of Westminster convinced him to learn the Dutch language so he would be able to pursue some significant thinkers of the Netherlands. Runner went to the Netherlands in 1939 and studied with Klaas Schilder and Seakle Greijdanus at the Theological School in Kampen. He returned to the US in early 1940 and went to Harvard, studing with Werner Jaeger and was a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University from 1941-1943.

After leaving Harvard he taught English and Latin at Eastern Academy in Paterson, New Jersey. He returned to the Netherlands in 1946 to study at the Free University and began to appreciate the work of reformational philosophers Herman Dooyeweerd and Dirk Hendrik Theodoor Vollenhoven. He received his doctorate in1951 cum laude.

In 1950 he joined the Philosophy Department at Calvin College. He taught with zeal and gathered students from various disciplines into the Groen van Prinsterer Society. These students became his friends and collegues. His dedication and teaching a new vision of Christian Philosphy earned Runner the Faith and Teaching Award from the Calvin Alumni Association.

He developed a program of study which included "who the Puritans were, the meaning of the Enlightenment, its influence in America, the basic ideas of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the nature of Scholasticism, particularly as manifested in Reformed theology, the concept of natural law, the religious ground-motives that have successively given order to the experience of Western man, the origins of capitalsm, the rise of the labor movement, etc."

Runner was instrumental in formation and leadership of the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship. Many of his students established their own careers, often at Christian colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

Runner was married to Elisabeth Hendrika Wichers. They had three children, Evan, Cathy, and Jocelyn. He died in 2002.

Administrative Information

Repository: Heritage Hall, Hekman Library

Alternate Extent Statement: Boxes

Acquisition Source: Evan W. Runner, June 2008

Related Materials: Audio recordings of some of Evan Runner's classroom lectures were recorded on cassette tape and can be found in the Campus Titles database. For more information please see https://calvin.edu/offices-services/information-technology/contact/audio-visual/titles/.

Other Note: Acc. No. 08.31

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Runner Biographical and Autobiographical, 1928-2004],
[Series 2: Seminary Course Notes, undated],
[Series 3: Correspondence, 1930-1999],
[Series 4: Groen van Prinsterer Society, 1951-1976],
[Series 5: D. H. Vollenhoven Material, 1942-1981],
[Series 6: H. Dooyeweerd Material, 1933-1994],
[Series 7: Creation/Evolution Debate Material, 1953-1994],
[Series 8: Lecture Notes, 1952-1984, undated],
[Series 9: Speeches, Lectures, and Sermons, 1953-1990],
[Series 10: Papers Written, 1951-1981],
[Series 11: Perspectives Material, undated],
[Series 12: Subject Files and Comments/Reflections, 1954-1987],
[Series 13: Material re: National Association for Christian Political Action (NACPA), Association for Reformed Scientific Studies (ARSS), Institute for Christian Studies (ICS), and Christian Labor Association (CLA), 1961-1997],
[Series 14: Papers by Authors Other than H. Evan Runner, 1938-1992],
[Series 15: Varia, 1939-1981],
[Series 16: Photographs],
[All]

Series 5: D. H. Vollenhoven Material --- 1942-1981

Box 9

Folder 10: Translation of D. H. Vollenhoven material --- undated
Folder 11: "Theoretische Psychologie" by D. H. Vollenhoven --- 1942-1943
Folder 12: "Historia Philosophiae: Pre-Platonische Philosophie" by D.H. Vollenhoven, with notes by H. Evan Runner --- 1946
Folder 13: "Conspectus Historiae II" by D. H. Vollenhoven --- 1947
Folder 14: Kort Overzicht over de Geschiedenis Wijsbegeerte by D.H. Vollenhoven --- 1947
Folder 15: D. H. Vollenhoven's notes on typology --- 1960-1961

Box 10

Folder 1: Notes on D.H. Vollenhoven's re: Aristotle --- 1949

Folder 2: Speech by Vollenhoven "Faith: Its Nature and Structure, and Its Significance for Science" given at the Student Conference on faith, science, and the scientist --- 1950

Folder 3: "Wijsgerige Athropologie" by D.H. Vollenhoven --- 1958-1959

Folder 4: D. H. Vollenhoven lectures --- 1960-1972

Folder 5: Paper by D. H. Vollenhoven "Monarchianisme" --- 1961

Folder 6: Paper by D. H. Vollenhoven "Schematische Kaarten Met Register" --- 1962

Folder 7: Article in The Christian Vanguard "At the Beginning" by D.H. Vollenhoven, from an address given at the Unionville Conference --- 1961

Folder 8: Paper by D. H. Vollenhoven "Schematische Kaarten met Register" --- 1962

Folder 9: Copies of Correspondentie-Bladen articles re: Vollenhoven --- 1964-1965

Folder 10: Paper by D. H. Vollenhoven "De Conceptie Van Arnoldus Geulincx" --- 1967

Folder 11: Paper by D. H. Vollenhoven "De Wisselwerkingstheorie in de Oudheid I" --- 1967

Folder 12: Article "At the Beginning" in The Christian Vanguard by D. H. Vollenhoven --- 1968

Folder 13: University lectures by D. H. Vollenhoven --- 1964-1969

Folder 14: Isagooge Philosophiae by D. H. Vollenhoven --- 1967

Folder 15: "Problemen Van de tijd in onze kring" by D. H. Vollenhoven --- 1968

Folder 16: Articles and correspondence re: death of D. H. Vollenhoven

Item 1: Obituary by Hendrik Hart --- 1978
Item 2: Obituary in Mededeling --- 1978
Item 3: Letter from Jan D. Dengerink --- 1978
Item 4: Letter from "Tol", obituary in Vanguard --- 1978
Item 5: Article in Donderdag --- 1978
Item 6: Article in Opbouw --- 1978

Folder 17: Article in Pro Rege "Vollenhoven and Thinking in the Light of Scripture" by John H. Kok --- 1992

Folder 18: Article "Background to Vollenhoven's Historiographic Methodology" author unknkown --- undated

Box 11

Folder 1: Miscellaneous writings by D. H. Vollenhoven

Item 1: "Wisselwerkingstheorie" --- 1959-1960
Item 2: "Typologie," "Monarchianisme" --- 1961-1962
Item 3: "Hoofdtrekken der Wijsgerige Promlematiek" --- undated

Folder 2: Miscellaneous writings by D. H. Vollenhoven

Item 1: "Geschiedenis van de Wijsgerige Anthropology" --- 1961-1962
Item 2: "Mystiek Bij de Gereformeerde Gezindte" --- 1954
Item 3: "Wijsgerige Anthropologie (Typologie)" --- 1958-1959
Item 4: "Addende: Geesch. Anthropology Colleges" --- 1962-1963
Item 5: "Anthropologie (Typologie) Cursus" re: Plato, Stoics, Tertullian --- 1962-1963
Item 6: "Anthropologie (systematische) = Typologie" --- 1960-1961

Folder 3: Papers by Vollenhoven

Item 1: "History of Philosophy" --- undated
Item 2: "Emergence of the Theme of Apriori in Hellenistic Age" --- undated

Folder 4: Paper by Vollenhoven, "Excurs over Anaximandros" --- undated

Folder 5: Translations of Vollenhoven's material on Socrates

Item 1: "Griekse Filosofie III" Syllabus --- 1960
Item 2: "Non-mathematical Objection to the Individualist" --- undated
Item 3: "Mathematical Objectivism" --- undated
Item 4: "Subjectivism after Socrates" --- undated
Item 5: "Purely Cosmological Non-mathematical Objectivism" --- undated
Item 6: "The Non-contradictory Movement" --- undated
Item 7: "De Semi-contradictory Direction" --- undated

Folder 6: Lecture by Vollenhoven "Pietisme en Calvinisme" --- undated

Folder 7: Comments by Vollenhoven re: historical methodology for philosophy --- 1933

Folder 8-9: "Syllabus for Philosophy 300" by H. E. Runner based on material from D.H. Vollenhoven's "Geschiedenis der Wijsbeerte" --- undated

Item 1: "Introduction," History of Philosophy before the Rise of Synthesis" --- undated
Item 2: "The Partial-Universalistic Subjectivists" --- undated
Item 3: "The Individualistic Subjectivists: The Early Sophists" --- undated
Item 4: "Mythologizing Thinking" --- undated
Item 5: "Non-Mythologizing Thinking" --- undated
Item 6: "Appendix" --- undated
Item 7: "Objectivism" --- undated
Item 8: "The Universalists" --- undated, 1953-1954

Folder 10: Paper by Vollenhoven "Sphere Sovereignty as Seen by Kuyper and Ous" --- undated

Folder 11: Notes re: Vollenhoven's view on pragmatism and James --- undated

Folder 12: Notes re: Vollenhoven's analysis of Aquinas' philosophical development --- 1961

Folder 13: Paper by Vollenhoven "Levens-Eenheid (Harmony of Life)," 1955, sent to E.H. Runner in --- 1981

Folder 14: Notes re: Vollenhoven's "The Process of Plato's Development" --- undated