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book reviews; positions papers; D. H. Vollenhoven and H. Dooyeweerd material; creation/evolution debate material; an unpublished book, Perspectives in Philosophy, material; subject files with comments and reflections; Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship (AACS),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 8: Lecture Notes --- 1952-1984, undated

Box 15

Folder 1: Syllabus for Philosophy 220 "The History of Philosophy" --- 1958-1959
Folder 2: Drafts for Ancient Philosophy exams --- 1966
Folder 3: Material for tutorial on Ancient Philosophy --- 1983-1984
Folder 4: Miscellaneous notes for Ancient Philosophy courses --- 1968-1969
Folder 5: Preliminary material for Philosophy 300 "History of Ancient Philosophy" --- undated
Folder 6: Syllabus for Philosophy 220 "History of Ancient Philosophy" with additional notes --- 1968-1969
Folder 7: Notes for Philosophy 151 and 152 --- 1973
Folder 8: Notes for Philosophy 151 and 152 --- 1975-1976
Folder 9: Reading lists for Philosophy 151 and 152 --- undated
Folder 10: Notes for "Perspectives" course --- 1959

Box 16

Folder 1: Notes for "Perspectives" course --- 1964-1966
Folder 2: Notes for "Perspectives" course --- 1974-1975
Folder 3: Notes for "Christian Perspectives in Philosophy" course --- 1973-1974
Folder 4: Notes for "Perspectives" course --- 1976-1977
Folder 5: Notes for "Perspectives" course --- 1983-1984
Folder 6: Notes for "Perspectives" course, Philosophy 101 --- undated
Folder 7: Notes for "Perspectives" course, Philosophy 101 --- undated
Folder 8: Notes for "Perspectives" course: "Relation of 18th Century to 17th Century" --- undated
Folder 9: Notes for "CPOL (Christian Perspectives on Learning)" course --- 1978
Folder 10: Notes for Philosophy 300 course: "Modern Philosophy," --- 1951-1952
Folder 11: Notes for "19th Century" Philosophy course --- undated
Folder 12: Material for "History of Modern Philosophy" course: book by Edgar A. Singer Jr. entitled Experience and Reflection --- undated

Box 17

Folder 1: Notes for section on Kant from course on "German Idealism" --- 1973
Folder 2: Notes for possible book/course on "German Idealism" --- undated
Folder 3: Notes for course on "German Idealism" --- 1972-1973
Folder 4: Notes for course on "German Idealism and the Philosophy of F.W.J. Schelling" --- 1971-1972
Folder 5: Chronological charts for courses in "German Pietism" --- undated
Folder 6: Notes for "Greek Philosophy" course --- undated
Folder 7: Notes on Greek history --- undated
Folder 8: Notes for "Greek Philosophy" course --- undated

Box 18

Folder 1: Notes for "Plato" course --- 1963-1964
Folder 2: Notes for "Cambridge Platonists" course --- 1974
Folder 3: Research notes on Plato --- 1960-1961
Folder 4: Lecture notes on Plato --- 1962-1963
Folder 5: Notes for "Plato/Aristotle" course --- 1974
Folder 6: Notes for "Later dialogues of Plato" course - Philosophy 351 --- undated
Folder 7: Outline of Plato's Gorgias and exam for "The Mind of Plato" course - Philosophy 210 --- undated
Folder 8: Notes for "Philosophy of Aristotle" course --- 1959-1960
Folder 9: Notes for "Aristotle" course --- 1965-1966
Folder 10: Notes for "Aristotle" course --- 1968-1969
Folder 11: Notes for "Aristotle" course - Philosophy 300 --- 1955-1956
Folder 12: Notes for "Philosophy of Aristotle" course --- undated
Folder 13: Notes on Thomas Aquinas' commentaries on Aristotle --- undated

Box 19

Folder 1: Exam material for various courses --- 1952-1979
Folder 2: Notes for second Unionville Conference --- 1964
Folder 3: Notes for article on the American Revolution --- 1951
Folder 4: Notes for "Inleiding I.D. Philosophie" --- undated
Folder 5: Notes for "Science Seminar" --- undated
Folder 6: Notes for "Political Philosophy" course --- undated
Folder 7: Notes for "Sociology" course --- undated
Folder 8: Notes for "Jean Jacques Rousseau" course - Philosophy 335 --- 1975
Folder 9: Notes for Philosophy courses at Trinity Christian College (Calvin Seerveld) --- 1961
Folder 10: Notes on "Conspectus Historiae" --- undated
Folder 11: Notes on "Logic" course - Philosophy 200 --- undated
Folder 12: Miscellaneous ideas for a course and/or book --- undated
Folder 13: Tutorial course on "Christian Approach to Study of History of Philosophy" --- 1971-1972
Folder 14: Research material for "Philosophical Background of the New Left" course, including "Hegel, Marcuse, and the New Left" by Bernard Zylstra --- 1971
Folder 15: Reading lists for "Philosophy" courses --- undated
Folder 16: Notes for "American History" courses --- undated
Folder 17: Miscellaneous exams and quizzes --- 1953-1983
Folder 18: Notes on Karl Mannheim --- undated
Folder 19: Notes for summer courses at Unionville --- 1964-1966
Folder 20: Notes for Philosophy 151 and 152 courses --- undated