Gordon Clark: The Augustinian

Check out this excellent study by Marco Barone, “Gordon H. Clark and Augustine of Hippo: An Overview.” I especially enjoyed this summary of Clark’s theory of knowledge in relation to secondary causes (the things which most people fixate):

“…one central point for Clark is that earthly pedagogical means are only secondary causes or occasional causes that God decreed to use in order to impart immediate knowledge. In this sense, every truth that we see, we see it in God. Clark builds on Augustine’s and Malebranche’s insights in order to develop his epistemological occasionalism according to which God is the ultimate cause of knowledge. Neither Malebranche[60] nor Clark[61]had any particular objection to the expression “secondary causes,” as long as it is made clear that these causes do not have any efficient power in themselves and that the ultimate and only effective cause of knowledge is God which immediately works through them. With “immediately,” our thinkers do not mean “right now,” but they mean without the mediation of a supposed efficient cause.”