H. Evan Runner

Who was H. Evan Runner?

Howard Evan Runner, often referred to as H. Evan Runner, was professor of philosophy at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA from 1951 until his retirement in 1981.

He was a graduate of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and The Free University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was at the Free University that he was taught by Herman Dooyeweerd and D. H. Th. Vollenhoven, whose ideas relating to the construction of a whole new way of doing philosophy Christianly from a Biblical basis radically changed the direction of his life, and whose teachings he later brought to North America. Runner's dissertation applied D. H. Th. Vollenhoven's problem-historical method to Aristotle's Physics. Runner had also studied at Harvard University, where he was a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows, and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he engaged in intensive studies in Greek and Philosophy.

Early in his career at Calvin College he organized the Groen van Prinsterer Society, which brought him together with students specifically interested in discussing issues relating Christianity to culture, and the necessity Runner saw of Christian cultural organization. He was also greatly influential in the setting up of the Association for Reformed Scientific Studies in 1956 - which later became the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship. The AACS eventually became the Institute for Christian Studies. The ICS's first senior members were all students of Runner.