Samuel Clarke was an English clergyman, philosopher, and controversial theologian whose Scripture-Doctrine of the Trinity arranged biblical propositions in support of a subordinationist account.
Setting: Church of England setting; censured controversy over his subordinationist doctrine of the Trinity.
Samuel Clarke was an English clergyman, philosopher, and controversial theologian whose Scripture-Doctrine of the Trinity arranged biblical propositions in support of a subordinationist account. His work became an important node in eighteenth-century debates over confession, exegesis, and the wording of Trinitarian texts.
His biography belongs with Newton and later critical history because doctrinal revision and textual criticism reinforced one another. A responsible record must quote Clarke directly, distinguish his philosophy from his textual claims, and trace the answers written against him.
Bibliological positions
Clarke appealed to Scripture while rejecting Nicene equality and used variant or authenticity arguments against some received proof texts. His formal claim to biblical authority must be compared with the critical judgments by which he delimited that authority.
Qualifications and disputes
Subordinationist, Arian, and anti-Nicene are related but not interchangeable labels; the record should state Clarke’s own propositions before classifying them.
The exact theological label for Clarke and the degree of continuity between his exegesis and later Unitarian criticism remain disputed.
Sources
- Internet Archive creator search — Public-domain works and biographies
Principal works
- The Scripture-Doctrine of the Trinity (1712); legacy
WRK-1092; WRK; Ready after permanent-ID allocation and duplicate scan
Historical person network
People, doctrines, texts, and reported interactions
Relationship labels distinguish contact, refutation, later reporting, accusation, textual agreement, compatibility, and causation. A connection does not silently inherit the force of another connection.
Interaction chart
No reviewed graph relationships are attached yet.
- Record
- PER-3012
- Status
- Preliminary
- Version
- 1.1-profile
- Review
- Level B — Editorial synthesis
- Editor
- Chris Thomas
- Reviewer
- Independent reviewer pending assignment
- First date
- 2026-07-22 · Exact Day
- Last revised
- 2026-07-22
Evidence and editorial controls
- Verification
- Recovered project data; bibliographic and source-level verification remains record-specific.
- Rights and access
- Original editorial synthesis; cited sources retain their stated rights.
- Known limitations
- Sourced orientation record. Education, dated offices, languages, confessional subscription, verified quotations, and independent review may remain incomplete.
Links from this record
No public outgoing links are recorded.
Records that cite or connect here
No public backlinks are recorded.
Corrections and evidence submissions
No correction submission is presently attached to this record. Submit evidence or read the correction policy.
Chris Thomas, “Samuel Clarke,” PER-3012, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas
- — Chris Thomas