Thomas J. Clarke

Professor Thomas J. Clarke, History and Religious Studies

Professor of History and Religious Studies

A.B., Stonehill College
S.T.B., Gregorian University
S.T.L., Gregorian University
M.A., Columbia University
Ph.D., Brandeis University
Psy.D., Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology

E-mail: tclarke@stonehill.edu
Phone: (508) 565-1232
Office: Duffy, 238

Professor Clarke studies history for evidence of how humans have constructed their reality. History manifests how humans have expressed their identity in culture on the basis of how they understand what it means to have a mind.

As a theologian, Professor Clarke is concerned with culture; as a psychoanalyst he is concerned with the mind. The failure to approach history from such a perspective will only perpetuate the "Clash of Civilizations."

In his courses, Professor Clarke attempts on one hand to identify the moments in history when humans formed the notions of conscience, thinking, hope, justice, equality, freedom, tolerance, optimism, progress, and openness, and on the other hand he tries to specify those movements that justified oppression, aggression, grandiosity, narcissism, arrogance, elitism, racism, imperialism, and intolerance. What events have humanized us and which traditions dehumanize us? Because there is no established truth by which to decide these issues, history alone provides the experience that enables us to create our answer.

Courses Taught:

  • Ancient Mediterranean Greece and Rome
  • Medieval - Renaissance - Reformation
  • Theology as Ideology
  • Western Civilization I and II