A Teacher
Glenn Clark
Affirmative, expectant prayer as a practical creative power
The transmission
Glenn Clark (1882–1956) was an American professor, writer on prayer, and founder of the Camps Farthest Out movement. For three decades he taught literature and coached athletics at Macalester College in St.
Paul, Minnesota, where a Department of Creative Living was established for him. He came to prominence through an essay in The Atlantic Monthly, “The Soul’s Sincere Desire,” whose reception led him to expand it into a book of the same title (1925), one of the most widely read works on the life of prayer of its era.
Clark taught an affirmative, expectant approach to prayer: that prayer works by holding a clear, believing inner picture of the desired good and releasing it in trust, language that drew New Thought ideas and techniques into mainline Protestant church life without his ever positioning himself as a New Thought leader.
In 1930 he organized the first Camp Farthest Out in Minnesota, a summer gathering for fellowship and spiritual renewal that grew into an enduring movement; he stepped down as its director in 1956, dying shortly after.
His many books on prayer made him a key conduit carrying mind-power prayer methods into devotional Christianity.
What they gave
Prayer as creative method: taught believing, picture-holding prayer as a practical creative force, echoing New Thought’s affirmative model.
- Bridge into the churches: brought New Thought prayer techniques into mainline Protestant practice.
- Camps Farthest Out (1930): founded an enduring experiential prayer-and-renewal movement.
- A wide prayer literature: The Soul’s Sincere Desire (1925) and many later books shaped 20th-century devotional life.
In their words
Do not pray to bring things to pass; pray to see things that are already in the Kingdom.
The moment one awakes to the fact that one lives in God’s world here and now, one begins to see in every event that comes a part of the beautiful symmetrical plan of God.
The line they stand in
Influenced by: New Thought prayer teaching; the Gospels; the Protestant devotional tradition.
- Influenced: the Camps Farthest Out movement; mid-century Christian prayer renewal; associated teachers such as Frank Laubach.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- The Soul's Sincere Desire1925
- I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes1937
- How to Find Health Through Prayer1940