Chalcedon Foundation - History

History

The Chalcedon Foundation, named after a 451 A.D. council that proclaimed the state’s subservience to God, was officially founded by Rushdoony in summer 1965. In 1971, North was hired part-time, and two years later North was hired full-time while Greg Bahnsen was also hired. Rushdoony founded Ross House Books in 1976, the same year in which North and Bahnsen left the Foundation to pursue careers elsewhere. In 1977, the Foundation's first office building was built. A decade later, the organization's Newsletter became a magazine, the Chalcedon Report.

In the 1970s Howard Ahmanson became a Calvinist and joined Rushdoony's Christian Reconstructionist movement. Ahmanson served as a board member of Rushdoony's Chalcedon Foundation for approximately 15 years before resigning in 1996. Ahmanson said he had left the Chalcedon board and "does not embrace all of Rushdoony's teachings."TIME Magazine covered the Ahmansons in their 2005 profiles of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America, classifying them as "the financiers." Former American oil billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt also made heavy contributions to the Chalcedon Foundation.

Key members of the Chalcedon Foundation over the years have included Gary North, Greg Bahnsen, David Chilton, Gary DeMar, Kenneth Gentry, and Andrew Sandlin. North has defined his politics as Neo-Puritanism.

On February 8, 2001, Rushdoony died. He was succeeded by his son Mark Rushdoony, who continues to run the organization. In 2004, Ross House Books merged with Chalcedon, and in 2005, the Chalcedon Report was renamed Faith for All of Life.