Resurrected writers: Schaeffer

The dead still speak

An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

I

t is instructive to realize how theological fashions change over the years. For instance, 25 or 30 years ago one of the most influential evangelical theologians whose name was on everyone’s lips - in North America at least - was Francis A. Schaeffer. Today, few have heard of him and his books often end up in used book sales or gather dust in theological libraries. This is a great pity because during his lifetime (1912 to 1984), and particularly in the decades of the 1950s to 1980s, his was the voice that gave intellectual muscle to evangelicals who were battling with theologically liberal ideas. Schaeffer was the evangelical David fighting against many Goliaths of theological modernism and doing it with great success. He was an American theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor whose reformed theology formed the foundation of his writings.

He and his wife Edith (also a published author) established the L’Abri (the word means “shelter”) Fellowship in Switzerland. This community (there are several L’Abri fellowships in various parts of the world) provided a safe haven for countless young intellectuals who, searching for a faith, were unsure of religion. Having imbibed deeply of the despair and disillusionment of philosophy, and finding no solace in sterile religion, these young people were welcomed to this evangelical Christian community nestled in the Swiss mountains. There they found not only nurture for body and spirit, they were also challenged by the rigorous and demanding orthodox Protestant faith presented in a presuppositional approach to Christian apologetics. Their host, the goateed, gracious yet demanding Francis Schaeffer, helped them to wrestle with and answer the questions of the age. Some scholars have suggested that his ideas formed the philosophical and Christian foundation of the Christian Right in the United States.

At Westminster Theological Seminary Schaeffer studied under Cornelius Van Til and J. Gresham Machen who introduced him, respectively, to presuppositional apologetics (the ultimate premises of Christian and anti–Christian systems of thought are not compatible) and the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. He transferred to Faith Theological Seminary that was newly formed as a result of a split in the Presbyterian Church of America out of which was formed the Bible Presbyterian Church. The latter denomination was identified with fundamentalist Christianity and premillennialism. Schaeffer was the first minister to be ordained in the Bible Presbyterian Church.

Schaeffer’s 22 books, which cover a wide range of spiritual issues, grew out of his teaching at L’Abri as well as his lectures delivered in a variety of places. These books, which appeared during the 1960s and 70s, were published in 1982 as a five volume series, The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, subtitled, “A Christian worldview”.

The first volume is titled “A Christian view of philosophy and culture” and contains The God Who Is There, dealing with the existence and relevance of God, and how modern people came to first distance themselves from, and ultimately disbelieve, God as revealed by the Bible. Escape from Reason argues that the rejection of the biblical God causes people to lose contact with reality and reason. The message of He Is There and He Is Not Silent is how God speaks to people through the Bible in the three areas of metaphysics, morals, and epistemology. Back to Freedom and Dignity is an answer to B.F. Skinner’s Beyond Freedom and Dignity, and argues that human freedom and dignity are God-given and therefore can’t be left aside without dire consequences.

The next five books appear in volume 2, entitled A Christian View of the Bible as Truth. Genesis in Space and Time argues that an almost literalist view of Genesis as historically true is fundamental to the Christian faith. No Final Conflict, Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History, Basic Bible Studies, Art and the Bible all speak cogently of the necessity of a true view of Scripture in giving meaning to daily life.

In volume three – A Christian View of Spirituality – Schaeffer records the intellectual content of much of the ministry of the L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland. No Little People argues that Christians should never despair of having a significant life regardless of how small their gains seem to be. True Spirituality is the spiritual foundation for Schaeffer’s work and is a complement to the theological and philosophical approach of most other books. It enables a reader to gain a balanced view of the whole of Schaeffer’s life and ministry. In The New Super-Spirituality the intellectual decadence of students and the counter-culture from the late sixties to the early seventies is discussed, with a prediction of the contamination of the church. There is also an analysis of postmodernism. Two Contents, Two Realities was first presented as a position paper at the First International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne, Switzerland in 1974.

Volume four, A Christian View of the Church, gathers together volumes that give Schaeffer’s view of the Church. The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century, The Church before the Watching World, The Mark of the Christian, Death in the City and The Great Evangelical Disaster all present a voice that is seldom heard in today’s theological/philosophical discussions. But it is a view that has much to bring to the table.

The final volume in the series, A Christian View of the West, contains books that offer a more strident voice, which put Schaeffer at odds with many of his evangelical colleagues, particularly in the USA. Pollution and the Death of Man sets out a Christian response to issues concerning ecology, How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture is also a film/video series produced and directed by his son Frank Schaeffer. In Whatever Happened to the Human Race? Schaeffer teamed up with former USA Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop to give an uncompromising Christian response to abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide. The final book, A Christian Manifesto, set forth what some consider to be extreme Christian principles for secular politics, including civil disobedience.

Francis Schaeffer’s voice certainly deserves to be heard in a day that often puts feelings before clear thinking. His books are tough reading; they provide a rigorous education. His cogent and closely reasoned arguments, his knowledge of the intellectual milieu and his unswerving biblical emphasis need to be heard again. Take a deep breath and jump in. You won’t drown and, God willing, you’ll actually enjoy the experience.

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement he is a part-time chaplain in a Salvation Army hospital in Winnipeg, Canada and a copy editor of theRubicon.

1 Comment to Resurrected writers: Schaeffer

1. Max

   Thank you for this article. Like you I am an unabashed fan of Schaeffer and have his collected works on my shelf. I refer to him many times and use his arguments and thoughts in discussions with many people. I do believe that many today do not know of him and his work and that is there loss. We need to hear his message and hold on to it. We need to practice our faith as he practiced and lived his.

   For me Schaeffer is more signifcant to my faith than most if not all of the other Christian Scholars I have read.

   We ,in The Salvation Army , if we are grab hold of what Commisioner McMillan spoke of at Celebration125 last weekend need to seize on to the ideas of writers like Schaeffer and begin to minister in the 21st century.

   Your friend
   John Stephenson
John Stephenson on June 20th, 2007

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