Schaeffer's Legacy

Al Mohler spoke about his intellectual loneliness as a child asking the big questions that don’t seem to come up often in church, even though they’re well within the intellectual heritage of Christianity. He was rather odd.  And I think a lot of us in our congregations who think about some of these questions we talk about at STR have felt lonely at times because it doesn’t seem like too many other people around us are thinking along the same lines.  They have different interests.  That’s why the Body is so important and that’s the beauty of the internet and blogs because it allows to connect beyond our physical boundaries. 

Significantly, Mohler’s first answers of the kind he was searching from came from a book by Francis Schaeffer.  I know that was the case for Greg.  And I remember the first book of Schaeffer’s I encountered.  It was a turning point for me.  It was something I’d been yearning for but hadn’t been distinctly aware of.  And it changed the courage of my Christian life.  And Schaeffer is very much ingrained in the fabric of STR.  And I think this it’s the case for many Christians that Schaeffer was their introduction to thinking about Christianity in a manifestly new way that is deeply satisfying.

Comments

[Carl]

I'm curious. What was the Schaeffer book that provided that turning point in your life. And what is so good about Schaeffer? And why is he important? By the way, I don't want these questions to be misconstrued as attack. Thanks.

[Karen A.]

I can identify with Dr. Mohler's intellectual loneliness experience, and I, too, was elated to discover Francis Schaeffer's books while in college in the early '70s: The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason, He Is There and He Is Not Silent, then many others.

I remember being so relieved that I didn't have to set my mind aside to know,love and worship God and to defend Christianity to those around me.

The 60s and 70s were a time of such upheaval in how the world was being seen (e.g. situational ethics), and I could not figure out from my traditional church background how to integrate the two worldviews. Schaeffer traced how thinking got where it was and how Christianity had the answers. Never before had there been a need to distinguish between truth and "true truth".

The inner confidence that my faith in Christianity was grounded in reason that could take on and answer any of the challenges put to it was huge.

And I am so grateful that Dr. Schaeffer spoke so clearly and paved the way for people like Greg Koukl and Stand To Reason.