Francis Schaeffer

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Francis August Schaeffer (born January 30, 1912 in Philadelphia ( Pennsylvania , USA ), † May 15, 1984 in Rochester ( Minnesota , USA)) was an American Presbyterian theologian and pastor. He was best known in the English-speaking world through his publications and the foundation of the community L'Abri in Switzerland. In contrast to theological modernism , Schaeffer was more of a representative of evangelicalism and a “presuppositional” approach (see also Cornelius Van Til ) of Christian apologetics , which he believed could provide answers to the questions of our age.

Life

Schaeffer grew up in Germantown , Pennsylvania . He married Edith Seville, the daughter of a China missionary, and they had four children together; one of them is the painter, filmmaker and writer Frank Schaeffer . In 1935 he enrolled at Westminster Theological Seminary and studied with Cornelius Van Til , but came to very different views. A year later he moved to Faith Theological Seminary , where he graduated in 1938. This seminary was re-established in the wake of a split in the Presbyterian Church of North America (now: the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the more conservative Bible Presbyterian Church ). Schaeffer was the first student to be ordained by the Bible Presbyterian Church and has held pastorships in Pennsylvania and Missouri . In 1948 he moved to Switzerland , where in 1955 he and his wife founded the community L'abri ("the refuge").

Schaeffer's approach to cultural apologetics was mainly influenced by Herman Dooyeweerd, Edward John Carnell, and Cornelius Van Til. However, he is generally seen more as a “combinationalist” or “verificationist” within apologetics than as a strict “presuppositionalist” in the Van Til tradition. In 1982 John Warwick nominated Montgomery Schaeffer for an honorary doctorate in law, which was awarded to him in recognition of his apologetic writings and lectures by the Simon Greenleaf School of Law , Anaheim , California .

Publications

Schaeffer wrote over twenty books covering a wide range of spiritual and social topics. They can be roughly divided into five areas, according to the structure of his Complete Works ( ISBN 0-89107-347-7 ):

  • A Christian View of Philosophy and Culture : The first three books in this area are known as Schaeffer's trilogy, in which he lays the theological and philosophical basis for his other works.
    • The God Who Is There (German: God is not an illusion ): deals with the existence and relevance of God and with how modern man first got at a distance and finally into disbelief towards God, as revealed in the Bible .
    • Escape from Reason (German: abandonment of reason ): such as that caused the rejection of the God of the Bible that man in touch with reality and reason lost.
    • He Is There and He Is Not Silent (German: And he is not silent ): How God speaks to people through the Bible in the three fundamental philosophical areas of metaphysics , ethics and epistemology .
    • Back to Freedom and Dignity (German: Back to Freedom and Dignity ): a response to BF Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity . The thesis is advocated that freedom and dignity are given to man by God and therefore cannot be neglected without serious consequences.
  • A Christian View of the Bible as Truth
    • Genesis in Space and Time (German: Genesis in Raum und Zeit ): argues that an almost literal interpretation of the history of creation is of fundamental importance for the Christian faith.
    • No final conflict
    • Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History (German: Josua - God will save )
    • Basic Bible Studies (German: The Bible on the subject )
    • Art and the Bible (German: Art and the Bible )
  • A Christian View of Spirituality
    • No Little People (German: Everyone is of importance ): argues that Christians should never doubt, to have a life with significant opportunities so small they seem to be also.
    • True Spirituality (German: Geistliches Leben - What is that? ): The spiritual basis for Schaeffer's work, as a counterpart to the theological and philosophical approach of most of his other books. Useful for a balanced view of Schaeffer's life and work.
    • The New Super-Spirituality : advocates the thesis that the intellectual decadence of the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s can be traced back to the conformism of their fathers' generation, and predicts the spread to the church. Offers an analysis of postmodernism .
    • Two Contents, Two Realities
  • A Christian View of the Church
    • The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century (German: The Church at the end of the 20th century )
    • The Church before the Watching World
    • The Mark of the Christian (German: The Mark of the Christian )
    • Death in the City (German: Tod in der Stadt )
    • The Great Evangelical Disaster (German: The Great Adaptation )
  • A Christian View of the West
    • Pollution and the Death of Man
    • How Should We Then Live? (German: How can we live? ): is the summary of Schaeffer's view of cultural development, in particular of art, philosophy, theology and the concept of science.
    • Whatever Happened to the Human Race? (German: Please let me live! ): together with Dr. med. C. Everett Co-op. A pamphlet against abortion, euthanasia and infanticide .
    • A Christian Manifesto : Christian Principles for Secular Politics.

In addition to the books listed above, which are contained in the Complete Works , Schaeffer wrote the following works:

  • To eat, to breathe , in: Christianity Today , June 20, 1960
  • The finished work of Christ: The Truth of Romans 1–8 (German: alone through Christ. The eight central chapters of Romans )
  • Who is for Life?
  • Who is for Peace?

In addition, Schaeffer's last public lecture, given at the Law Faculty of the University of Strasbourg, was published under the title Christian Faith and Human Rights in The Simon Greenleaf Law Review , 2 (1982-83), pp. 3-12.

literature

Essays
  • Leonore Bazinek:  Schaeffer, Francis August IV. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 8, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-053-0 , Sp. 1541-1548.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Stuart Cunningham: Towards A Critique of Francis Schaeffer's Thought . In: Interchange , Vol. 24 (1978), pp. 205-221.
  • Irving Hexham : The Evangelical Response to the New Age . In: James R. Lewis, J. Gordon Melton (Eds.): Perspectives on the New Age . State University of New York Press, Albany, NY 1992, ISBN 0-7914-1213-X , pp. 152-163.
  • Duncan L. Roper: A Sympathetic Criticism of Francis Schaeffer's Writings . In: Interchange , Vol. 41 (1987), pp. 41-55.
  • G. Thomas Stadler: Renaissance Humanism. Francis Schaeffer Versus Some Contemporary Scholars . In: Fides et Historia , issue. 2 (June 1989), pp. 4-20.
Non-fiction
  • Kenneth D. Boa, Robert M. Bowman: Faith Has Its Reasons. An Integrative Approach to Defending Christianity . 2nd ed. Paternoster Books, Waynesboro, GA 2006, ISBN 978-1-932805-34-5 .
  • Harold Coward: Pluralism. The Challenge to World Religions . Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY 1986, ISBN 0-88344-710-X .
  • Robert Booth Fowler: A New Engagement. Evangelical Political Thought 1966-1976 . William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Mich. 1982, ISBN 0-8028-1929-X .
  • Ron Kubsch (Ed.): Truth and Love. What we can learn from Francis Schaeffer for the present . Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft, Bonn 2007, ISBN 978-3-938116-23-4 .
  • Thomas V. Morris: Francis Schaeffer's Apologetics: A Critique . Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Mich. 1987, ISBN 0-8010-6218-7 .
  • Louis Gifford Parkhurst: Francis Schaeffer. The man and his message ("Francis Schaeffer. The Man and His Message"). Brunnquell-Verlag, Metzingen 1985, ISBN 3-7656-0260-4 .
  • George W. Ramsey: The Quest for the Historical Israel. Reconstructing Israel's early history . SCM Press, London 1982, ISBN 0-334-02283-5 , pp. 107-115.
  • Ronald W. Ruegsegger (Ed.): Reflections on Francis Schaeffer . Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Mich. 1986, ISBN 0-310-37091-4 .

swell

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.labri.org/swiss/
personal data
SURNAME Schaeffer, Francis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schaeffer, Francis August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , USA
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1984
Place of death Rochester , Minnesota , USA