Francis Schaffer
I started bible college in 1986. Jerry Fallwell's "Moral Majority" was still a fringe group that sent out pins of baby feet. You still heard Tony Campolo's name as much as Pat Robertson's. Amy Grant released a song about committing adultery, but was still married. Leslie Phillips released a Christian album produced by T Bone Burnett. You could buy Charles Williams books at the Christian bookstore and the Bakers were still on TV.
Believe it or not, there was a time when the Christian subculture had room for diversity, for social progressives, and you could be a Democrat and teach at a Christian college.
In my freshman year at school I was required to take a class called "Developing a Christian Worldview." This was my introduction to the writings of Francis Schaffer. I'm not sure why he was presented at that school with such authority, or whether he was presented at other schoold with the same force. But I do know that everything the religious right is known for today is expressed in the writings of Francis Schaffer.
Schaffer wrote to systematically construct a Christian framework that would stand the challenges of Nihilism, epidomized by Kant and Nietzsche.
He characterized Nihilism as a system of thought that made the individual meaningless, making individual life meaningless, individual morality meaningless, and even individual speech and language meaningless.
He argued that this Nihilism had made its way into the common culture of Europe and, to a lesser degree, the U.S. The evidence for this was growing rates of abortion, euthenasia, suicide, and literature that was not classically constructed.
He argued that all faiths except evangelical Christianity are equivalent to nihilism. Because all non-Christian faiths are equal, disparaging terms may be used interchangeably. Buddihism, Communism, and Satanism are all equvalently "Godless". Family planning is choosing not to have children and therefore is equivalent to Nazis who killed people who weren't "good enough."
He therefore concluded that Nihilism was a direct threat to all human life, and Christianity is the only force that can win against it, since all other faiths least irrisitably to Nihilism.
Therefore, US Christians are engaged in an epic struggle against Nihilism and they must not lose the battle.
This struggle entailed the following specific actions:
Looking at the culture today, we can see all these things happening. They become overwhelming because there are so many fronts, so many people fighting passionately, and all seemingly disconnected. They are, in fact connected.
But you cannot stem the tide by invoking or discrediting Francis Schaffer. The number of foot-soldiers involved in the battle who have read Schaffer is distressingly small. The number of those who have ever taken a philosophy, logic, or ethics course that presented another view of the same topics is even smaller. This means you can't argue the ideas because the people you want to change don't understand the foundation of the ideas they're fighting for.
"How then do we live?"
Schaffer's entire system is based on the idea that nihilism is a relentless force that is the end of mankind. Nihilism was a system of thought that attempted to make sense of a changing world around the industrial revolution. The more we understand that it expressed the anxieties of an age that could not imagine the future it was creating, the better we will be able to communicate with Christians that one can be modern and life-affirming. We must be relentless in communicating that every action we take is about providing the best possible life for all people in the midst of diversity and change.
Believe it or not, there was a time when the Christian subculture had room for diversity, for social progressives, and you could be a Democrat and teach at a Christian college.
In my freshman year at school I was required to take a class called "Developing a Christian Worldview." This was my introduction to the writings of Francis Schaffer. I'm not sure why he was presented at that school with such authority, or whether he was presented at other schoold with the same force. But I do know that everything the religious right is known for today is expressed in the writings of Francis Schaffer.
Schaffer wrote to systematically construct a Christian framework that would stand the challenges of Nihilism, epidomized by Kant and Nietzsche.
He characterized Nihilism as a system of thought that made the individual meaningless, making individual life meaningless, individual morality meaningless, and even individual speech and language meaningless.
He argued that this Nihilism had made its way into the common culture of Europe and, to a lesser degree, the U.S. The evidence for this was growing rates of abortion, euthenasia, suicide, and literature that was not classically constructed.
He argued that all faiths except evangelical Christianity are equivalent to nihilism. Because all non-Christian faiths are equal, disparaging terms may be used interchangeably. Buddihism, Communism, and Satanism are all equvalently "Godless". Family planning is choosing not to have children and therefore is equivalent to Nazis who killed people who weren't "good enough."
He therefore concluded that Nihilism was a direct threat to all human life, and Christianity is the only force that can win against it, since all other faiths least irrisitably to Nihilism.
Therefore, US Christians are engaged in an epic struggle against Nihilism and they must not lose the battle.
This struggle entailed the following specific actions:
- Resisting abortion and euthenasia at every turn.
- Defunding the federal government so that they could not fund abortions or euthenasia.
- Resisting following Europe into anything, because all Europe's actions are a decent into Nihilism.
- Disconnecting the US from the UN, NATO, and other treaties which might require cooperation with Europe.
- Resisting the slide into Nihilism in the US by raising up a Christian political presence.
- Using that Christian political presence to make the US a more specifically Christian nation -- defined as no abortion, euthenasia, or suicide and promenant Christian symbols in all branches of government.
- Pruning the Christian culture of nihilistic messages.
Looking at the culture today, we can see all these things happening. They become overwhelming because there are so many fronts, so many people fighting passionately, and all seemingly disconnected. They are, in fact connected.
But you cannot stem the tide by invoking or discrediting Francis Schaffer. The number of foot-soldiers involved in the battle who have read Schaffer is distressingly small. The number of those who have ever taken a philosophy, logic, or ethics course that presented another view of the same topics is even smaller. This means you can't argue the ideas because the people you want to change don't understand the foundation of the ideas they're fighting for.
"How then do we live?"
Schaffer's entire system is based on the idea that nihilism is a relentless force that is the end of mankind. Nihilism was a system of thought that attempted to make sense of a changing world around the industrial revolution. The more we understand that it expressed the anxieties of an age that could not imagine the future it was creating, the better we will be able to communicate with Christians that one can be modern and life-affirming. We must be relentless in communicating that every action we take is about providing the best possible life for all people in the midst of diversity and change.
- Family planning increases the value of children.
- Scientific research leads to longer, happier, healthier, more productive lives.
- Cooperation across cultures improves the lives of everyone.
- Happiness is not the result of debauchery, but connection to people and meaningful work.
- Education allows people to discover meaningful work.
- Religious systems that motivates people by guilt, fear, or the threat of exclusion does not honor God.
- Science and math do have room for the wonder of God.
- We must talk about Christianity loudly and often though the lens of the Gospels. We must talk about "inclusion" and "everybody" and "wholeness" and "compassion" and not get sidetracked by exclusion and end-time prophecies.
- We must raise the standard of Christian education. A person who is speaking for Christianity should be well-versed in the whole canon, not just energetically motivated and in command of some esoteric details.
posted by Anne at 11:44 AM
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