Edgar Schaeffer on the Christian Life

Countercultural Spirituality
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4335-3142-2
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 208 Seiten

Reihe: Theologians on the Christian Life

FRANCIS SCHAEFFER was one of the most influential apologists of the 20th century. Through his speaking, writing, and filmmaking, Schaeffer successfully transformed the way people thought of the Christian faith, from a rather private kind of piety to a worldview that addressed every sphere of life. This volume-written by a man converted from agnosticism within days of meeting Schaeffer-is the first book devoted to exploring the heart and soul of Schaeffer's approach to the Christian life, and will help readers strive after the same kind of marriage of thought and life, of orthodoxy and love. Part of the Theologians on the Christian Life   series.

William Edgar (DTheol, University of Geneva) is professor of apologetics and John Boyer Chair of Evangelism and Culture at Westminster Theological Seminary. William lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Barbara. They have two children and three grandchildren.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Edgar, William

Leseproben

CHAPTER 2

THE JOURNEY TO L’ABRI

Schaeffer found that only the Bible did justice to the way the universe is, and to questions arising out of its realities.

UDO MIDDELMANN

The Early Years

Francis Schaeffer’s unique personality as well as his views were the fruit of a unique journey. The story of the Schaeffers and of L’Abri has often been told.1 The present volume is not a biography but a study of Francis Schaeffer’s approach to spirituality, although of course the two are intertwined. Here follows, then, the briefest account of his life.

His grandfather, Franz Schaeffer, emigrated to America in 1869, after fighting in the Franco-Prussian wars. Desiring to turn over a new leaf, he burned most of the family papers, making the work of the biographers more difficult. He died in an accident working on the railroad in

Philadelphia, leaving a three-year-old little boy, known as Frank (Francis Schaeffer’s father).

Frank developed a strong work ethic and joined the Navy while still in his teens, learning to ride the rigging in any kind of weather. Frank was a Lutheran when he married Bessie, who worshiped at the local Evangelical Free Church. It is not certain how seriously or personally they took the Christian faith. Later, they clearly became followers of Christ. Together they worked hard to pull themselves up from the kind of poverty their parents had known. They determined to have only one child. He turned out to be Francis August Schaeffer IV, born on January 30, 1912.

The lad grew up in stark circumstances. His father never went beyond third grade, and there were no books at home. That did not mean his dad was not a thinking person. On the contrary, as Fran would often remind us, working-class people are often very deep intellectually, even though they may not be able to name the major philosophers. Accordingly, Fran was far more critical of the “bourgeois” middle class than either the intellectual elite or the working class. Nor was there much entertainment for the family, except the occasional trip to Atlantic City. If Fran had friends, they only rarely visited or played with him. Much later he would be diagnosed with dyslexia. This could have amusing results. He called Mahalia Jackson “Matilda” Jackson. The galaxy was the “galacacy.” Affluence was “affluency.” Spontaneity became “spontanuity,” and so on. For young Fran, however, there was probably nothing amusing about it, since schools were far from understanding about learning disabilities in those days. Despite that, a number of kindly teachers took an interest in the young man and worked patiently with him. Fran especially remembered a Mrs. Lidie C. Bell at Roosevelt Junior High School, who taught the children something about the history of art, a subject that would become central to Fran’s thinking throughout his life.

As was expected, at least for social reasons, Fran went to church. He chose the First Presbyterian Church of Germantown, largely because it was the meeting place for his Boy Scout troop. But the preaching was mostly liberal and lacked satisfactory answers about the issues of life. Fran was intellectually curious. He had somehow picked up a book about Greek philosophy and was deeply taken by it. He was fairly certain there was not much to the Christian faith. But he decided in fairness to read through the Bible so that should he reject it, he could do so with integrity.

The opposite effect was produced. Quite on his own, he decided that the Bible answered many of the basic questions raised by Greek philosophy. By September 1930, he was able to say in his diary, “All truth is from the Bible.” Edith Schaeffer, in her extensive biography , compared Fran’s conversion to the story of a shepherd boy by Kristína Royová.2 In her a young man discovers the Gospel of Mark in a cave in the hills and thinks no one else knows about this amazing text. Fran thought he had come upon something quite unknown. He told Edith, later in life, “What rang the bell for me was the answers in Genesis, and that with these you had answers—real answers—and without these there were no answers either in philosophies or in the religion I had heard preached.”3

This rather private experience was soon to have a more public expression. Fran happened on an old-fashioned gospel meeting where evangelist Anthony Zeoli (father of Billy Zeoli, the collaborator on the film ) preached in a compelling way. The content was along the same lines that Fran had thought had been his own personal discovery about the Bible. He wrote in his diary, “. . . have decided to give my whole life to Christ unconditionally.”4 From the start he felt called to the ministry. This pursuit was not appreciated by his parents, who were rather suspicious of professional clerics. Yet his father recognized Fran’s determination and eventually gave in, even supporting him. After Fran worked in a number of manual jobs, as well as studying engineering at Drexel College at night, the urge to enter the ministry became so strong that he determined, upon the advice of a trusted elder, to attend Hampden-Sydney College, a first-rate Presbyterian school in Virginia, pursuing preministerial studies. His father, contrary to his instincts, was again impressed with Fran’s determination, and so paid the first semester’s tuition.

At first, college was not easy for Fran. The practice of hazing was accepted, and his classmates were particularly hard on preministerial students. Fran’s working-class background earned him the nickname “Philly,” and he had to learn to defend himself against his rather more aristocratic tormentors. Though only 5'6" he was strong and athletic. The hazing ended one day when Fran overcame his persecutor in a serious fight. He could also use his strength for evangelistic purposes. For example, he regularly rescued drunk students on Saturday nights (there was plenty of alcohol around, despite Prohibition in America) and helped them back to their rooms on condition they would attend church with him the next morning. He excelled in his studies, particularly philosophy and Greek. He would graduate magna cum laude.

On his first summer vacation, Fran met his wife-to-be, Edith Seville. She had grown up in China, her parents serving with the China Inland Mission, founded by Hudson Taylor. The Sevilles had recently moved to Germantown, in the northwest section of Philadelphia, where Edith’s father George began editing the mission’s magazine, . Already a character, Edith had determined that if she were to become a missionary, she would never look like one! She loved clothes. She loved music and dance, and was not to be typecast. As circumstances would have it, Fran and Edith both attended the same meeting at the First Presbyterian Church to hear a Unitarian speaker attempt to dismiss the claims that Christ was God in the flesh and that the Bible was God’s word. During the question period Fran rose up to explain how Christ had changed his life. Edith then also rose to speak, citing J. Gresham Machen and Robert Dick Wilson, two remarkable evangelical scholars teaching at Westminster Theological Seminary, down the street. That night, after ordering her to break a date, Fran walked her home. Over the summer their friendship developed into love. They wrote every day. They were intellectually well matched and deeply in love. They married July 6, 1935. Fran was twenty-three and Edith twenty years old. She left college before graduating in order better to support Fran.

Seminary

Following his conviction that he should become a minister, Fran decided to attend seminary. At Edith’s behest, he applied to Westminster and was accepted for the fall of 1935. These were the heady days of the fundamentalist-modernist controversies. Though reluctant to call himself a fundamentalist, the most scholarly defender of historic Christian faith was J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937). Machen had taught New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1915 to 1929, interrupted briefly by his work in France with the YMCA during World War I, a war he strongly opposed. His best-known books are (1921), (1923), and (1925). Each of these argued for the historic Christian position over against liberal Christianity. Edith had been greatly influenced by these writings. Princeton Seminary had been a bastion of orthodoxy since its founding in 1812. Such remarkable scholars as Archibald Alexander, Charles Hodge, Benjamin B. Warfield, and Geerhardus Vos taught there over the years.

Princeton Seminary was ultimately controlled by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). But a growing division occurred in the 1920s, culminating in the Assembly’s appointing two trustees who had signed the Auburn Affirmation, a more liberal statement of faith. Several faculty promptly left Princeton and founded Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. These men were to have a considerable influence on the young Francis Schaeffer. They included Robert Dick Wilson (Semitic philology and Old Testament), J. G. Machen (New Testament), Oswald Allis (Old Testament history and exegesis), R. B. Kuiper (systematic theology), Ned Stonehouse (New Testament), Allan MacRae (Semitic philology and, later, biblical archeology), Cornelius Van Til (apologetics), and Paul Woolley (registrar and professor of church history).

Though in theological continuity with the “Old Princeton,” Westminster launched into a number of initiatives that would make...