The Legacy of Francis Schaeffer
By Eduardo J. Echeverria
April - May 2005
There have been many changes in my life since 1970-not the least of which is returning to the Catholic Church in 1992-but throughout them I have always regarded L'Abri Fellowship, especially Francis Schaeffer's understanding of true Christian spirituality, as a point of reference in my walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Some evangelical Protestants may find this a surprising claim for an evangelical and orthodox Catholic like myself to make. (On this claim, see my "Living Truth for a Post-Christian World: The Message of Francis Schaeffer and Karol Wojtyla," Religion & Liberty, Vol. 12, No. 6, November/December 2002). Of course my appreciation is not uncritical-there exist philosophical and theological differences between us, but this is neither the place nor time to air them. Rather, in this personal tribute to Francis Schaeffer on the fiftieth anniversary of L'Abri Fellowship, I believe that the most appropriate way to show my continuing appreciation for him is by expressing my personal understanding of his legacy. This legacy is, I think, Schaeffer's understanding of the Christian faith as a way of life and the first principles informing that understanding.
In what follows, then, I will first say a few words about five core principles that are, as I see it, at the root of Schaeffer's understanding of the Christian faith. Then I will go on to set out his vision of true Christian spirituality.Schaeffer's Five Principles
(1) Realism about Truth. Schaeffer holds that Christians must affirm a realist notion of truth and its applicability to Christian beliefs. The Christian faith is true to reality. In other words, Christian belief is true if and only if objective reality is the way the belief says it is; otherwise, the belief is false. These beliefs are either true or false, and objective reality is what makes them either true or false. Schaeffer cautions us that once the distinction between truth and falsehood is set aside, as it is in contemporary culture, one renounces the truth of the Christian faith.
(2) Christian faith is rational. Schaeffer holds that there are good and sufficient reasons to affirm the truth of Christian beliefs. Thus, to say that Christianity is rational is to say both that it is not contrary to reason as well as that there are positive reasons for believing it to be true. Indeed, faith, so taken, involves believing some propositions to be true, because faith is a cognitive activity. "True Christian faith rests on [objective] content." Nevertheless, as Schaeffer rightly sees it, faith demands more than believing the truth of some propositions. Hence, faith isn't merely a cognitive activity, because it involves the "whole man" ("his thoughts, his will, and his emotions are all involved as a unit") who trusts in, and is committed to, the promises of the God who is there.
(3) Rational, not Rationalistic Humanism. Although the Christian faith is rational, the Christian believer is not rationalistic. The key difference here is quite basic. It is one thing to say that the Christian faith measures up to the legitimate aspirations of reason, that is, "there are good, adequate and sufficient reasons to know that the Christian answers are truth." It is an entirely different matter to say that man's reason is the measure of all things, including truth. This is Rationalistic Humanism, as Schaeffer also calls this view. It makes human reason the source and basis of all our beliefs. "A rationalist is someone who thinks man can begin with himself and his reason plus what he observes, without information from any other source, and come to final answers in regard to truth, ethics and reality." We must reject rationalism, urges Schaeffer, because "man cannot generate final answers from himself." Rather, divine revelation, God's written Word revelation, is the ultimate cognitive source of what is known-propositional revelation-truths about God, man and the world. Yet, divine revelation is not merely a communication of truths, but also God revealing Himself in "a living person-to-person communication" with man, a relationship in which man is to find his salvation, indeed, his meaning.
(4) Worldview Thinking. Schaeffer stressed the importance of worldview thinking and thus the necessity of Christians thinking of the Christian faith as a total world-and-life view. "Life-orienting beliefs" about God, man's meaning and destiny, reality, morality, and knowledge make up a worldview, giving overall direction and guidance to an individual's thoughts and actions. These beliefs are not necessarily held consciously, and hence they are described as presuppositions, meaning thereby that they function as the perspective from which an individual sees and interprets all of life. Significantly, both Christians and their adversaries think in terms of a total world-and-life-view. Indeed, there exists a conflict of worldviews in contemporary culture, especially between the Christian worldview and Secularism in all its varied thought-forms. Thus, the Christian has a responsibility to work out the implications of this totality-view by articulating, communicating, defending, and justifying it to a given generation.
(5) The Lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is Lord over all areas of life. "True spirituality cannot be abstracted from truth at one end, nor from the whole man and the whole culture at the other. If there is a true spirituality, it must encompass all." Christians should be engaged in the project of transforming the whole world, including culture, for Christ. Schaeffer breaks with any hint of dualism, or bifurcation, between faith and life in its totality. "Christ is Lord of all--over every aspect of life." Yes, even the intellectual life is in service of Christ the King. As Schaeffer puts it, "It is no use saying He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the Lord of all things, if He is not the Lord of my whole unified intellectual life." "I am false or confused," adds Schaeffer, "if I sing about Christ's lordship and contrive to retain areas of my own life that are autonomous. This is true if it is my sexual life that is autonomous, but it is at least equally true if it is my intellectual life that is autonomous."
Christian Faith as a Way of Life
Undoubtedly, the enduring legacy of L'Abri Fellowship is found in Schaeffer's vision of true Christian spirituality, that is, the Christian faith as a way of life. Among the few autobiographical remarks Schaeffer makes about his own spiritual journey the one regarding the spiritual crisis in his own life that took place in 1951 clearly stands out. The immediate cause of this crisis is the "problem of reality," as Schaeffer calls it. That is to say, around that time Schaeffer's growing awareness that something was wrong brought him to the point of realization that there is very little reality to the Christian faith of orthodox believers, namely, this faith is not bearing much fruit in their present lives and, in turn, in the total culture. Schaeffer also experienced this lack of reality in his own Christian life and so he felt the need "to go back and rethink his whole position" as a Christian. He adds: "I searched through what the Bible said concerning reality as a Christian. Gradually I saw that the problem [of reality] was that with all the teaching I had received after I was a Christian, I had heard little about what the Bible says about the meaning of the finished work of Christ for our present lives" (italics added). True spirituality is not just about knowing that I am justified in Christ before God and that, on this basis, I am heavenward bound. This view would seem to leave our present life bereft of the possibility of living in "newness of life . . . right now, between the new birth [in Christ] and our death, or the second coming of Jesus." "Even in justification," Schaeffer adds, "many Christian who are perfectly orthodox in doctrine look back upon their justification as though it were the end of all, at least until death comes. It is not. Birth is essential to life, but the parent is not glad only for the birth of his child. He is thankful for the living child that grows up . . . So it is with becoming a Christian."
Thus, the Christian life is not just about God's forgiving our sins on the basis of Christ's finished work, but also His effecting within us, in the Spirit's power, and in the present life, an ongoing interior transformation that makes us alive in Christ, and in which Christ brings "forth fruit in the Christian, just as the sap of the vine brings forth the fruit in the branch," as a benefit of our communion with him.
Schaeffer's vision of true spirituality, of the life-affirming reality of the Christian's being united with Christ and sharing in his life and benefits, requires an understanding, however briefly in this context, of the following matters. Of course faith in Christ is at the heart of true spirituality, or the Christian way of life, but what is this faith and what exactly is its role within the Christian life? Furthermore, what is the Christian faith's distinctive vision of the truth about God, man, and the world?
What does it mean to have faith in Christ? Schaeffer rightly holds faith to be a certain kind of knowing that is (1) relational, (2) experiential, and (3) propositional or cognitive in nature. Regarding (3), faith, although more than believing, that is, more than being intellectually committed to the truth of some proposition, is not less than believing, because authentic Christian faith necessarily involves believing that certain propositions are true-such as those propositions contained in the Nicene Creed. In this sense, faith is about the objective content of truth (fides quae creditur) that is historic Christianity. Regarding (2), faith is a personal act, that is, the subjective act of trusting God (fides qua creditur), of committing my whole life to God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Closely connected to this aspect of faith is (3), where faith is also something relational, a mystical union between Christ and the individual believer. Says Schaeffer, "Christian mysticism is communion with Christ." And in this union with Christ I share in his life and benefits-such as the moral guilt of my sin is gone, my sins are forgiven, sin's power over my life is broken, sanctifying grace, hope, and eternal life-here and now, in the present life, Schaeffer tirelessly reiterates. Furthermore, in this mystical communion, "I am immediately in a new and living relationship with each of the three persons of Trinity," participating in the inner love-life of the whole Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. "First," Schaeffer adds, "God the Father becomes my father. Theologically, this is spoken of as adoption . . . When I receive Christ, on the basis of his finished work I become a child of God . . . Second, when I accept Christ as my Savior, I immediately come into a new relationship with God the Son. In theology, this is spoken of as our mystical union with Christ . . . Finally, the Bible says we also enter into a new relationship with the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. When we are justified, we are also and immediately indwelt by the Holy Spirit." Thus, faith is about Trinitarian communion and, consequently, the ongoing transformation of my whole existence in communion with the whole Trinity. Let us consider a little further what this means.
How then does the reality of faith function within the Christian life? The brief answer to this question here must be that Christ's finished work of salvation-his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension-encompasses the life of faith in its totality: justification, sanctification, and glorification. Justification deals with our true moral guilt, sanctification deals with the power of sin, and glorification deals with the substantial healing of human existence, here and now, a foretaste of the future complete redemption of the whole man, indeed the whole creation. Says Schaeffer: "Salvation is not just justification and then a blank until death; God never meant it to be so. Salvation is a unity, a flowing stream, from justification through sanctification to glorification." "Sanctification is," adds Schaeffer, "the most important consideration for the Christian now, because that is the point where we are. It is the present portion of salvation, and in this sense it is the most important consideration of the Christian now."
We can easily appreciate Schaeffer's excitement in discovering what was needed for properly understanding the meaning of Christ's saving work for our present lives is the biblical teaching that "salvation is a unity." Of course this is not just the conceptual unity of a doctrinal truth. It is, fundamentally, the indivisible unity of the objective realities of creation, fall and redemption through Jesus Christ in the communion of the Holy Spirit. That is, Schaeffer understands sin to be radical, influencing the whole of creation, the whole spectrum of life, including the life of culture, but the meaning of Jesus Christ's redemptive work is, accordingly, equally radical because the whole fallen creation is reconciled in and through that work and, hence, is opened to the re-creating, i.e., restoring and renewing power, of God's Spirit.
What is the Christian faith's distinctive vision of the truth about God, man, and the world? First, God created the world good. Indeed, the creation, especially man who is its crown, actually manifests God's goodness. This manifestation of goodness is God's thesis, His affirmation, His Yes to the creation (Genesis 1:31).
Second, all creation is fallen through original sin. Human nature as a whole has lost its original harmony, and man is wounded at the very root of his being, estranged from God, from himself, and from his fellow humans. His humanity exhibits the marks of being sinful, prone to sin, with sin being a violation of God's will and purpose. This sinfulness denies God's thesis and has its beginnings in Genesis 3. God's response to man's sin is Yes, but also No. Yes, because God, full of love, mercy and grace, does not abandon the fallen creation. Indeed, Genesis 3:15 contains the first proclamation of the Messiah, the proto-evangelium. But also No, because God, judging man in the light of His perfect justice and holiness is the author of the antithesis, of the sign of contradiction between good and evil, between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
Third, the Redemption accomplished through Christ's finished work-His passion, death, resurrection, and ascension-abrogates the antithesis between sin and creation. God's original thesis is reasserted and reestablished, but also enriched, fulfilled, and perfected. This Redemption restores the very heart of human nature, causing the rebirth of the human self in Christ (Colossians 2:13; 2 Corinthians 5:17). This rebirth manifests itself in the integral redemption of the whole man in Christ through the fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and with one another in them, which has been given to us in grace (Romans 5:5). Indeed, this redemption in Christ becomes a vision of cosmic redemption for the whole creation, including society and culture, God's grace in Christ restoring all life to its fullness in accordance with His will and purpose.
Against this background, Schaeffer rightly contends that: "We must allow [Jesus Christ] to bear his fruit through us. [O]ur calling is . . . to exhibit God and his character, by his grace, in this generation . . . in the whole spectrum of life and in the whole culture." Now, man's fall into sin affects the whole of human life, namely, first and foremost, man's relationship to God, and from there, his relationship to himself, to other men, to nature, indeed to every aspect of human life. The finished work of Jesus Christ should bring "substantial healing" to each of these areas of life: "healing which will be perfect in every aspect when Christ comes again in history in the future."
I cannot in this context do justice to the rich description and analysis Schaeffer offers of the separations in human existence brought about by sin. There are, however, a few of these about which I must say something. For example, man is separated from God and hence from himself because of a guilty conscience. Through the Holy Spirit's indwelling in man, his heart is renewed and transformed so as to love and obey God, but man still struggles with the frailty and weakness of human nature, and hence sin reenters his life. Says Schaeffer, "Now just as in the conscious area of sanctification as a whole, so here in restoration: everything rests upon the reality of the fact that the blood of Christ has meaning in our present life, and restoration takes place as we, in faith, act upon that fact in specific cases of sin." Thus, in Christ, who continues to call us to conversion, we are freed, in his mercy, from the true moral guilt of sin before a holy God.
Schaeffer contends that the whole of human nature is wounded by original sin and needs to be redeemed, made holy, sanctified. We have therefore another example of a separation that flows from man's revolt against God, namely, the knowing powers of human reason, which Schaeffer thinks, like Aquinas, suffers the wound of ignorance and is deprived of its direction toward truth. This fallen state leaves the proper ordering of our intellectual powers to the truth in a precarious, confused, and disordered state. True spirituality therefore frees the mind of the human person from its vanity, which is a darkened understanding, leading the person to turn away from the truth about God, the world, and ourselves. St. Paul writes, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. That you put on the new man, created to be like God in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Ephesians 4:23-24). "This is not just an emotional holiness but holiness in relationship to [objective] content," adds Schaeffer, "holiness in relationship to thought and a set of things that can be stated as true, in contrast to that which is false. What is being dealt with here is the problem of internal ignorance in the sense of rebellion, turning from those things that are truth." Schaeffer's gloss on these verses is consistent with his emphasis that "The battle for man is centrally in the world of thought . . . [that is] either his believing God on the basis of the content of the gospel or his calling God a liar."
This last point brings me to the conclusion of my reflections on Schaeffer's legacy. A consistent theme throughout Schaeffer's writings is the claim that "biblical Christianity has an adequate and reasonable explanation for the source and meaning of human personality. Its source is sufficient-the personal God on the high order of Trinity." "Without such a source," adds Schaeffer, "men are left with personality coming from the impersonal (plus time, plus chance)." In arguing this point, Schaeffer stood firmly against the claim that Christianity and reason were permanently opposed to each other, that is, that the truth claims of Christianity had been overtaken by the progress of human reason. In this context, he especially criticized the claims of the naturalist-nature is all there is, there is no God, and man is just a part of nature-whose view of reality reflects a materialist understanding of man in which he is merely the chance product of matter in motion. In short, man lives in an impersonal universe, according to the materialist.
Schaeffer presents the materialist with the following disjunctive syllogism: "Either there is a personal beginning to everything, or one has what the impersonal throws up by chance out of the time sequence." The question is whether reality, especially human beings, finds its origin in the impersonal, plus time, plus chance? If so, doesn't that mean that "then those things that make him man-hope of purpose and significance, love, motions of morality and rationality, beauty and verbal communication-are ultimately unfulfillable and are thus meaningless, [i.e., irrational] [?]" Schaeffer thinks so-that is, he thinks this conclusion is logically inescapable, namely, "you cannot find any deeper despair than this for a sensitive person. This [materialism] is not an optimistic, happy, reasonable or brilliant answer. It is darkness and death." This conclusion leaves man with the practical fear of the impersonal (the universe is ultimately silent), of nonbeing (of not knowing who I am and whether I have a valid, meaningful existence), and of death (with our hope being only in this life, it is doubtful whether life has any objective meaning or purpose at all).
In contrast, the Christian affirms the truth that there is a personal beginning to everything-the personal-infinite God who is there. As Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger recently wrote, "The principle that represents the fundamental conviction of Christian faith and of its philosophy remains true: 'In principio erat Verbum'-at the beginning of all things stands the creative power of reason. Now as then, Christian faith represents the choice in favor of the priority of reason and of rationality . . . Even today, by reason of its choosing to assert the primacy of reason, Christianity remains 'enlightened', and I think," adds Ratzinger, "that any enlightenment that cancels this choice [see disjunctive syllogism above] must, contrary to all appearances, mean, not an evolution, but an involution, a shrinking, of enlightenment."
Schaeffer thought he had found the Achilles heal of materialism-Cardinal Ratzinger agrees, and so do I. He was persuaded that, not only did the serious Christian have nothing to fear intellectually from materialistic critics, but also that the Christian answer to the source and meaning of human personality "should make us overwhelmingly excited." "But more than this," Schaeffer adds, "we are returned to a personal relationship with the God who is there." Thus, he writes in a paragraph that summarize his most basic convictions: "If we are unexcited Christians, we should go back and see what is wrong [with our thinking]. We are surrounded by a generation that can find 'no one home' in the universe. If anything marks our generation, it is this. In contrast to this, as a Christian I know who I am; and I know the personal God who is there. I speak, and he hears. I am not surrounded by mere mass, or only energy particles, but he is there [and he is not silent]. And if I have accepted Christ as my Savior, then though it will not be perfect in this life, yet moment-by-moment, on the basis of the finished work of Christ, this person-to person relationship with the God who is there can have reality to me."
This is the fundamental truth of Christian faith. I learned it from Francis Schaeffer almost thirty-five years ago, and that is his very precious legacy to me.
[Dr. Eduardo J. Echeverria is a professor at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. Originally published by Break Point (April-May 2005). Reprinted by permission of the author.]
Recommended reading:
Escape from Reason- The God Who Is There
- He is there and He is not silent
- The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century: Including the Church Before the Watching World
- How Should We Then Live?: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture
- A Christian Manifesto
- The Great Evangelical Disaster
- Mark of the Christian
- The Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy: The 3 Essential Books in 1 Volume/the God Who Is There/Escape from Reason/He Is There and He Is Not Silent
- The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer (5 Vol. Set)
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