If Ratzinger is a "fundamentalist," what is Frank Schaeffer?

Frank Schaeffer--film maker, novelist, Eastern Orthodox convert from evangelical Reformed Protestantism, and son of the late Francis A. Schaeffer, the well-known Christian apologist of L'Abri, Switzerland--has recently come out with a piece in the San Francisco Chronicle calling Pope Benedict XVI a "fundamentalist" (this according to Carl E. Olson of Ignatius Insight). Sigh ... so what's new? Haven't we all known for some time that any non-revisionist Catholic, like any protestant evangelical, is regarded as a "fundamentalist." The word "fundamentalist" began in 1909 among evangelical Protestants who rallied around several basic principles--such as the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, the authority of the Bible, etc.--called "The Fundamentals," in order to combat the rising tide of protestant liberalism (link). But the term has lost any association with those historical antecedents. "Fundamentalist" now connotes any person with beliefs and practices that are generally regarded as "fanatical." Politically, it therefore refers to "Islamic terrorists," as well as "repressive patriarchal papists," and just about anybody who seriously believes that God actually makes any demands of us. Thus Pope Benedict is a "fundamentalist."

The really interesting question to me personally, though, is where this puts Frank Schaeffer. Franky, as we used to know him, is a bright, creative author and film-maker who authored the hilariously amusing autobiographical novels, Portofino (Calvin Becker Trilogy). In 1995 he published Dancing Alone: The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religions, an earnest account of his conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy somewhat tarnished by his often bitter attacks on the evangelical Protestantism of his childhood, as well as on Catholicism (see my critique in the New Oxford Review here). The question now, as far as I am concerned, is this: if Franky Schaeffer believes protestant evangalicalism and traditional Catholicism are to be disparagingly dismissed as "fundamentalist," then what does that make him? An newly minted species of Eastern Orthodox liberal? An irrational mystic? For some time I have argued that Eastern Orthodoxy lacks a fully catholic identity due to its increasingly reactionary bent, and that it might more aptly be called "Anti-Western Orthodoxy." That bend, coupled with Schaeffer's own animus and personal vendetta against his erstwhile evangelical co-religionists and Catholic pro-life colleagues, would seem to make for a toxic potion. Let us pray for him.

This makes me wonder why converts do not more often share the generous attitudes toward their former friends found in the likes of Peter Kreeft, Thomas Howard, or Louis Bouyer--none of which have Schaeffer's reactionary and dismissive disposition. On the contrary, to a fault, each of these emphasizes his appreciation and gratitude for all that was good and nurturing in his former religion. (See Peter Kreeft's Fundamentals of the Faith, Thomas Howard's Lead, Kindly Light: My Journey To Rome, and Louis Bouyer's The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism.)

All Christians come in two different sizes, to paraphrase Peter Kreeft (Fundamentals of the Faith, p. 272): orthodox Christians, who follow the traditional teachings of their churches; and liberal Christians, who dismiss the traditional teachings of their churches in favor of revisionist re-interpretations. The clearest litmust test to distinguish the two is their attitudes toward the Bible. Liberals reduce the Bible to a human book. Their low view of Scripture they (naturally) call "higher criticism." They are the "demythologizers." This means that orthodox Catholics, Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox Christians ought to have a great deal in common. Far more in common, certainly, than any of them would have with liberal Catholics, Protestants, or Eastern Orthodox Christians. If only Christians could get this much straight. If only Franky Schaeffer could get this much straight.

[See my earlier post of March 8, 2005, "Marvin Olasky on Francis Schaeffer's 'Political Legacy'" ]