Francis Schaeffer

Francis Schaeffer August (* January 30, 1912, † 15 May 1984) was an American Presbyterian theologian and pastor. He was especially known in the English-speaking world through its publications and the establishment of the L'Abri community in Switzerland. In contrast to theological modernism, Schaeffer was more representative of evangelicalism and a präsuppositionellen approach (see also Cornelius Van Til ) of Christian apologetics, from which he believed that this answers to the questions of our age can enter.

Life

Schaeffer grew up in German Town, Pennsylvania, on. He married Edith Seville, the daughter of a China missionary. In 1935, he enrolled at Westminster Theological Seminary and studied with Cornelius Van Til, although he came to very different views. A year later, he joined the Faith Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1938. This seminar had been re-established as part of a split in the Presbyterian Church of North America ( now: the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the conservative Bible Presbyterian Church ). Schaeffer was the first of the Bible Presbyterian Church ordained a student and had Pastorate held in Pennsylvania and Missouri. In 1948 he moved to Switzerland, where he founded the community in 1955 L' abri ( " place of refuge ").

Schaeffer's access to cultural apologetics was primarily influenced by Herman Dooyeweerd, Edward John Carnell and Cornelius Van Til. However, it is generally seen rather as a combined nationalist or Verifikationist within the apologetics than as strict Präsuppositionalist in the tradition of Van Til's. 1982 nominee John Warwick Montgomery Schaeffer for an honorary doctorate of jurisprudence, which was awarded to him in recognition of his apologetic writings and lectures of 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, corresponding to the outline of his Complete Works (ISBN 0-89107-347-7 ):

  • A Christian View of Philosophy and Culture: The first three books of this area are known as Schaeffer 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 humans first got into the distance and finally into unbelief towards God as he is revealed in the Bible.
  • Escape from Reason ( German: surrender of reason ) as the rejection of the God of the Bible meant that the man lost touch with reality and reason.
  • He Is There and He Is Not Silent ( German: And he is not silent ): how God speaks to man 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 presented here is that freedom and dignity are given to man by God and therefore can not be neglected without serious consequences.
  • A Christian View of the Bible as Truth Genesis in Space and Time ( German: Genesis in Space and Time): argues that an almost literal interpretation of the creation story is of fundamental importance for the Christian faith.
  • No Final Conflict
  • Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History ( German: Joshua - God wants to 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 the meaning): argues that Christians should never doubt to have a life with significant opportunities, however small they seem to be.
  • True Spirituality ( German: Spiritual Life - What 's this?): The spiritual foundation 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: the thesis that the intellectual decadence of the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s can be attributed to the conformism of their father's generation, and the spillover predicts the church. Provides an analysis of postmodernism.
  • Two Contents, Two Realities
  • The Church before the Watching World
  • The Mark of the Christian ( German: The mark of Christians )
  • Death in the City ( German: Death in the City )
  • The Great Evangelical Disaster ( German: The big adjustment )
  • A Christian View of the West Pollution and the Death of Man
  • How Should We Then Live? ( German: how can we live it? ): is the summary of Schaeffer's view on the cultural development, in particular the art of thinking behind, theology and science concept.
  • Whatever Happened to the Human Race? ( German: Please let me live! ): along with Dr. med. C. Everett Koop. A font against abortion, euthanasia and infanticide.
  • A Christian Manifesto: Christian principles for secular politics.

In addition to the above books that are included 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: Through Christ alone The central eight chapters of Romans. . )
  • Who is for Life?
  • Who's for Peace?

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

May 15 Germantown, Philadelphia Irving Hexham Integrated Authority File
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