God Who is There

Say Francis Schaeffer's name and the informed Christian will straighten his armor of righteousness and stand erect with his Sword of Truth, or the Word of God. "Schaeffer [is] the great prophet of our age," is how Charles Colson describes him. Schaeffer's seminal work, "The God Who Is There," is an explanation of the despair that wracks modern man to his core and explains that the only logical response is "The God Who Is There." God is There (or Here) because he tells us he is. How? Through His Word, the book of his words and deeds. He brought the world into existence through his Word, then he gave himself through his Word, Jesus Christ. The Bible is of utmost importance because God shows us himself through his Word. However, modern man took words and made them into a twisted form of themselves, making meaning nil or ineffectual. The informed follower of Christ should learn the ways of the modern world and its nihilistic meanings. Only then can he combat its destructiveness. This is one of Schaeffer's main themes. Schaeffer outlines the new world order and its debilitating effects. This new outlook developed between 1913 and 1935 in the United States with the rise of Humanism. Prior to that time, man had absolutes on which to rely. If there is evil, then its antithesis is good. Christians had a sound basis on which to live in the world. (Their moral code, of course, comes from the Bible.) Then Julian Huxley edited The Humanist Frame The Modern Humanist Vision of Life" in which he emphasizes man as the source of all meaning, knowledge, and value. (Huxley is cited only as a humanist of Schaeffer's time as an example.) The man who originally drew this line of despair was Hegel, making truth the result of cause and effect, not absolutes. According to Schaeffer, Kierkegaard is "the father of all modern thinking" by creating the concept of existential thought, both secular and theological. By its nature, existential thinking cannot be communicated. The informed Christian can counteract this lack by talking about God and Christ, who CAN be communicated. Since God's Word is written, it therefore can be communicated. Sartre and Camus added to existentialism by saying that only an act of will can authenticate one's life, still placing man below the line of despair. Huxley played with evolutionary humanism, making it a religious substitute without a god. The other "authentic" experience comes through the use of drugs, which Schaeffer seriously debunks. The major proponent of this use to bring about a "first-order" experience was Timothy McLeary, a Harvard professor at the time (1960's). On the other hand, the Christian has a real external world which God created (as outlined in his Word). Art was the next step in modern man's attempt to live in a world not made of despair. Van Gogh and Gauguin tried to connect through their paintings. Each experienced failure in their set goals and died in despair. Picasso, through his cubism, illustrates that com

Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-84) was an American Evangelical theologian and philosopher whose works were very influential on Evangelical thinking. In this fascinating book, Dr. Schaeffer looks at modern Western philosophy, which has undergone a revolution in the way that it looks at truth. This has brought the West to a point where it either must accept Nihilism (there is no God, and man is a meaningless bundle of conditioned responses with no free will), or must make an Existential leap (there is an essence within universe that cannot be found through reason, and man and his life has meaning in the universe). Increasingly, the Nihilism is rejected, but the leap cannot lead to a meaningful, communicatable understanding. Throughout the book, Dr. Schaeffer traces the impact of the new thinking on Western Culture, in the arts and in theology. Finally showing how the historic Christian understanding of God and the truth is a way (indeed the only way) through and out of the modern dilemma. Overall, I found this to be one of the most fascinating and mind-expanding books that I have ever read. Now, Dr. Schaeffer has been criticized for not giving a full explanation of the views of the philosophers and arts that he discusses, and that is quite true. However, this book is not intended to be a history of philosophy, but instead a discussion of the modern West's view of man's place in the universe, and how the historical Christian view is superior. I think that this is a very interesting and important work, one that I highly recommend to all Christians who want to look at the bigger picture of the modern world.

Schaeffer's book has changed my life and many around me. Using a historical-cultural approach, Schaeffer explains the development in ideology and practice of what he calls "the line of despair," the divide between the physical realm and the metaphysical realm that prevents humanity from knowing about transcendent things. But he is not only able to identify the line, he also explains how to get beyond it. I have lived for years in a society that has told me that such things are unknowable, that they must be a matter of belief only, but Schaeffer's book dispells all such misconceptions. "The God Who is There" provides a solid intellectual foundation for faith in a world of shifting sand. If you read and like this book, I would recommend reading Schaeffer's book "He is There and He is Not Silent" immediately afterward. ALong

Schaeffer systematically discusses modern (postmodern) thought and its relationship to Christianity. He does skim many details but his overall point is revolutionary, and as appropriate today as it was when it was first written. As a classical musician, I was amazed at the accuracy of his analysis of the recent history of music. His writing style is clear, sometimes tedious, but it's worth the read. His clarity sometimes comes off as oversimplification, but I think a closer look will reveal a complicated, beautiful source of hope for a generation in search of meaning. I highly recommend this to anyone with serious philosophical questions as to the validity of Christianity.

Schaeffer proves to be prophetic as he traces the course of western thought and predicts how humanism and relativism will work their way from the intelligensia to the common man. He goes on to clearly lay out the Christian's rebuttal to these false doctrines. The beauty of this book probably lies in Schaeffer's ability to consistently stress both the need to attack the falsehoods of modern thought while loving the people who hold to those falsehoods. In fact, he states that not exposing someone to the fallacy of their beliefs, not matter how painful it is, is actually not loving them. Schaeffer writes clearly and the book reads easily, though you may need to reread sections due to the weight of the issues being discussed.