Thursday, December 31, 2009

You Should Know About This Man: Francis Schaeffer

3 comments:

HiTechT said...

Indeed. Every Christian should know about this man - one of the greatest authors of the 20th century IMHO. It is amazing how relevant Schaeffer's writings still are to the church of our day, and it is sobering to look and see how much further we are down the slippery slope of humanistic self idolatry since his passing.

In an age of nearly useless (read injurious) fluff preachers on TV and in print, Schaeffer's writings were, and are, a life jacket of convicting and challenging food for thought.

camilla said...

I am in a doctorate class right now, and writing a paper about Schaeffer. One thing I need to respond to is whether he would accept other people's viewpoints. When he was so staunch about standing firm on the Truth, I'm tempted to say "No"...how would you respond?

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. said...

Camilla:

He could not accept as true positions he did not hold. A and non-A cannot both be true. However, he was a master of conversation with unbelievers. His whole ministry grew out of that. He was a compassionate man with "big ears" to use a jazz phrase. He knew how to listen. He also knew that if one criticizes a nonChristian worldview, one must "receive blows as well" when the nonChrisian challenges our own view.

The best book about the man and his thought is Francis Schaeffer: an Authentic Life by Duriez.