Escape from Reason

by Francis A. Schaeffer, J.P. Moreland (Foreword by)

Truth used to be based on reason. No more. What we feel is now the truest source of reality. Despite our obsession with the emotive and the experiential, we still face anxiety, despair, and purposelessness. How did we get here? And where do we find a remedy? In this modern classic, Francis A. Schaeffer traces trends in twentieth-century thought and unpacks how key ideas have shaped our society. Wide-ranging in his analysis, Schaeffer examines philosophy, science, art and popular culture to identify dualism, fragmentation and the decline of reason. Schaeffer's work takes on a newfound relevance today in his prescient anticipation of the contemporary postmodern ethos. His critique demonstrates Christianity's promise for a new century, one in as much need as ever of purpose and hope.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Christian, Nonfiction, Christianity, Cultural, Religion

125 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Francis August Schaeffer was an American Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He is most famous for his writings and his establishment of the L'Abri community in Switzerland. Opposed to theological modernism, Schaeffer promoted a more historic Protestant faith and a presuppositional approach to Christian apologetics which he believed would answer the questions of the age.

Wife: Edith Schaeffer
children: Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schaeffer writes that man's desire for autonomous freedom began with Aquinas's theology which argued that though man fell in Eden, his intellect did not. This created a system in philosophy that argued that man's reason was autonomous--meaning free and independent of any constraint. This opened the door to later philosophers to build philosophic arguments independent of God. But the problem is that man's desire for autonomy cannot be reconciled to the constraining forces in this world. Through reason man has come to understand that nature is a deterministic force that eliminates any hope for autonomy. This realization leads to the despair of modern man who believes he is but a mere machine in a mechanistic world and any 'meaning' is ultimately absurd because it doesn't exist--it can only be imagined or hoped for--hence man has escaped from reason and is irrational. A good, short, yet profound work.

[Alex Szatmary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Schaeffer, the person, but I totally disagree with half of what he says. His review of the western intellectual history is quick and accessible, and his great insight in this book is to point to Aquinas' fault of placing reason "upstairs"--assuming that human reason is immune to the fall.

While, factually, Schaeffer, seems to present most thinkers accurately, he does not fully get modern philosophy. Yes, he gets the despair of modernity; however, his defense of Biblical Christianity as a relevant modern worldview is ill-posed.

This is most clear to me in his treatment of Kierkegaard. Schaeffer rejects Kierkegaard's understanding of God, that God is fundamentally other from reason; this is a tragedy. Kierkegaard's understanding of God as impossible and transcendent is relatable to the modern man, and may inspire him to seek out God, with God revealing himself as immanent, on his own terms.

I would absolutely recommend this book, as long as it's read critically, by someone who knows not just what modern thinkers are saying, but why and how they're communicating.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Also read in November 1980.

[Leandro Texeira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um dos melhores livros que eu já li. Pequeno, mas rico, explica com clareza a divisão do pensamento cristão na Idade Média e que minou as bases do próprio Cristianismo, cujos reflexos são sentidos até hoje, mesmo dentro de alguns círculos eclesiásticos.

[Kofi Opoku · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid. This is my 5th Shaeffer book in a row and l'm beginning to pick up some of the core ideas that connect his writing and thinking. This one argues for a more holistic (and Christian) view of reality. The view that facts and reason can be separated from values, meaning, and purpose, as espoused by secular humanists, naturally leads to despair.

[Amy Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a slender volume and in that way a quick overview of the history of philosophy with regard to God and man, grace and nature, freedom and nature, and the non-rational and the rational. First published in 1968 (the edition that I read), many of these ideas are incorporated into Schaffer's How Shall We Then Live? book, which was published later. To read this book now, however, in the context of an American culture that is rapidly aiming its fiercest attacks at Christians, is to read a prophet. What we are experiencing today is the inevitable outcome of where intellectual thought was taking us four decades ago. Too many of us fail to grasp how powerfully and subtly popular culture has carried the torch of atheist and nihilistic thinking and too many evangelicals cannot recognize anti-Christian thinking that is everywhere. The current situation with homosexual marriage highlights this problem.

[Mark Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have heard others cast doubt on the particulars of Schaeffer's analysis in sweeping books like these. I haven't read enough Aquinas, de Sade, Camus, Sartre, Kierkegaard, Foucault, Malraux, Heidegger, etc. to say. But Schaeffer's overall synthesis—his many different upper- and lower-story diagrams—seem right to me. If indeed he's right, the overall analysis, the big picture, may be more important than the particulars. It does seem as if Western man has done just what Schaeffer says: we've removed grace from the upper story, replaced it with freedom or faith or other things, and then finally cut it off completely.

[JD Veer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. It deconstructs a lot of what you usually take for granted, which I love!

[Christian Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book is a fantastic overview of philosophical thought and how it has changed over the years concerning the area of knowing truth. Schaeffer focuses highly on how God’s truth and natural truth have been separated throughout the years leading up to the point where God’s truth is thrown out all together. Thus, thinkers have abandoned any hope for rational and reason in the world we live in. This book was written in the 20th century, which means the post modern thought we see today is the logical conclusion of what Schaeffer is warning here. In the end he calls for us to return to reason and stand on the truth of God’s Word. I highly encourage this read as it will give you a better understanding of how we have gotten to the place we are in now.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A more condensed version of "The God who is There," (or vice-versa) and so that makes it more dense but also gets to the point faster. Again, I have to remind myself that these books were written greater than 50 years ago as he seems to he describing our own time when he speaks of what will happen if the philosophical checks are not balanced.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Francis Schaeffer was a gift.

[Johnsonk5 · Rating 1 out of 5]

This slim volume of relatively simple prose was an absolute slog, worse than any of the physics textbooks I was forced to pore over in undergrad.

Schaeffer's main shtick (in all of the books I've read) is to cram sweeping analyses of the history of philosophy, art and culture into a couple dozen pages. Then he uses this analysis to identify a trend that almost always results in moral or civilizational decline. All the while he peppers his writings with little hand drawn charts that are supposed to help clarify his point but actually wind up confusing things further.

But his analysis is incredibly oversimplified, as he tends to force every thinker into a box so that they fit neatly into his trendline. This is frustrating for me, as someone who hasn't done a complete reading of Western philosophy or of art history because it's difficult for me to tell where and when he is misrepresenting people. Thankfully, I've read enough to know that he *does* misrepresent people's views and so this casts the rest of his analysis into doubt.

In short, Schaeffer is a truly insufferable writer, I don't recommend his books to anyone, they are a classic case of declinism. Schaeffer sees his religion losing relevance in the West and thus he is struck by pessimism and fear. Thankfully, we don't need to be struck by the same pessimism, we can put down his book and walk away.

[Ryan Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concerning the trilogy, previously I thought this book was skippable. I even have told many people such. But this time reading through, I wouldn’t say so. I would say it’s another retelling of TGWIT, but he certainly adds details to make his argument even more persuasive.

But even more important that the extra detail is his final chapter in this book. It undoubtedly is the best single chapter summary of the trilogy. He basically gives his second-half of TGWIT in one chapter.

As a result, I’m glad I read it. It added detail to the philosophical history of TGWIT, but then it also added summative clarity to the second half of TGWIT in chapter 7.

So I’d recommend anyone reading the trilogy to *not* skip it. It’s short, not a hard read, and worth it, especially for chapter 7.

[Salvador Vivas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creo que Schaeffer fue profeta de su tiempo. Hoy, 60 años después de la primera publicación de este libro muchas cosas van como el consideró que fluirían. Es retante ver cómo Schaeffer no se queda diciendo en qué está mal el mundo, si no llamar a la iglesia a hablar "el mismo idioma" de nuestra época.

Eso es lo que necesita la iglesia. Precisa entender los tiempos en los que vivimos y responder a ellos con profundidad y empatía. No solamente con 4 leyes espirituales desarraigadas de nuestra realidad.

[David Jamison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome - I need to re read it though

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It is possible to take the system the Bible teaches, put it down in the market place of the ideas of men and let it stand there and speak for itself." (85)

For so long, I've known the Bible to be Truth, but I so often struggled in verbalizing it to non-believers. After reading Pearcey and Schaeffer, I realize it's because I, too, had compartmentalized faith from reason. (Fact/value split) I expected others to to take a leap with me: that Bible is the Word of God and is true....based on faith? I knew that wasn't a fair thing to ask someone to do. I could bring historicity to the table (fact) (see Lee Strobel's book, A Case for Christ), but I felt inadequate in proving the Bible as true and useful to those who hadn't grown up steeped in and believing it.

But the Bible needs no defender, but speaks to all of life's problems and mysteries in a "sufficient and in a very exciting way." (pg. 84) It is consistently able to the handle the problems our culture and hurting souls throw at it. It's a worldview that make sense when you hold it up to man's creation, his fallenness, our despair, the longing we have to know and be known. We don't have to ask our friends to appeal blindly to an nebulous authority, but can bring our experiences, our intellect, our deepest desires, and find them revealed and fulfilled in the system laid out by Scripture. I have deep confidence in knowing my faith rests on the bedrock of rational, knowable, concrete Truth of God who is there.

We can have a unified answer to life on the basis of what is open to verification and discussion. We deserve a place at the table with the scientists, philosophers, artists, politicians--because we have a worldview that can handle the thoughts of today, and bring the healing of the Gospel to a hurting world. We can and we must.

[Emily M · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The reason we cannot speak to our children, let alone other people's, is because we have never taken time to understand how different their thought-forms are from ours." This short but packed book should be a must-read for any Christians concerned with understanding how our faith can answer the questions of our contemporaries. Schaeffer was so wise and insightful, and his take on the 20th century is still relevant today.

[Nikhil Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

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Francis Schaeffer has been widely recognized as one of the twentieth century’s greatest Christian apologists. Francis August Schaeffer (1912-1984) was an American Christian theologian, philosopher, apologist, and Presbyterian pastor, as well as the founder of the L'Abri community in Switzerland.
In this book Schaeffer has two noble aims; first to analyze the evolution of philosophy from the Christian Middle-Ages up to the Atheist existentialism of Sartre and second to show that Atheism and Mysticism are inadequate before Christianity.
Schaeffer starts off with the rise of modernity (ch.1). Then he moves on with the reformation view (ch.2) before he finally arrives with the birth and characteristics of post-modernity (ch.3) and its impacts in science, art, morality and theology (ch.4-7).
According to Schaeffer it was Aquinas that opened the way for autonomous rationality (in fact the villain of this play is Aquinas). According to Schaeffer, Aquinas claimed that the human will but not human intellect is fallen. This assumption, once popularized, provided the fertile soil for the belief that humans could become independent, autonomous. The outcome was, as Schaeffer puts it, that "nature eats up grace" (p.10), that leads to a modern presupposition of a universe operating under a closed-system excluding any supernatural effects and agents. But Schaeffer aptly describes the problem that "if you begin with an autonomous rationality, what you come to is mathematics (that which can be measured), and mathematics only deals with particulars, not universals. Therefore, you never get beyond mechanics" (p.13).
In first chapter Schaeffer he examines the relationship between ‘grace’ and ‘nature’. He argues that nature has slowly been ‘eating up’ grace. Yet a ‘line’ or ‘gap’ exists between the supposed upper realm of grace and the lower realm of nature. Western society has gone below this line and it has led to despair. This despair is revealed first in philosophy; subsequently, it spreads to art, then music and general culture, before reaching theology.When nature is made autonomous it soon ends up by devouring God, grace, freedom and ultimately man.
In chapter two and three, Schaeffer proposes a history of human philosophy and theology and gives an explanation of contemporary thought, and how to approach it. He traces a line through the renaissance, the reformation, the development of science, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, contemporary existentialism, into contemporary culture. In his analysis of culture he considers the different domains of science, philosophy, and, primarily, the arts.
Furthermore in third chapter, Schaeffer shows how the work of the existentialist philosophers such as Sartre and Heidegger have influenced our society, and indeed the Christian church, more than what most people realize. One of the conclusions that the reader will inevitably draw, after reading this book, is that, in order to be able to successfully present the gospel, we need to truly understand our culture.He repeats his starting point on numerous occasions; namely, that Aquinas's distinction between nature and grace is the source of a dichotomy that has been influencing and destroying culture ever since. On the other hand, his critiques of Kierkegaard and Heidegger are a little bit more interesting, as he shows how these contemporary philosophers have had an enormous influence on our current society.
In fifth chapter Schaeffer contends that since man has failed to unify experience in nature and since also modern man has long since abandoned "grace" or "heaven" or "Scriptures" as the principle of experiential (i.e. existential and ontological and epistemological) unification, he has nothing left but despair. So now, man is trying mysticism, pornography, drugs, death and other forms of ways to 'leap' into something else that can provide meaning. Modern man has given up on dualism. The universe is not rational, it is an impersonal machine and man a part of that. But man is a personality and personhood according to Schaffer cannot be found in a mechanistic universe.
As per my opinion Aquinas taught that there are things that can be known from the light of reason. This is of course, self-evident and it is even biblical (see Romans 1:20 where St. Paul even asserts that the existence of God can be known from the knowledge of created things, so that all have knowledge of God, even those without Divine Revelation in the Scriptures). So Schaffer is a bit mistaken here from a biblical point of view.

Overall despite of this flaw, it’s a wonderful read. Single most pivotal aim is,perhaps he says it best at the conclusion of the book, “Every generation of Christians has this problem and responsibility of learning how to speak meaningfully to its own age" (p.5). "What is said in this book is not a matter of intellectual debate. It is not of interest only to academics. It is utterly crucial of those of us who are serious about communicating the Christian gospel in the twentieth century" (p.67).

[Fábio Cavalcante · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantástico. O seguinte trecho pode resumir bem a visão de Schaeffer a respeito do pensamento atual: "O homem moderno não apenas jogou fora a teologia cristã; ele jogou fora a possibilidade daquilo que os nossos antepassados aceitavam como base de moralidade e lei".

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Escape from Reason is an easy book to read, which I liked. It was written for the common man or woman. This is the first book that I have read by Schaeffer and I like it for what it tries to do.

Schaeffer spends a majority of the book tracking how societies world view has been changing and who were some of the primary influences/people that caused this. He starts with Aquinas and proceeds from there. He covers, art, music, poetry and more.

The important part of this book is near the end when he ties it all together. Up to this book I was thinking that it was just a good history lesson. The point that he makes is that we must understand our current culture so that we can communicate the gospel most clearly. This is our responsibility as Christians. He also addresses some of the mistakes Christians have made in the process in the past such that we can learn from them.

It is a short easy to read book that I would suggest if you are interested in this topic.

[Corwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I disagree with most of what Schaeffer says. The book reduces a lot of thinkers and thought into an upper and lower, divided by a line. This to me seems very simplistic and missing a lot of nuance. Also, his argument that without faith, man becomes a machine and all of nature becomes absurd is questionable to me at best. I believe we can find meaning in our lives without backtracking and relying on creeds and values from thousands of years ago(though these are generally good creeds) and consequently deny science and humanism. I do think freedom and individual freedom is important to fight for, choice is what makes us human and differentiates us from machines, and that this value was not completely “eaten up” to use his language by nature. This book + Mere Christianity helped me understand Christianity and what Christian writers believe a lot more, even though I think they take a lot of thinks a priori which makes their arguments suspicious, but I’m glad I read those two books.

[H]

highly elucidating apologetics through a historical delineation of philosophy, existentialism, and art from Aquinas' time (the beginning of divorce between Grace and Nature) up to nihilism and the absurd.

recommended reading for anyone interested in why the last several generations have been part of a psychology of despair and where a lot of christianity today has gone wrong in representing itself. this is not a watered-down tract like most christian works, nor is it a guidebook to conversion. it's an argument for deducible truth taking its place following the line of hegel, kierkegaard, sartre, camus, jaspers, barth, gauguin, van gogh.

convincing in its renunciation of existentialism. unfortunately our generation has already moved past it and is capable of accepting sundry, dialogic truths of which christian tradition has a dearth.

[Ginny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get your thinking cap on and a dictionary out and dive into this small, but incredible book. There is an absolute, fundamental truth that man is made in the image of God and a great weight we should ascribe to that fact. Francis Schaeffer’s description of the dichotomies of our world are fascinating and helpful amidst the chaos around us.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book seems like Francis Schaeffer is talking about today; in this book Schaeffer examines the worldview undercurrent that’s driving contemporary Western society. Schaeffer is a Christian, evangelist, apologist and Christian worldview thinker that was alive during the twentieth century. Seen often as the second book of Schaeffer’s Trilogy I found some of the materials in the book is repeated in this book and his analysis examines a broad area from pop culture, art, philosophy, law and art.
There is seven chapters in this book. After the preface, chapter one looks at the Nature and Grace dualism especially in Roman Catholic context while the next chapter looks at the unity of nature and grace from a Reformation perspective. Chapter three looks at Modernity beginning with Kant to Rousseau and to Hegel and finally to Kierkegaard's line of despair. Chapture four looks at existentialism and "the new theologies" where there's now a theological trend with seeing the need to make a leap to the irrational. Chapter five explores art and poetry and how art expresses bad worldview philosophy. Chapter six is on how the rejection of modernity has brought about a fragmentation of one's worldview and one's view of reality. In some sense this chapter is rather prophetic with the trend of postmodernity. Chapter seven talks about the tragic consequences of all these worldview undercurrent when we replace grace with autonomous man (whether autonomous human freedom or autonomous view of man).
One thing I really appreciated with this book is Schaffer’s point that Christians must define their terms carefully and not just use buzz words that both Christians and non-Christians like; if we are not careful we seem to have common ground but its not real and also we become just like the new theologies that are problematic with not defining things clearly and using terms deceptively while advancing a different theology and even a different religion altogether. We need to communicate Biblical Christianity as Christianity. Schaeffer is right we as Christians today need to know modern thought forms in society but we also need to really know the Bible and its truth contents as well. It is rather a balance and holistic take. This book is for all Christians and not just for academic and intellectually inclined Christians; Christian parents and young people sharing the Gospel today need to beware of the bad worldviews around us and to know how to expose error while speaking biblical truth in love.
I do recommend this book even if it does at times seems outdated and also at times is repetitive from things Schaeffer already said in his first book. It is a Christian classic for a reason.

[NinaB · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the Forward by J.P. Moreland:
Escape from Reason brings together a staggering array of academic disciplines, cultural trends and influential thinkers, and provides an integrative, mature analysis and critique of their ideas from within an historic Christian worldview. (p. 9).

Escape from Reason is a must-read Christian classic that is a short introduction to the history of philosophy and how it has affected our culture and general thought processes. It starts with Thomas Aquinas and his introduction of the autonomous intellect of man (though his will is fallen). This opened a can of worms that eventually led to our current post-modern world where rationality is thrown out the door.

Throughout history, man has proposed this dichotomy (soul vs body, grace vs nature, irrational vs rational), all the while searching for a unified field of knowledge that their logic couldn’t provide. When this dichotomy is accepted, it leads to a wrong belief of who we are, who God is. When man becomes autonomous, when his logic is the final authority to what is truth, he becomes nothing, is without hope or meaning. Relativism rules and “the absurd” ensues. This is contrary to what the Bible says that teaches man is created in God’s image, therefore, he has significance. God created a universe and objective truth that we can know.

Christians must reject this dichotomy since God created the whole of man. However, we must learn to navigate and engage our culture who believes in the dichotomy. There is no part of man that is autonomous. The Bible is rational and offers all the answers to the big philosophical questions that have plagued man from the beginning. We need to communicate God’s truth in terms understandable to the hearers.

Philosophy is very interesting. It could make you go wander off and delve into existentialism and other man-centered -isms, but Christianity is the only one to provide rationality and answers to the big philosophical questions. Sadly, Christians shy away from philosophy that I feel like we’ve given up in that discipline, when we have so much to offer because we have the ultimate truth in Scripture that the philosophers are seeking.

This is why I highly recommend this book to be read by every Christian, preferably with someone, since so much of this book is better understood when discussed with others. It has helped me understand the cultural trends of our time, including what is propagated by well-meaning, yet still in error Christians and the pseudo-truths that even the world embraces. This book educates the Christian in the areas of philosophy, history and spiritual discernment that are helpful when we engage our community for the Gospel.

[Joey Kaching · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. 4.5/5.0.

This book has become widely known as something of a classic in certain evangelical circles, evidenced by its recent republishing within the 'IVP Classics' series. However, I have not been a part of those circles for the large part of my life and have only come into contact with this household name in recent months. Schaeffer's thought largely revolves around what might well fall within the category of Christian apologetics. As he demonstrates within this book, he spent his life committed to communicating the gospel in a faithful, understandable and effective way to the current generation. Being involved in evangelism to university students through the ministry of the Christian Unions and involved in public evangelism myself, I was very excited to become familiar with his writings and this book was to be my first encounter of many more.

In this area, this book displays how Schaeffer did not hold to the popular division between apologetics and evangelism that is common to evangelicals today. He saw the intellect as a crucial contact point for the conversion of the whole person and invested his life in evangelising curious intellects with well-reasoned and academic arguments. This was the mission and birth of L'abri Fellowship, and this approach certainly comes across in this book.This little book is probably the best well-known of all Schaeffer's writings and takes the form of an essay. The essay is relatively short and aims to provide the reader with a critical survey of the development of the dominant modern thought-form. The essay covers an incredible amount of ground in such a short amount of space and so is expectantly very brief. However this should not be seen as a weakness. For the book clearly states a poignant critique of modern man and his intellectual pursuit of an unified understanding of himself and his place in the world. The book is relatively accessible, written for a large evangelical Christian audience. Yet, I would think that one requires at least some familiarity with philosophy and the history of ideas to be able to follow the arguments presented.

I enjoyed the book. Although I found it unexpectedly unique. The overarching thesis of the book was not unfamiliar to me, but I found the way in which this critique was formulated to be rather unique and that it did not fit well within any categories of apologetics that I have encountered before. It could be that the debate has moved on since the book was written in the early 70's and has now established categories for arguments, or it could just be that I am unread; whatever the case it seems that Schaeffer was an innovative thinker and certainly on the frontline of public evangelism. He was clearly a prudent analyser of culture and public defender of the Christian gospel (from its attacks both within and without the 'church'). Due to this uniqueness though I did find the flow of the argument hard to follow at times and his thinking very philosophical, abstract and conceptual.

Like all good apologists, Schaeffer does three distinct things: diagnoses the issue with lost man; then persuasively demonstrates how the gospel of Jesus Christ is the solution to the diagnosed issue, communicated in a way that appeals to the audiences frame of reference throughout.
The book describes itself as 'a penetrating analysis of trends in modern thought'. This is an accurate description of the aims of the book. The book diagnoses what it sees as a modern tragedy, 'the escape from reason'. However, the reader familiar with postmodern ideas would be wrong to think that Schaeffer is attacking postmodernism's ambition to throw off of the shackles of modernist rationalism. Schaeffer's project is much more nuanced than that. Schaeffer reckons the escape from reason to begin far before postmodernism and begins his essay with Aquinas. Schaeffer suggests that the reason for the current tendency within postmodern thought forms to disregard traditional modes of rationality - the verification of truth claims through thesis and antithesis - and the resulting despair of a unifying explanatory model (unified thought form) is found in the formation of a two-story thought-form emerging from the dichotomy drawn between faith and reason.

He traces the origin of this dichotomy to Aquinas' work on nature and grace. By constructing the intellect as an autonomous seeker, Aquinas', Schaeffer reckons, establishes nature as a separate and autonomous realm to grace. [For Aquinas, the intellect was able to pursue the knowledge of God through natural revelation and thus did not depend of the direct action of God in scripture].

From Aquinas, Schaeffer traces the continuing maturation and expansion of this two-tier structure of modern thought through the trends in painting, writing, science, theatre, film, television, and even pornography.

Schaeffer concludes with a strong commendation of historic, biblical, evangelical Christianity as the single unifying explanatory system which the modern man is in great desperate need of and has yet given up all hope of finding, settling with the dichotomy between the real and the hoped for, the above and below the "line of despair". He argues strongly that the Christian world-view as dependent upon God's self-disclosure of propositional truth in scripture (a distinctly 'evangelical' - some of the time might say 'fundamentalist' - as opposed to 'liberal' view of scripture) is the only lens for a completely integrated life - an entirely honest and coherent and consistent one where no 'leap of irrational faith' is required to relieve oneself from the gloom of despair. This is tremendously great news. The gospel is good news. It is good news for the hopeless and lost 'modern man'.

Schaeffer shows us well that, whether religious or secular, the man who accepts the two-story thought form of modern man is 'lost', without hope in the world' and doomed to live a disintegrated life, with the 'leap of irrational faith' his only relief from living below the 'line of despair'. The new theological left offers no hope but only synthesises this thought form into theology, emptying the term 'Jesus' of all its scriptural and historical content into an inclusive banner of nothingness. 'Jesus the undefined banner' is to Schaeffer another Jesus from the biblical and real One, an 'anti-Jesus', a false gospel offering no hope from man's lost-ness and despair. An encounter with the real Lord Jesus can never just be an isolated mystical experience within the higher story but must be integrated well within the reason of real life.Although I agree with Schaeffer here, I would like to see the poignant argument balanced with a recognition of the necessary experiential element to conversion and discipleship. Schaeffer's critique of religion exclusively in the upper story, without a recognition of an equally grave danger of the false gospel lying exclusively in the lower story of rationalism, may demonstrate an unhealthy focus of Schaeffer on the intellect, and a deprioritising of the experiential and spiritual element of conversion.

[Jacob Hudgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short review of philosophical history and the development of “modern modern” (what would become postmodern) man.

Schaeffer makes some important observations. There is still something in man that reaches beyond the rational to explain himself. Man despairs because the rational result of prevailing naturalism is meaninglessness and despair. The key development historically was the movement toward science demanding a closed system (and therefore ruling out meaning, other powers, freedom, etc). And he points out the subtle danger of Christians appealing to this dichotomy of the rational/irrational by claiming that the truth of the gospel is only found by experiencing God (rather than basing faith on concrete historical fact).

I found the book needlessly opaque. He writes like a philosopher, which means that these thoughts are perfect for debating other philosophers but inaccessible for the majority. He makes connections that he does not explain (grace/nature is somehow made parallel to connotation words/defined words). I’m sure they make sense to him, but the connections here eluded me. Also commits the very common fallacy of tracing philosophical developments by briefly profiling the thoughts of a few influential thinkers (and a set of random 60s era movies).

He would have done well to have someone insist on him writing out a thesis statement.

[Declan Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great work of philosophy and theology. Francis Schaeffer engages with some of the deepest questions that have ever faced humans in a book not even 100 pages long.

While many Christians simply dismiss "philosophy," Schaeffer delves into it, translating the gospel into the language of his days' intellectual elite. What is stunning is that Schaeffer exactly nails the direction in which secular philosophy is heading... in 1966. You can see him expound on the roots of postmodernism; this book explains why it is a natural progression in the history of Western thinking.

Another thing I liked about Schaeffer's style is his use of art, literature and music to support his argument. These elements of culture deeply capture truth about our reality, and Schaeffer's appreciation of them is to his credit.

I have a few minor complaints about this book. Sometimes Schaeffer's terminology is confusing and poorly defined. Furthermore, I don't think he engages with eastern philosophy very profoundly. Nevertheless, this is a great little book overall. I'll definitely be reading more Schaeffer.

Highly recommended

[Mwrogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me as an understanding of how truth used to be based on reason and how that has morphed into our post modern world where truth is based on emotions and there is no one truth.

Basically, this book was way over my head. I really did not want to read an essay about the history of philosophy. I know it is interesting to some, but I don’t really care. And I either didn’t get my questions answered or maybe I did and it’s just not that important to me.

At the end of the book, Schaeffer states that we cannot speak our eternal and unchanging truth to our children because our thought forms are different from theirs and it is as if we are speaking a foreign language. The truth of that grabbed me and I expectantly turned the page for answers and…. that was the end of the book.

I’m giving the book 3 stars because it is probably over most peoples heads. I’m not giving it fewer stars, although I really hated it, because I should be reading a different book and that’s on me.

[Millie Picker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Schaeffer was a man who could see the future of modern thought. The chaos of our present day is laid out in a logical, cogent manner. If, as a believer you want to see the evolution of man’s thinking that has led us to the moral and social breakdown of 2024; read this book from 1968, even then it he author could predict what is happening now, not as a prophet, but through the “logic” of philosophy being taught in universities and schools even in his era.
Take your time to read this small tome that is packed with food for thought that needs much rumination to digest. I have taken over a month to read a book that could be read in a couple sittings, but it caused me to pause every few pages to consider the content and what was being said.
Thinking is always well worth a persons time and is in critical need in our post modern society. Savor….