Escape from Reason - Schaffer

 

As with most deep intellectuals Francis A. Schaffer is as hard as any to fully understand.  In his famous trilogy of Christian theology (some would call apologetics) Schaffer heralded in the New Testament, evangelical, charismatic, born again movement.  He did this from his Swiss pulpit in the 60’swhere he recognized the great rift between grace and nature that was eating up our latest generation.  How to reach a generation of secular humanists with a message that is 2000 years old and certainly not hip.  His trilogy, of which this book “Escape from Reason” is one, should be read close together.  The other two books are, “The God Who is There”, and “He is There and He is Not Silent”.  This is not to promote his books rather this is to promote the greatest understanding of his theology and thought processes.

To read “Escape from Reason” in isolation of his other works is to come away feeling as if Schaffer supports mysticism as a substitute for rational thought.  And that is exactly opposite from his true intentions.  The rift Schaffer creates is of his own construction and he puts GRACE over NATURE:

GRACE

 -------- 

NATURE

He then attempts to show through many modern examples how NATURE is destroying GRACE and that by defining higher things, such as God, in natural terms…God is expressed through man’s hands in the form of the beauty found in material things we move away from God’s true essence…which is infinite and unknowable (which is where mysticism shows up).  On the contrary he is combating exactly this belief in mysticism and that a leap of faith is necessary in order to understand God’s true form. He is presenting a rational argument for why reason works in matters of faith and believers shouldn’t spread the Gospel by relying on mystical arguments when conversing with the new generation of rational thinkers.  

He’s a compelling writer and it’s easy to see why he gained so much popularity when he was shaking things up…his foundational constructs have been adopted by many present day Christians.   My only true criticism of Schaffer’s approach is simply that he created the GRACE over NATURE construct in order to tear it down.   Which is exactly what he claims nature is doing when it eats up grace…so in the end they are one and the same, no matter how we approach it.