Francis August Schaeffer (January 30, 1912 – May 15, 1984) was an American evangelical theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He co-founded the L'Abri community in Switzerland with his wife Edith Schaeffer, a prolific author in her own right.. Opposed to theological modernism, Schaeffer promoted what he claimed was a more historic Protestant faith and a presuppositional approach to Christian apologetics, which he believed would answer the questions of the age.
Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, he graduated with high honors from Hampden–Sydney College in 1935 and studied at Westminster and Faith Theological Seminaries. Schaeffer became the first graduate and ordained minister of the Bible Presbyterian Church and served pastorates in Pennsylvania and Missouri. In 1948, he moved with his family to Switzerland, where they founded the L’Abri community in 1955, which later expanded internationally.
Influenced by Cornelius Van Til, Herman Dooyeweerd, and Hans Rookmaaker, he argued that non-Christian worldviews are internally inconsistent and that Christianity offers a coherent foundation for truth, morality, and meaning. He called his method “Taking the roof off,” exposing contradictions in secular thinking to lead others toward Christianity. His published works include The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason, and He Is There and He Is Not Silent.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Schaeffer became a voice for evangelical political engagement, particularly around abortion and secular humanism. His 1981 book A Christian Manifesto encouraged Christians to challenge cultural pluralism while rejecting theocracy, influencing groups like Operation Rescue and shaping the Christian Right. He also co-founded the Seven Mountain Mandate, advocating Christian influence in society's key spheres, such as education, media, and government.
Biography
Schaeffer was born on January 30, 1912, in Germantown, Pennsylvania, to Franz A. Schaeffer III and Bessie Williamson. He was of German and English ancestry.
In 1935, Schaeffer graduated magna cum laude from Hampden–Sydney College. The same year he married Edith Seville, the daughter of missionary parents who had been with the China Inland Mission founded by Hudson Taylor. Schaeffer then enrolled at Westminster Theological Seminary in the fall and studied under Cornelius Van Til (presuppositional apologetics) and J. Gresham Machen (doctrine of inerrancy).
In 1937, Schaeffer transferred to Faith Theological Seminary, graduating in 1938. This seminary was newly formed as a result of a split between the Presbyterian Church of America, now the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and the Bible Presbyterian Church, a Presbyterian denomination more identified with Fundamentalist Christianity and premillennialism. Schaeffer was the first student to graduate and the first to be ordained in the Bible Presbyterian Church. He served pastorates in Pennsylvania (Grove City and Chester) and St. Louis, Missouri.
Schaeffer eventually sided with the Bible Presbyterian Church Columbus Synod following the BPC Collingswood and BPC Columbus split in 1956. BPC Columbus reorganized as the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in 1961, and Schaeffer followed the EPC into the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod when the Bible Presbyterian Church's Columbus Synod merged with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod in 1965,Francis A. Schaeffer, "A Step Forward", The Presbyterian Journal, March 6, 1974, pp. 7–8. Retrieved September 7, 2007. a denomination which would merge with the Presbyterian Church in America, in 1982.
In 1948, the Schaeffer family moved to Switzerland and in 1955 established the community called (French for )... Serving as both a philosophy seminar and a spiritual community, L'Abri attracted thousands of young people, and was later expanded into Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Schaeffer received numerous honorary degrees. In 1954, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Highland College in Long Beach, California. In 1971, he received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. In 1982, John Warwick Montgomery nominated Schaeffer for an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, which was conferred in 1983 by the Simon Greenleaf School of Law, Anaheim, California in recognition of his apologetic writings and ministry..
Schaeffer died of lymphoma on May 15, 1984, in Rochester, Minnesota.Saxon, Wolfgang, "Rev. Francis A. Schaeffer, 72; Founder of Spiritual Centers", New York Times, May 17, 1984. He opened a L'Abri branch there before his death. Schaeffer Academy, a private K-12 school in Rochester, is named after him.
Family relationships In Crazy for God, Schaeffer's son Frank presents a portrait of his father that is far more nuanced and multi-dimensional than was suggested by his public persona. He states, for example, that Schaeffer's primary passions in life were not the Bible and theology but rather art and culture. "And what moved him was not theology but beauty".
Schaeffer's son claims he had frequent bouts with depression and a verbally and physically abusive relationship with his wife, Edith. Those in the inner circle at L'Abri challenge Frank's account. Os Guinness, who lived with the Schaeffers and was a close friend of both the younger and elder Schaeffer, described Crazy for God as a "scurrilous caricature" and said, "[N]o one should take Frank's allegations at face value."
Frank Schaeffer initially supported his father's ideas and political program, but has since distanced himself from many of those views, first converting to the Eastern Orthodox Church. and later becoming a liberal and a self-described "atheist who believes in God."
Apologetics
Schaeffer's approach to Christian apologetics was primarily influenced by Herman Dooyeweerd, Edward John Carnell, and Cornelius Van Til, but he was not known to be a strict presuppositionalist in the Van Tillian tradition. His approach to culture was heavily influenced by his friendship with Hans Rookmaaker. In a 1948 article in The Bible Today, Schaeffer explained his own apologetics and how he walked a middle path between evidentialism and presuppositionalism, noting that "If the unsaved man was consistent he would be an atheist in religion, an irrationalist in philosophy (including a complete uncertainty concerning 'natural laws'), and completely a-moral in the widest sense."Schaeffer, Francis, "A Review of a Review", in The Bible Today, October 1948, pp. 7–9. Accessed August 21, 2006. Reprinted at PCA Historical Center. J. Budziszewski summarizes the article about this middle path approach by writing:
Schaeffer came to use this middle path as the basis for his method of evangelism which he called "Taking the roof off".. An example of Taking the roof off in written form can be found in Schaeffer's work entitled Death in the City.Schaeffer, Francis, "Chapter 9: The Universe and Two Chairs", in Death in the City, reprinted at Nehemiah's Prayer Watch. Retrieved August 22, 2006. Nancy Pearcey also describes two books by Schaeffer, Escape From Reason and The God Who Is There in this way:
Influence of Rushdoony
In the 1960s Schaeffer read the works of Reconstructionist theologian Rousas John Rushdoony with appreciation, and according to Barry Hankins, "it is quite likely that Schaeffer's belief that the United States was founded on a Christian base came in part from Rushdoony." Schaeffer later lost this fervor because Rushdoony was a postmillennialist, holding the doctrine that the kingdom of God will be built on earth before the second coming of Jesus, while Schaeffer was a premillennialist, holding that the kingdom of God will only be ushered in with the second coming.
Schaeffer thought that Rushdoony's system would require a merger of church and state, which he opposed. He held that the principles, not the actual details, of Old Testament civil law were applicable under the New Covenant of Jesus. He wrote "The moral law [of the Old Testament], of course, is constant, but the civil law only was operative for the Old Testament theocracy. I do not think there is any indication of a theocracy in the New Testament until Christ returns as king."
Legacy
The Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation in Gryon, Switzerland is led by one of his daughters and sons-in-law as a small-scale alternative to the original L'Abri Fellowship International, which is still operating in nearby Huemoz-sur-Ollon and other places in the world. Covenant Theological Seminary has established the Francis A. Schaeffer Institute directed by a former English L'Abri member, Jerram Barrs. The purpose of the school is to train Christians to demonstrate compassionately and defend reasonably what they see as the claims of Christ on all of life..
According to Michael Hamilton of Christianity Today, "Perhaps no intellectual save C. S. Lewis affected the thinking of evangelicals more profoundly [than Francis Schaeffer]; perhaps no leader of the period save Billy Graham left a deeper stamp on the movement as a whole."
Institute of Church Leadership
In 1978, Schaeffer asked a group of Reformed Episcopal Clergy to research his thoughts and current trends, forming a church guild called "The Society of Reformed Philosophical Thinkers". This was merged in 1988 with "Into Thy Word Ministries", which was then transformed into "The Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development" in 1998. Its purpose is to strategize how to reach and train pastors and church leaders to focus on Christ centered principles. Its aim is to point the church back to "true-Truth" and "true spirituality". The foundation develops comprehensive curriculum for pastors, church planters and church leaders.
Seven Mountain Mandate In 1975, along with fellow evangelists Bill Bright (founder of Campus Crusade for Christ) and Loren Cunningham (founder of Youth With a Mission), Schaeffer was one of the founders of what would later be termed the Seven Mountain Mandate. The idea would later go on to be popularized by Bethel Church pastor Bill Johnson and Lance Wallnau, among others. The concept centers around Christians taking dominion of seven societal spheres of influence: "family, religion, education, media, art, economics, and government."
Political activism
Schaeffer is credited with helping spark a return to political activism among Protestant evangelicals and fundamentalists in the late 1970s and early 1980s, especially in relation to the issue of abortion. In his memoir Crazy for God, Schaeffer's son Frank takes credit for pressing his father to take on the abortion issue, which Schaeffer initially considered "too political". Schaeffer called for a challenge to what he saw as the increasing influence of secular humanism. Schaeffer's views were expressed in two works, his book entitled A Christian Manifesto, as well as the book and film series, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?.
A Christian Manifesto Schaeffer's book A Christian Manifesto. was published in 1981 and later delivered as a sermon in 1982. It was intended as a Christian answer to The Communist Manifesto of 1848 and the Humanist Manifesto documents of 1933 and 1973. Schaeffer's diagnosis is that the decline of Western Civilization is due to society having become increasingly pluralistic, resulting in a shift "away from a world view that was at least vaguely Christian in people's memory… toward something completely different." Schaeffer argues that there is a philosophical struggle between the people of God and the secular humanists.