Thursday, August 16, 2012

The God Who is There by Francis Schaeffer

As promised, I finally finished The God Who is There by Francis Schaeffer.  This was a really tough read.  This book is part of Schaeffer's work that looks at a Christian view of Philosophy and Culture.  It was written in 1968 so it does feel a little dated.  The book is primarily about how Christianity is different from post-modernism.
It begins by examining philosophy, art, music and general culture and showing how they have progressed to a place where there are no absolutes anymore.  In postmodernism the opposite of right is not necessarily wrong.  Schaeffer then looks at how postmodernism has effected theology and the liberalization of theology.  Next he points out how historic Christianity looks nothing like "postmodern" Christianity.  That historic Christianity actually has answers to people's questions about the meaning of life and what people are for.  That people's questions like these are where we meet people as we "pre-evangelize" them.  He describes taking people's roofs off and exposing how their relativistic philosophy does not match the reality of God's world around them.  Finally, he explores what Christian's demonstrating the character of the God who is there should look like. 
A difficult read.  I'm going to keep reading the rest of the complete works, but unless you are particularly interested in philosophy I might pass on this one

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