Rediscovering Francis A. Schaeffer

May 13, 2014
History Ministry Public Square Theology
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Apologetics, Archives, Biblical Interpretation, cultural engagement, Evangelism, Francis Schaeffer, Hermeneutics, Research, The Library at Southeastern

Rediscovering Francis A. Schaeffer

By Steve Jones

I grew up in a culture that was deeply influenced by Francis A. Schaeffer, and I didn’t know it. Schaeffer encouraged and equipped my parent’s generation to ask difficult questions about life and culture and think deeply about how God’s revealed truth in Scripture provides the only coherent answers to those questions. He taught the generations that taught me the importance of integrating the truth of Christianity into the pursuit of truth in all areas of study, practice, and life. These ideas were passed on to many in my generation, but they had become so foundational that Schaeffer’s role in developing them often went without saying. As we approach the 30^th anniversary of his death, it is fitting that we take the time to examine Schaeffer’s influence upon our thought and culture today. The Francis A. Schaeffer Collection at Southeastern is a unique resource that makes this rediscovery of Francis A. Schaeffer possible.

In 2010, the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation entrusted a large collection of Francis A. Schaeffer’s personal papers into the seminary’s care. Since receiving the collection, library staff have labored to arrange, describe, and digitize these papers. The collection includes addresses, correspondence, manuscripts, sermons, research files, audio recordings, and other materials that provide a glimpse into the life, thought, writing, and ministry of Francis A. Schaeffer. These primary sources help us to understand Schaeffer and the development of his ideas in ways that were previously impossible. I recently had the opportunity to talk with our archives and digitization lab staff about the ways in which they have rediscovered the influence of Francis A. Schaeffer by working with his papers. Here are three of the many themes we discussed:

Schaeffer’s Engagement of Scripture

Francis A. Schaeffer studied the Scriptures and thought deeply about what they say concerning God and His creation. Schaeffer’s emphasis on applying God’s revealed truth in Scripture to every aspect of our thought, practice and life has shaped the way we engage Scripture today. The Schaeffer Collection includes a Bible that was used by Schaeffer and contains extensive marginal notes documenting his interaction with the text. When combined with the notes, manuscripts and outlines for Schaeffer’s sermons, this collection provides researchers with an unprecedented glimpse into Schaeffer’s study, proclamation, and application of the Scriptures.

Schaeffer’s Engagement of the Lost

Francis A. Schaeffer had a heart for the lost. As a pastor and missionary, he was driven by compassion for a lost generation wrestling with unanswered questions that led many to hopelessness, despair, and death. Schaeffer knew that the only meaningful answers to those questions were found in Christ, and he took time to explain and live out the truth of Christianity in community. His model of missional thought, dialogue, and living has shaped the way we engage our generation with the Gospel today. The Schaeffer Collection includes correspondence, newsletters, reports, sermons and other materials that document the development of Schaeffer’s practice of apologetics, missions and evangelism from his work with Children For Christ as a pastor, through his transition to full-time missions in Europe with the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, and onto his work with L’Abri.

Schaeffer’s Engagement of Culture

Francis A. Schaeffer recognized the importance of understanding the prevailing culture and impacting that culture with the truth of Christianity. The ways in which he taught Christians to engage cultural expressions of all forms, whether they be political or artistic, influence our understanding of the intersection of faith and culture today. The Schaeffer Collection includes, correspondence, annotated still images of artwork, speeches, and other resources that help us better understand Schaeffer’s engagement of culture. In particular, Schaeffer’s correspondence with Hans Rookmaaker, the Dutch Christian scholar of the arts, sheds light on the ways in which these men honed each other’s understanding of culture and the arts. The collection also includes annotated still images of artwork and two letters from Schaeffer to Bob Dylan that document the ways in which Schaeffer engaged art and artists of all mediums and genres.

As I get to know Francis A. Schaeffer through my work with his papers, I am learning that he went to great lengths to examine primary sources and draw awareness to the roots and development of ideas that converged to form the cultural assumptions of his time. In doing so, he helped to mold the culture in which we live today. The Francis A. Schaeffer Collection at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary provides students and researchers with an opportunity to explore the roots and development of Francis A. Schaeffer’s thought. By doing so, we may come to better understand ways in which his ideas have impacted our culture and rediscover the man who has taught us to understand, discuss, and live out our faith.

Please consult our website to learn more about conducting research in the Francis A. Schaeffer Collection. Digital copies of this collection will also be available for research at the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation in Gryon, Switzerland and Hill House in Austin, Texas.

Special thanks to the Library at Southeastern archives and digitization lab staff, including Mary Cameron Cassion, Aaron Coffey, Craig Freeman, Rebecca Hayden, Daniel Hulsey, and Bill Youngmark, who have worked diligently to process and digitize the Francis A. Schaeffer Collection and help me better understand the research treasures it contains.

Steve Jones is Archivist and Digital Collections Manager at The Library at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Book Review: Recovering Classic Evangelicalism

July 10, 2013
Books Culture Mission Public Square Theology
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Apologetics, Carl F. H. Henry, cultural engagement, Greg Thornury, Natural Law, special revelation, Speech-Act Theory, theological method

Gregory Alan Thornbury, Recovering Classic Evangelicalism: Applying the Wisdom and Vision of Carl F. H. Henry (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013). 223 pp. $17.99.

Carl F. H. Henry (1913–2003) was one of the founding fathers of contemporary American evangelicalism. He was an accomplished journalist and a prolific scholar. In his later years, he was also identified with Southern Baptist life, where he significantly influenced the younger conservative scholars who came of age in the 1980s and early 1990s. His best-known works are probably The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (Eerdmans, 1947; reprint 2003) and his magnum opus, the six-volume God, Revelation, and Authority (Word, 1976–83; reprint, Crossway, 1999).

In the centennial year of Henry’s birth, Union University philosopher Greg Thornbury has written an important book titled Recovering Classic Evangelicalism: Applying the Wisdom and Vision of Carl F. H. Henry. The book isn’t a conventional biography, though it sketches the basics of Henry’s life. It also isn’t a comprehensive study of Henry’s theology, though it engages some of the core components of Henry’s thought. Instead, the author offers a winsome exposition and defense of Henry’s theological vision. Thornbury believes that contemporary evangelicals have lost their way in some respects. He commends Henry’s “Classic Evangelicalism” as a pathway to a healthier evangelical future.

In six chapters, Thornbury outlines a number of areas where he believes evangelicals need to recover Henry-esque theology and emphases. Thornbury strongly advocates Henry’s intellectual program, which includes the importance of theological prolegomena, presuppositional apologetics, and primarily propositional “theologies of revelation” over against Natural Law traditions. He pits the vision that Henry lays out in God, Revelation, and Authority against postfoundationalist movements, especially the postliberal narrative theology of the Yale School. He expresses great skepticism that speech-act theory can be appropriated by evangelicals, despite efforts by theologians such as Kevin Vanhoozer, Michael Horton, and Timothy Ward to do so. Thornbury commends Henry’s sophisticated understanding of biblical inerrancy and his wedding of evangelism and social justice in a comprehensive theology of evangelical cultural engagement.

As I was reading Recovering Classic Evangelicalism, I found myself reacting in four ways: hearty disagreement, minor quibbles, substantial agreement, and warm appreciation. First, hearty disagreement. I simply do not share Thornbury’s aversion to Natural Law theory or his presupposition (get it?) that presuppositional apologetics are inherently preferable to evidentialist apologetics. I do not see the Natural Law as a threat to special revelation, and I embrace an eclectic approach to apologetics (different situations call for different strategies). I also believe speech-act theory is a fruitful dialog partner for evangelical theology and find it somewhat baffling that Thornbury summarily rejects it because Austin and Searle were anti-Christian in their beliefs.

In terms of minor quibbles, I think Thornbury is a bit too strident in his dismissal of narrative theology. While I am no postliberal, I appreciate how that movement has called us, however imperfectly, back to an emphasis on the narrative of Scripture rather than a more atomized approach to exegesis. And while I share Thornbury’s appreciation for theological method, I consider it a great leap forward that recent attempts at prolegomena consider biblical theology to be at least as important to theological method as propositional/cognitive considerations.

Having noted some disagreements and quibbles, let me express my substantial agreement with Thornbury. I agree that Carl Henry is a theologian we need to recover and engage anew in our ongoing debates over biblical inerrancy. Though I don’t think it is the “last word” on the subject, I am unaware of a more comprehensive argument for the full truthfulness of the Scriptures than God, Revelation, and Authority. I also agree 100% that Henry lends a needed voice to our intramural evangelical debates about the mission of the church. Too many current voices in that discussion seem to be either faddish or reactionary, lacking the measured (balanced?) approach of earlier evangelical statesmen such as Henry, Schaeffer, and Stott.

In terms of warm appreciation, I am grateful that Thornbury corrects some of the overly simplistic and uncharitable readings of Henry as a cold-hearted propositionalist who was more philosophical (which is bad) than theological (which is good). I also agree with Thornbury that Henry was not a poor or unclear writer, despite efforts by those who disagree with him to paint him as such. More generally, I truly appreciate Thornbury’s attempt to ressource Henry for contemporary evangelicals, in part because I think it’s possible to disagree with some of Henry’s specific emphases while at the same time enthusiastically embracing his broader vision for a theologically rooted, culturally engaged evangelicalism.

There is no doubt that scholars are increasingly turning their attention to Henry. In the last decade, I’m aware of at least eight dissertations, two books, and almost two dozen essays that focus primarily or exclusively on Henry’s life and thought. I also know of several current graduate students who are planning to write dissertations or theses on Henry. I strongly recommend Recovering Classic Evangelicalism as a particularly accessible product of this “Henry Renaissance” that will likely inspire others to get in on the action. I hope Thornbury’s book encourages a generation of evangelical scholars to further engage Carl Henry and his “Classic Evangelicalism.”

Messages Available Online from the 20/20 Conference

February 4, 2013
Ministry Mission Theology
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20/20 Conference, cultural engagement, Global Missions, Gospel

20/20 Collegiate Conference

This past weekend, SEBTS hosted our ninth annual 20/20 Collegiate Conference. Our theme this year was Gospel and Mission. The plenary speakers included Darrin Patrick of The Journey in St. Louis, MO; C.J. Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville, KY; and our own Danny Akin and Bruce Ashford. The indefatigable Tony Merida served as the host for the conference and Daniel Renstrom led our worship for the weekend. A couple dozen SEBTS professors and numerous other colleagues from other ministries led the breakout sessions. If you’d like to watch the audio from the plenary conference, check out the multimedia section of the SEBTS website.

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