Hunter Baker reviews a biography on Francis Schaeffer. He writes about Schaeffer:
The man who cared enough to tutor a little boy with Down Syndrome is also the man who told his church in St. Louis that he would resign if a black person ever came to his church and felt unwelcome. The budding intellectual who answered the existential questions of college students in Europe is also the agitator who took up the cause of the unborn and became arguably the finest shaper of and advocate for a potent evangelical critique of modern culture.
One thing I wonder about is the stylistic differences between the 20th Century’s 3 greatest Christian apologists: Chesterton, Lewis, and Schaeffer.
Mainly, they seem to get more heady and intellectual. Chesterton was first and foremost a journalist, who just happened to spend his free time debating loudly with the greatest intellectuals (mostly atheist) of his time. While he loudly defended his own ideas, there’s something about his writings that are always more enthuiastic than cautious; he’d rather show marvels than explain them.
Lewis was the traditionalist Oxford Don, but with a strong ability to explain things to non-intellectuals. And so his most famous non-fiction was Mere Christianity, the radio address broadcast on the BBC targeted (successfully) at an uneducated audience.
Schaeffer wasn’t mandarin by any stretch of the imagination, but his most popular writings came from his middle stretch, when he was the L’avri intellectual. Certainly he was a remarkably clear writer, but somehow he seems to write to people who want to be Christian intellectuals.
To sum up: Chesterton wrote almost exclusively in thoughtful sound-bites. Lewis explained theology to the average working-class bloke. Schaeffer offered that same bloke the chance to become an intellectual–if he’s willing to put the rather large required effort into reading Schaeffer’s writings.
I wonder if this is just a coincidence, or if the progression represents something of the trajectory of Christian intellectualism.
That’s fascinating. I’ll have to think about that as well as read more of Schaeffer.
I see the heir apparent to this progression as Ravi Zacharias. He comes full circle by bringing the message of the Gospel down to a level where even the most ardent intellectual can understand it. Is there anyone else doing apologetics at the same level as him?