法兰西斯·薛佛

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, 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 L'Abri (French for 'the shelter'). 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. 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."