The God Who Is There

Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984) is often considered one of the four most influential evangelicals of the 20th Century along with Billy Graham (the Evangelist), John Stott (the Bible Teacher), and J.I. Packer (the Theologian). He was an American evangelist-theologian-philosopher-pastor-apologist and co-founder of the L'Abri community in Switzerland with his wife Edith. In 1968 he published a book called The God Who Is There. In this month’s edition of The Unichurch Papers I would like to briefly sketch his main thesis in the book just by way of introducing you to some of his insights.

The book revolves around what Schaeffer calls “the line of despair”. Above the line people believe in absolutes - absolute truth, morality and so on - and in the possibility of discovering those absolutes by careful reasoning. Below the line people have given up on the idea of absolutes, or at least the idea that we could ever come to know what they are through human reason. Throughout the book, Schaeffer traces the descent of western culture below the line. It all starts with humanism or rationalism:

“Humanism in the larger, more inclusive sense is the system whereby men and women, beginning absolutely by themselves, try rationally to build out from themselves, having only Man as their integration point, to find all knowledge, meaning and value.”[1]

“Above the line, people were rationalistic optimists. They believed they could begin with themselves and draw a circle which would encompass all thoughts of life and life itself without having to depart from the logic of antithesis. They thought that on their own, rationalistically, finite people could find a unity within the total diversity—an adequate explanation for the whole of reality. This is where philosophy stood prior to our own era. The only real argument between these rationalistic optimists concerned what circle should be drawn. … But at a certain point this attempt to spin out a unified optimistic humanism came to an end…

 In the end the philosophers came to the realization that they could not find this unified rationalistic circle and so, departing from the classical methodology of antithesis, they shifted the concept of truth, and modern man was born. In this way modern man moved under the line of despair.”[2]

Having begun with philosophy, Schaeffer moves onto explain how art, music, “general culture”, and eventually theology all shifted below the line of despair. He traces the connections between Hegel, Kierkegaard, Picasso, the Beatles, Karl Barth and so on, slowly building up a series of diagrams.

Schaeffer describes Hegel as “the man to open the door into the line of despair” – though he himself did not move below it. Hegel suggested that instead of approaching truth on the basis of antithesis (i.e. the idea that if this is right, that must be wrong etc.), truth was to be discovered through synthesis (finding a rational compromise between two opposing positions). Schaeffer writes, “the conclusion is that all possible positions are relativized”.[3]

Kierkegaard is “the first man below” the line because he concluded, “that you could not arrive at synthesis by reason. Instead, you achieve everything of real importance by a leap of faith.” This, of course, is completely different to the bible’s definition of faith. In the bible, faith is not an irrational leap into the dark – or at least it shouldn’t be. The bible encourages us to put our trust in God because he is demonstrably trustworthy. In fact, to refuse to believe in such a God is irrational.

To conclude: it strikes me that in fact modern man is not so modern after all. Schaeffer’s definition of humanism would fit quite neatly as the bible’s definition of Sin. This is what Adam & Eve wanted when they ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They wanted to know good and evil “beginning absolutely by themselves” rather than listening to God and trusting him. What modern man likes to call the enlightenment, was really just another expression of sin: “For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools."(Romans 1:21-22) The only hope for our friends and colleagues to find true enlightenment is, of course, the gospel!

[1] Schaeffer, Francis A.. The God Who Is There (The IVP Signature Collection) (p. 25). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

[2] ibid. pp.26-27.

[3] ibid. p.30.