BOOK REPORT

“HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE?”

BY F RANCIS SCHAEFF ER

JACOB SCHRIFTMAN
2003, WILER, SWITZERLAND
WWW.SCHRIFTMAN.NET
 BOOK REPORT

“HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE?”

BY F RANCIS SCHAEFF ER

JACOB SCHRIFTMAN
2003, WILER, SWITZERLAND
WWW.SCHRIFTMAN.NET
I NTRODUCTION
Background to Francis Schaeffer and How Should We Then Live?

F
rancis A. Schaeffer was born on January 30, 1912, in
Germantown (a section of Philadelphia), Pennsyl-
vania. His father was a tradesman, and Francis grew
up as an only child. He turned from Agnosticism to Christi-
anity mainly through his own study of worldview issues and
personal Bible reading. In 1935 he graduated from Hamp- Francis Schaeffer in Switzerland

den-Sydney College in Virginia and in the same year got

married to Edith. Over the years, they raised three daughters and one son. During his semi-
nary years, he witnessed deep divisions among Christians due to the liberal influence that
was infiltrating the conservative church. This sharpened his mind early on to think about is-
sues of absolute truth and the nature of the Bible. As part of his stance against liberalism, he
helped found Faith Seminary for conservative Presbyterians two years after he had gradu-
ated. In 1938 Francis was ordained minister and subsequently pastored Bible Presbyterian
church in Pennsylvania for five years, then a church in St. Louis. After the end of WWII, the
Presbyterian Church sent Francis on a three-month trip to Europe in order to evaluate the
state of the church there. In 1948, he took his family and moved perma-
nently to Switzerland. In 1955 he started his own ministry there: L’Abri
Fellowship, which became a refuge mainly for young people who were
seeking for answers. Over the years, Francis and Edith opened their door
to thousands of truth-seekers, engaging them in thinking through the im-

Schaeffer in plications of their worldview and presenting to them the solution of the
a discussion
Bible. It was comparatively late in his life that Francis Schaeffer began
publishing books. Until he was in his mid-fifties, he had primarily witnessed to people
through personal conversations. In 1968, then, he published his first book, The God Who Is
There. This was the first of more than twenty books, many of which were to make a deep
impact on influential people, especially on intellectuals, artists, and professionals such as
doctors.

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 H O W S H O U L D W E T H E N L I V E ? — B O O K R E P O R T

The idea of the project How Should We Then Live?, both as a

film documentary and as a book, was conceived in 1974 and re-
leased in 1976—the book by Fleming H. Revell and the docu-
mentary film series by Gospel Films. In the Acknowledgments
of the book, Francis Schaeffer writes about the idea behind the
project: “Using my study, over the past forty years, of Western
thought and culture as a base, we could attempt to present the
flow and development which have led to twentieth-century
thinking, and by so doing hope to show the essential answers.”
The subtitle to How Should We Then Live? is “The Rise and De-
cline of Western Thought and Culture.” Starting from ancient Roman times, tracing man’s
development throughout the Middle Ages, going through the Renaissance, Reformation, and
Enlightenment, Francis Schaeffer shows the steps which led to the modern era.

OUTLINE OF THE BOOK

1. Ancient Rome
2. The Middle Ages
3. The Renaissance
4. The Reformation
5. The Reformation-Continued
6. The Enlightenment
7. The Rise of Modern Science
8. The Breakdown in Philosophy and Science
9. Modern Philosophy and Modern Theology
10. Modern Art, Music, Literature, and Films
11. Our Society
12. Manipulation and the New Elite
13. The Alternatives

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 O VERALL O BSERVATION
Chapter Summaries

Chapter One—Ancient Rome

The finite Graeco-Roman gods were not a sufficient inward base for the Roman society:
Rome crumbled from within, and the invasions of the barbarians only completed the break-
down.

Augustus

Diocletian

Julius Caesar
Aristotle

Constantine
A Greek ship

The Colloseum in a movie scene from “Gladiator” and in its present condition
 H O W S H O U L D W E T H E N L I V E ? — B O O K R E P O R T

Chapter Two—The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages were the post-Roman age: a time of uncertainty in which there were great
advances of the church but also great distortions of Biblical truth, eventually leading to the
Renaissance and the Reformation.

Allegory of Good and Thomas Aquinas

Bad Government, by
Lorenzetti

A knight

Charlemagne

Adam and Eve,

by Massacio

A Gothic Cathedral

The Fall of Constantinople

Pope Gregory

Adoration of the Lamb, by Van Eyck

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 H O W S H O U L D W E T H E N L I V E ? — B O O K R E P O R T

Chapter Three—The Renaissance

Although the Renaissance revived the realization that man and nature are important, it went
overboard by making man the measure of all things—and by that destroyed the importance
of man.

Michelangelo’s David

Venice

Lorenzo the
Magnificent

Red Virgin, by Fouquet

Leonardo da Vinci

School of Athens,
by Raphael

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 H O W S H O U L D W E T H E N L I V E ? — B O O K R E P O R T

Chapter Four—The Reformation

Like the Renaissance, the Reformation sought to bring freedom to man, yet unlike the Ren-
aissance it did not lose sight of the Bible and absolute values.

Chapter Five—The Reformation—Continued

The impact of the Reformation on society at large was the opportunity of freedom without
chaos.
Luther nailing the 95
Theses to the church
Zwingli

Luther

Calvin

Rutherford and his book “Lex Rex”

Dürer and his painting

“Four Horsemen”

A book by Zwingli

Rembrandt and his painting “Raising of the Cross” Händel

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 H O W S H O U L D W E T H E N L I V E ? — B O O K R E P O R T

Chapter Six—The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment believed in the perfectibility of society, and sought to bring it about
mainly by the means of revolution.

Voltair

Marx

A picture of the French Revolution

Chapter Seven—The Rise of Modern Science

Modern science could only have arisen from a Christian foundation: namely, that man is not
part of a closed system but can observe and act into the system.

Pascal

Copernicus and his book “De Revolutionibus” 7

 H O W S H O U L D W E T H E N L I V E ? — B O O K R E P O R T

Chapter Eight—The Breakdown of Philosophy and Science

The foundation in Philosophy and Science was changed from antithetical thinking to dialec-
tic thinking—and because of it reason became more and more pessimistic.

Chapter Nine—Modern Philosophy and Modern Theology

Due to the pessimistic view on reason, Philosophy and Theology started to seek meaning in
the irrational.

Chapter Ten—Modern Art, Music, Literature, and Films

What began in Philosophy now made itself felt in the Arts: the abandonment of reason and
increased fragmentation.

Chapter Eleven—Our Society

We have come full circle: our society has become like the declining Roman Empire of old.

Chapter Twelve—Manipulation and the New Elite

Because our society stands on the verge of chaos, we are in danger of coming under an au-
thoritarian elite which will increasingly manipulate our lives.

Chapter Thirteen—The Alternatives

The only plausible alternative to authoritarianism is to align ourselves to a Biblical world-
view—a worldview which produces freedom without chaos.

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CLOS ER O BSERVATIONS
More Detailed Summaries of Three Chapters

Chapter Eight—The Breakdown in Philosophy and Science

(ca. 1750-1900)

In Philosophy, four men were chiefly responsible for what Francis Schaeffer calls The
Breakdown: Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard.

1. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) advocated the

idea of autonomous freedom: that “man was born free,”
but that “everywhere he is in chains.” What man must do,
therefore, is to throw off the fetters of culture and religion.
The problem is that this destroys the existence of univer-
sals which give meaning to the particulars. One is only left
with what is, and as Marquis de Sade recognized, this leads
to the conclusion that what is is right.
Rousseau

2. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was another stepping stone in the separa-

tion of the world which can be measured (the particulars) and the world of
meaning and value (the universals).
Kant
3. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Hegel (1770-1831) did away with the ancient anti-
thetical way of thinking (that A is A, and that A is
not non-A) and proposed a dialectic approach, which
could be pictured as follows:

THESIS ANTITHESIS

SYNTHESIS

THESIS ANTITHESIS

SYNTHESIS
Hegel
AD INFINITUM
In short, Hegel delivered Truth the deathblow.

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 H O W S H O U L D W E T H E N L I V E ? — B O O K R E P O R T

4. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) made the separation of reason and

meaning complete by basing his optimistic Christian faith on non-reason
and his pessimistic philosophy on reason.
The writings of these four men have led to the following dilemma. Man
concludes through his reasoning that he is only a machine, but since this is
in contradiction to the way God made him to be, he “leaps upstairs” to find
Kierkegaard
meaning in non-reason. This sets the stage for existentialism, spiritualism,
New Age, drug culture, the occult, and all the forms of antirational experi-
ences which are so prevalent today.

In Science, the main breakdown consisted in the shift from believing in an “open system”
to believing in a “closed system.” It was now believed that this universe runs like a gear-
wheel without anyone outside of the system who can act into it. This thinking resulted in
Darwinism and even helped to produce the Nazi movement.

Chapter Nine—Modern Philosophy and Modern Theology

(from about 1920 to the present)

The key term for understanding modern philosophy and theology is existentialism. Francis
Schaeffer explains the teachings of existentialists like Sartre, Heidegger, Jaspers, Huxley,
Barth, and Tillich.

1. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) taught that in the area of reason eve-

rything is absurd, but that “a person can authenticate himself by an act
of the will.” The problem is that if reason is left out, your will is direc-
tionless.
Sartre

2. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) proposed something similar to Sar-

tre’s view: reason will not give you answers; meaning comes out of the
feeling of Angst. But this is a rather nebulous proposition, which Hei-
degger recognized later in his life when he changed his view.

Heidegger

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 H O W S H O U L D W E T H E N L I V E ? — B O O K R E P O R T

3. Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) suggested that people can have a

“final experience” which gives them meaning in life. However,
this experience cannot be expressed in words and therefore fails
to give lasting hope.

4. Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) drew

the conclusion from his existentialistic
Jaspers philosophy that drugs are the solution.
In the 1960’s, almost a whole generation in the West acted upon
this idea and sought a meaningful experience in drugs.

Huxley
5. Karl Barth (1886-1968) brought the
existential methodology into theology. He believed that the Bible is
full of mistakes, but that a religious “word” breaks through from it.
From the perspective of reason, the Bible does not make sense, and
yet it can give one a religious experience.

Barth

6. Paul Tillich (1886-1965) concluded that if the content of

the Bible is eradicated, we also cannot know who God is—
He is only a word.

The above points led to the God-is-dead theology of

Nietzsche, because if God is only a word, we can just as well
get rid of the word—it is meaningless anyway. And if we do
that, we are left only with despair.
Tillich

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 H O W S H O U L D W E T H E N L I V E ? — B O O K R E P O R T

Chapter Ten—Modern Art, Music, Literature, and Films

(from about 1850 to the present)

In this chapter, Francis Schaeffer gives examples

of how the breakdown in philosophy, science, and
theology was expressed in the arts: through paint-
ings, music, poems, drama, and film. In all of
these, an increasing fragmentation began to take its
toll. Artists like Duchamp and Pollock tried to ex-
press that this universe came about by chance, and
that therefore everything is absurd. Musicians like
John Cage tried to express the same idea through
music—though the result was either noise or total
silence. Poets like T.S. Eliot and movements like
Dadaism followed along the same line. And movie
makers like Ingmar Bergman and Michaelangelo
Antonioni showed basically that man as man has
Nude Descending a Staircase,
disappeared: that all that is left is a machine that by Marcel Duchamp

can “murder without guilt” and “love without

meaning.”
However, all of these artists ran into a figurative wall. Because their worldview contra-
dicts the real universe as God has created it, they failed in their attempt to escape meaning
and form—not only in their art, but also in their daily lives.

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P ARALLES
What Does the Bible Say?

F
rancis Schaeffer demonstrates the importance of examining history from God’s per-
spective and then applying the discovered truths to our lives. The Bible teaches the
same. And I believe that it is shown especially clearly in the mandate of the prophets
that the Bible portrays.
One of the ways in which we can see this is by looking at the original, Jewish division of
the Tenakh, the Old Testament:

LAW PROPHETS WRITINGS

FORMER LATTER FORMER FIVE ROLLS LATTER

Genesis Judges Isaiah Psalms Song of S. Daniel

Exodus Joshua Jeremiah Proverbs Ruth Ezra

Leviticus 1&2 Samuel Ezekiel Job Lamentation Nehemiah

Numbers 1&2 Kings The Twelve Ecclesiastes Chronicles

Deuteronomy Esther

As the above chart shows, several books which we would classify as history books are
here viewed as prophetic books. Why? Because the Jews knew that the prophetic mandate
included the interpretation and application of history. A prophet often did the following:

1. Informed about history (Reminder of the truth)

2. Interpreted history (Reinforcement of the truth)
3. Inspired from history (Restoration of the truth)

Often, a prophet would look back at history to tell the people how they had gotten into
their current situation, and then he would call for a response in the present in order to have a
positive change in the future. A prophet’s message can be summed up like this:

1. In the past you have violated the Mosaic covenant like this . . .
2. which is the reason you are now in your present continuing situation.

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 H O W S H O U L D W E T H E N L I V E ? — B O O K R E P O R T

3. Therefore repent right now . . .

4. . . . and the consequences of the violation of the covenant will be removed;
5. . . . and, based on the Abrahamic covenant, there will be a final restoration.

It is hard for me to imagine a godly person in the Old Testament who did not have any
knowledge of history (from God’s perspective). The whole Bible is a testimony that study-
ing history from God’s perspective and applying its lessons is vital to faith in God. History
is “His story.” His story of redemption cannot possibly be severed from history.

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AP PLICATION
What About Me?

How Has the Book Influenced Me?

W
hen I first read How Should We Then Live? and the other works of Francis
Schaeffer, it certainly challenged my thinking. I had grown up in a Pentecostal
church and had a very Pentecostal-Charismatic understanding on most issues.
And even though I did not change my denomination and still think that many strengths of
the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement are badly needed by other denominations, Francis
Schaeffer (among others) helped me to see that I was a bit off-balance. I would like to high-
light two areas in which I was corrected:
1. I was very focused on “experiencing God,” which had led me both to a super-spiritual
outlook on life and to disappointment due to a lack of what I considered “experiencing
God.” Francis Schaeffer helped me see that even though experience with God is important,
my personal experience with Him is not the foundation of my faith. Truth is. And truth re-
mains truth independent of my experience. I should therefore seek to build my life on truth
instead of just on my personal experience.
2. Francis Schaeffer also helped me to bridge my dichotomy between the spiritual and the
natural. In my mind there was still a wide gap between the spiritual and the natural, even to
the point in which I could not see the value of the artistic gifts God had given me. Francis
Schaeffer showed me the importance of art and my natural gifts.

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