Although there is much to this story, one area especially concerning to Schaeffer was the subtle slide away from the commitment to the doctrine of inerrancy. Now some thirty-five plus years later that disaster is on full display as Evangelicalism is awash in cultural relativism. Although doctrinal statements in religious institutions and churches remain the same the real accommodation has come in the area of hermeneutics (methods for interpreting the Bible). The change in hermeneutics has been powered by cultural pressure as evangelicals embarrassed themselves as they became obsessed with the desire to be relevant to the world.
Over the past several weeks I have been writing on ideas spawned by thoughts from Francis Schaeffer’s book True Spirituality. Regarding the book, Schaeffer tells us that although the book would not be published until somewhat later, the final form of the content was completed in 1964. This means, in a sense, this was Schaeffer’s first book (technically, his first published book was Escape from Reason in 1968) and served as the heart of his theological thinking and ministry until the end of his earthly life. Schaeffer claimed that without the truths set forth in True Spirituality, there would have been no L’Abri (established 1955). This supports the claim that the teaching in True Spirituality was central to the development of his ministry shortly after moving to Europe.
On the other hand, Schaeffer’s last book, The Great Evangelical Disaster (1984) details Schaeffer’s lament over the state of Evangelicalism in America in the 1980s. He indicted evangelical Christians in America for failure to stand against the great spiritual assault on the Christian view of truth and reality. The result was that the spirit of the age rolled “on and on claiming to be autonomous and crushing all that we cherish in its path” (310).
The battle was over two contradictory views of “truth and reality.” For Schaeffer this was truly a violent spiritual battle waged within the actualities of human history. He thought few Christians really understood the threat this spiritual battle posed to Christian theology and practice. However, it was not only that the spirit of the age was not lovingly confronted, but it was that evangelicals mindlessly accommodated to it. The consequences were what Schaeffer termed as the great evangelical disaster.
When the two books are juxtaposed, I think a case can be made that the evangelical disaster developed, in part, because the evangelicals ignored the very heart of the Christian life as explained in True Spirituality. Although there is much to this story, one area especially concerning to Schaeffer was the subtle slide away from the commitment to the doctrine of inerrancy. Now some thirty-five plus years later that disaster is on full display as Evangelicalism is awash in cultural relativism. Although doctrinal statements in religious institutions and churches remain the same the real accommodation has come in the area of hermeneutics (methods for interpreting the Bible).
