Nevertheless, Schaeffer remains fascinating for his extraordinary influence on evangelical thinkers and leaders, and his genuinely sympathetic efforts to engage the great thinkers of European history that he saw as struggling against a tide of civilizational despair. Where previously these philosophers and cultural figures had been regarded as dangerous and beyond hope, Schaeffer arrived on evangelical college campuses in the 1960s with electrifying lectures on the history of Western thought, drawing his famous “line of despair” across the blackboard and pinpointing Hegel as the moment when philosophy gave up hope of reconciling reason and meaning.Įvangelical scholars after Schaeffer, as well as the few historians who have begun to investigate his impact, have not been kind to his interpretations of Western thought, which often featured unusual chronologies, glaring omissions, and idiosyncratic readings. David was formerly the religion editor of The Daily Beast, and has also written for Slate, Newsweek, Jacobin, and others.įrancis Schaeffer (1912-1984) is widely credited with motivating conservative evangelicals in the U.S to engage with secular thought and art. The following guest post is by David Sessions, a doctoral student in history at Boston College, and the founding editor of.
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