Historical Apologist: Francis Schaeffer

Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) was an evangelical thinker, writer and speaker who had a dramatic impact on young evangelicals in the 1960s and 1970s. Schaeffer was a Bible Presbyterian minister who went to Switzerland as a missionary in 1948. With his wife, Edith, he developed L'Abri - a ministry to young people from Europe and North America.

Such books as The God Who Is There and Escape from Reason, developed from his lectures, popularized his view that Western culture had descended into irrationalism as a consequence of its rejection of biblical Christianity. Schaeffer's analysis of history was wide-ranging, covering fields as diverse as art, philosophy and politics. In his later years he increasingly emphasized the evils of abortion.1

1. C.Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), p. 104.