Not Your Father’s L’Abri

This is taken from a Christianity Today article on Francis Schaeffer and L’Abri, by Molly Worthen:

The modernist philosophy that he targeted in most of his writings, the bogeyman of existentialism, is passé. “Now the question is, Is there truth at all?” said worker Thomas Rauchenstein, a soft-spoken Canadian with sandy brown hair and a close-cropped beard. “Postmodernism’s critique of truth is more of a factor in students’ thinking.”

This just shows the complete misunderstanding of Schaeffer’s teachings. He saw, felt and understood post-modernism which is the reason he pushed strongly presuppositional apologetics. Presuppositonal apologetics do not rest on modernism, but on truth – which does exist no matter what worldview you hold. Schaeffer, by pushing people to the Line of Despair, helped people realise that their presuppositions were faulty, incoherent and unliveable.

In an age of non-truth we do not play the field to the post-modern rule book. Jesus is the “way, the truth, and the life” – therefore if people do not understand truth our apologetic must first target truth, in turn to reveal Jesus.