Listening to the Prophets

I told you a while ago that I was going to comment on both "everyday theology" (vanhoozer), and "Prayer and The Knowledge of God" (Goldsworthy). Well, I did comment on Goldsworthy, but, well, I got kind of bored with Vanhoozer's student essays. Anyway, I picked up "A Christian Manifesto" by Francis Shaeffer in the meantime. The book was very interesting. I have yet to read a book quite like it. The book was basically a call to arms for Christian activists. He writes about how humanism is THE competing worldview against Christianity. His cry is that God's people must stand up against this Darwinian satanic worldview which has infected all areas of life and freedom. His main attack is centered upon law and government, which he sees as the ultimate betrayer of human meaning and existence. He thinks (and rightfully so) that those who are in power are saturated with humanism and thus base law and governance upon its amoral objectives. Simply put, if man is nothing more than material energy without a higher authority to which he is ultimately accountable than the pursuit of his personal happiness is not only his right, but also his duty. For Shaeffer, humanism's greatest danger is that it places man above law. Thus, he can change it without moral reflection or accountability. This is why, says Shaeffer, we have abortion being legalized.

He goes onto talk about how Christians should stand and fight against such moral outrage. Christians should deny obedience to such governance and those who try to suppress the truth of God's law.

I could not help but to think as I read that I was reading a type of Jeremiah or Isaiah. The book was very foretelling about the condition of America, especially seeing as how the book was written in 1981. He was spot on with what America would be like in the future if evangelicals do not stand in opposition to the government. Again, abortion was his main issue. All in all, I really liked the book and it has given me MUCH to think about and wrestle over.

The man was a great philosophical theologian and I admire him greatly.