Escape from reason
First published in 1968, this is a foundational work of Christian philosophy and apologetics by Francis A. Schaeffer. It provides a succinct yet thorough examination of Western philosophical and cultural history, charting the emergence of secular humanism and the fall of reason.
Schaeffer's main argument is that Western thought split into a fatal dichotomy, resulting in a "two-story" view of reality. Lower Story (Nature/Reason): The domain of science, particulars, rationality, and objective knowledge. The domain of faith, meaning, value, universals, and the non-rational is the Upper Story (Grace/Freedom).
He links this division to Thomas Aquinas's differentiation between Nature and Grace, contending that a humanistic component was added by allowing the intellect to function independently in the "Nature" realm. A sense of meaninglessness and despair resulted from the lower story of autonomous reason's gradual reduction of everything, including humanity, to mere mechanics and mathematics as time went on (through the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and philosophers like Kant, Rousseau, and Hegel). His "line of despair" is the place where reason is unable to give meaning.
The "Leap" to the Upper Story: Today's people must make an irrational "leap of faith" into the upper story because they are unable to find objective meaning or purpose in the logical lower story. This "leap" need not be religious; it could be into existentialism, a subjective interpretation of faith that is divorced from logic and objective reality, or a manufactured personal meaning.
By analyzing patterns in popular culture, music, literature, and the arts, Schaeffer demonstrates this philosophical evolution and demonstrates how this dichotomy materialized as a widespread feeling of hopelessness and fragmentation in Western society.
Schaeffer argues that the Bible offers a singular, cohesive explanation for all of reality, drawing a comparison between the secular and Christian worldviews. The infinite-personal Creator God of the Bible unifies the lower (objective knowledge) and upper (meaning and value) narratives and serves as the basis for both reason and faith.
Particularly among evangelicals, Escape From Reason is regarded as a highly influential work that shaped a generation's perspective on Christian apologetics and cultural engagement. Schaeffer's observations were incredibly foresighted, foreshadowing themes that would later be linked to relativism, postmodernism, and the preference for emotionalism over objective reality.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment