The God Who Is There

Nov 25, 2011 Jacob Aitken rated it it was ok

Shelves: philosophy, apologetics

I first read this book in 2002 and it was the primer that got me into apologetics and philosophy. (Unfortunately, it is better labeled "Apologetics for Fluffy Evangelicals"). From Schaeffer I moved to James Sire; from Sire to Douglas Groothuis, and from Groothuis to Cornelius Van Til. The book is quite exciting for the reader actually believes he will take these arguments and reclaim culture for Christ. Schaeffer offers a stirring vision on how the loss of God affects every area of life.

Unfortu I first read this book in 2002 and it was the primer that got me into apologetics and philosophy. (Unfortunately, it is better labeled "Apologetics for Fluffy Evangelicals"). From Schaeffer I moved to James Sire; from Sire to Douglas Groothuis, and from Groothuis to Cornelius Van Til. The book is quite exciting for the reader actually believes he will take these arguments and reclaim culture for Christ. Schaeffer offers a stirring vision on how the loss of God affects every area of life.

Unfortunately, the devil is in the details. Schaeffer fundamentally misrepresents every philosopher and group with whom he deals. There is no intellectual rigor whatsoever. The prose is often stilted, and one suspects that Schaeffer, as he was notorious for, copied and pasted other philosophers without giving them credit. A few examples (and I am following the reviews of Mike Butler and Greg Bahnsen):

Schaeffer sees himself broadly within the tradition of Cornelius Van Til, but he is a watered down version of Van Til. For all of Van Til's problems, Van Til knew if you were going to press the antithesis, you were going to press it in the right place. Schaeffer fails that because he thinks "The Greeks were okay who got reason right. It was Hegel who messed it up and introduced irrationality." Now, I don't think the Greeks were as autonomous as Bahnsen makes them out to be, but which Greeks are we talking about? Schaeffer doesn't say.

Schaeffer might actually have read Aquinas correctly, when he says Aquinas posited a "two-storeyed" view of God. Schaeffer has been savaged on this point, and while he gives his usual "thirty second" reading of a philosopher, I think he might actually be right. While I agree with Milbank and Gilson that Aquinas did teach a unity in the continuum between reality, I don't see how imposing a Neo-Platonic ontology onto the Godhead really helps Aquinas' case, and the case that Aquinas didn't lead into secularism.

This book is good to get people started in apologetics, this review ends with a warning: if you are going to rely on these arguments to debate "stoners" at Woodstock, then Schaeffer is sufficient. If you are going to debate anyone with more than a semester in the history of philosophy, and you think Schaeffer will help, you will lose badly. ...more

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Oct 20, 2009 Lee Ferron rated it it was amazing

Read this book! Schaeffer gives his unique analysis of philosophical, socio-cultural and theological trends over the last 300 years, emphasizing Christendom's inability to keep pace with the rapid (and sometimes confusing) changes. The Christian's solution: to engage the hurting person at the exact point where his epistemological foundation collides with his sense of despair. He fleshes this out practically in the final few chapters and Appendix.

I have yet to encounter a modern-day Christian who ...more

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Nov 10, 2013 David Shane rated it really liked it

In "The God Who Is There", Francis Schaeffer explains that our world needs to know that GOD is THERE. God is really there - not as a helpful psychological construct but really, a real personality who is truly alive and acts and acted in real, verifiable space-time history as certainly as I sit here typing now. And "God" - the word is not up to our definition but refers to the God revealed in the Bible, this is the God who is there. In a culture that imagines an impassable chasm to exist between In "The God Who Is There", Francis Schaeffer explains that our world needs to know that GOD is THERE. God is really there - not as a helpful psychological construct but really, a real personality who is truly alive and acts and acted in real, verifiable space-time history as certainly as I sit here typing now. And "God" - the word is not up to our definition but refers to the God revealed in the Bible, this is the God who is there. In a culture that imagines an impassable chasm to exist between faith and reason, the objective reality of this truth must precede anything else we wish to say or our words will be completely misunderstood.

So that's the big idea.

How do you get there? Schaeffer contends that Christianity is a complete, livable system - and the dominant philosophy we encounter in other men is not. When the rational and faith were separated, when God was cut out of the picture, many of the most important concepts we discuss and value - morality, personality, purpose, became figments, or shadows of their former selves, if they could still be believed in at all. (One of the more interesting parts of the book to me was where Schaeffer traced out the repercussions of this separation as it moved from the realm of the philosophers down into music and art. From the idea that life is random and chance came musicians and artists who used random methods to create their music and art - Jackson Pollock most well known, perhaps.) And yet, though their philosophy tells men these things are figments, they live as though they are not. And so the first task of an evangelist is to "blow the roof off", to show men the real conclusions of their beliefs, conclusions they themselves could not live with. After this the evangelist may talk about our guilt before God and the necessity of faith - but ALWAYS making it clear what he means by guilt, and what he means by God, and what he means by faith, as the world has forgotten that reason and reality and faith go together. "As the twentieth-century mentality would understand the concept of religion, the Bible is a nonreligious book" he says in one place. And elsewhere, "The Bible insists that truth is one - and it is almost the sole surviving system in our generation that does."

But he doesn't end there, and I appreciated the final two chapters. We've spent all this time talking about how the world doesn't, really can't, live in consistency with its presuppositions about life - but are we Christians? When man fell, he says, we were separated from God, separated from ourselves (the psychological problems of life), separated from others (the sociological problems of life), and separated from nature. The work of Christ does not cure all of these problems completely in this life, but should bring substantial healing, healing the world can see - "behold how they love each other" the Romans said. Do the Americans say it today? And perhaps, he says at the very end, Christians should be the most "human" people you ever meet. Because we know who God is (really), and so we know what humans are (really), how we are special and different, created uniquely in the image of God, what we are meant to be. So let us live lives that reflect that. ...more

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Mar 30, 2017 Ninab rated it it was amazing

Shelves: recommended, read-2017

What a fantastic book! I wish I had read it in college. This was my first Francis Schaeffer book. I have read and been a fan of Nancy Pearcey (Author of "Total Truth" and "Saving Leonardo") who studied under Schaeffer. Though this book was written in 1968, the biblical principles Schaeffer covered in the book are relevant to today as we deal with postmodernism (i.e., the death of absolutism) and its ridiculous application in politics, art, morality...in everyday life.

Schaeffer's ideas, apologet ...more

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Jun 22, 2013 Tosh Demsey rated it it was amazing

One of the most insightful and challenging books I have ever read. I had to reread some sections and consult the glossary for some definitions, but it was well worth the effort. Schaeffer discusses the shift in the philosophy that has had the detrimental effect of creating a dichotomy between faith and reason. Most people in contemporary society now view the spiritual and the scientific as mutually exclusive whereas our predecessors looked to discover a philosophy that tied the two together. Sch ...more

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Aug 06, 2011 John Doe rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed

Schaeffer shares an anecdote about Paul Tillich that stuck with me. He relates how Tillich was asked in an interview if he ever prayed. Tillich said that he didn't, but that he meditates. I assumed that this was because Tillich doesn't believe in relationship with a personal god. I shared this anecdote with a friend, and she said that she was almost certain that he meditates on scripture.

What Tillich has to offer is less rich than orthodox Christianity, but it is important because he is able to ...more

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Feb 27, 2014 Candice rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, christian-literature, philosophy

Francis Schaeffer is a combination of intellect and compassion. In "The God Who Is There," Schaeffer does a brilliant job of communicating the importance of a logical worldview. I particularly enjoyed his discussion of personality and culture in the last chapter of the book. He stressed the importance of critiquing art through a biblical worldview without condemning the artist. All men are created in the image of God, just because an artist choses to use his creative skills to promote something Francis Schaeffer is a combination of intellect and compassion. In "The God Who Is There," Schaeffer does a brilliant job of communicating the importance of a logical worldview. I particularly enjoyed his discussion of personality and culture in the last chapter of the book. He stressed the importance of critiquing art through a biblical worldview without condemning the artist. All men are created in the image of God, just because an artist choses to use his creative skills to promote something other than a Christian worldview does not mean he is any less valued in the eyes of God (or in the eyes of his fellow man). I have always struggled with the sect of the Christian culture who claims the moral high ground and condemns a fellow man. We are always in a place to judge, but in a place to judge actions against what the Bible teaches. Condemn the sin, not the sinner. We all live in a fallen world.

My only real complaint about the book was its lack of detail concerning the philosophers discussed. Many philosophers were briefly mentioned, but Schaeffer assumed the reader was very familiar with all of them. I recommend having a laptop near by to do research as you go.

The following were some of my favorite passages:

"True education means thinking by association across various disciplines, and not just being highly qualified in one field." - p. 19

" . . . [W]eight of scholarship in defining words does not make up for weakness of argument in the larger questions." - p. 26

"There is nothing more ugly than orthodoxy without understanding or without compassion." - p. 36

"The God who is there, according to the Scriptures is the personal-infinite God. There is no other god like this God. It is ridiculous to say that all religions teach the same things when they disagree at the fundamental point as to what God is like. The gods of the East are infinite by definition - the definition being 'god is all that is'. This is the pan-everything-ism god. The gods of the West have tended to be personal but limited; such were the gods of the Greeks, Romans, and Germans. But the God of the Bible, Old and New Testaments alike, is the infinite-personal God." - p. 94

"[I]f one lives in a world of non-absolutes and would fight social justice in the mood of the moment, how may one establish what social justice is?" - p. 107 ...more

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Sep 07, 2015 Tim Kimberley rated it it was amazing

The old saying goes the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today. This is the way I felt about finishing this Francis Schaeffer classic. How did I get a Th.M. in historical theology without reading this book? Well, I guess you can't read all the "must read" books at once. I'm really glad I'm now a student of Schaeffer and sitting at his feet. The God Who is There felt like a cutting edge book and not one written 30 years ago by a guy now in glory.

Os Guinness is on ...more

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Mar 18, 2014 E rated it liked it · review of another edition

Can you have a ethical philosophy of life that is based in a metaphysical view that you reject as invalid? The obvious answer is no, but most of Western civilization has sought to live within this paradox for the past two centuries. It is Schaeffer's goal in this work to show how it is, at the end of the day, impossible to reject God yet still claim a moral standard that is based in Judeo-Christian roots.

Schaeffer shows how the absolutes of theism have been rejected in art, literature, music, an ...more

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May 14, 2012 Dianne Oliver rated it liked it

Shelves: religion

I really appreciated his take on art, and literature and how they fit into our current mindset as moderns. Especially, his summary of Camus as I have just read a few of his books, and Leonardo dV's mindset. Eye opening to see how the shifts have taken place, and how much our placement on the time line of history affects our suppositions.While the first section of the book, on philosophy, was not of interest to me, I found the latter chapters very relevant. Mr. Schaeffer is willing to delve into ...more

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Mar 04, 2014 Jim George rated it it was amazing

Today after more that 40 years this book is as important as it was when it was originally written. In our post-Christian era Dr. Schaeffer’s insights continue to demonstrate how historic Christianity can confront the false philosophies of our day. Yet his logic and reasoning are simply written and easy to understand.

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Aug 27, 2007 Steven Tyra rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: everybody struggling to defend orthodox theology against postmodernism and "progressive" theology.

Schaeffer's diagnosis of our modern world is right on. I love his terminology, especially the "line of despair." There's really nothing I can say. This is a must read for anybody interested in Christian apologetics.

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Jan 21, 2013 Michael rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: theology, literary-criticism, music, art

Very helpful. Some of his examples are dated but his works are really helping me clarify how apologetics and evangelism are connected.

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Aug 06, 2016 Nick Gibson rated it really liked it

Essential reading for any Christian interested in a philosophical apologia of the Biblical worldview.

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Mar 23, 2016 Rich Cromwell added it

One of his essential classics. I need to read it again - it's been a long time since I first read it.

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Aug 05, 2013 David Sarkies rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Christians wanting an understanding of modern philosophy

Recommended to David by: Tim Earl

Shelves: christian

Schaeffer critiques modern philosophy
6 August 2013

Okay, the edition of this book that I read was published in 1990 which means that Schaeffer must have changed and updated it since its original publication. However, I suspect that despite a few additions to bring it up to date much of what he has written here is very much the same as the original publication. After reading a couple of pages of this book I suddenly came to understand that Schaeffer's writing, and fundamentalist stance, was nothi ...more

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Mar 18, 2017 Sheryl Tribble rated it liked it

Schaeffer's prose is clunky, and I have my doubts about how well he understands some other philosophers, but still a book worthy of consideration, IMHO. And if Schaeffer is a poor introduction to other philosophers, he has suffered his fair share of being misunderstood. In the book itself, and in its first appendix, Schaeffer makes it as plain as possible that this is not an apologetics work in the sense of Bill Bright's Four Spiritual Laws, where you go through the steps and, Shazzam!, salvatio Schaeffer's prose is clunky, and I have my doubts about how well he understands some other philosophers, but still a book worthy of consideration, IMHO. And if Schaeffer is a poor introduction to other philosophers, he has suffered his fair share of being misunderstood. In the book itself, and in its first appendix, Schaeffer makes it as plain as possible that this is not an apologetics work in the sense of Bill Bright's Four Spiritual Laws, where you go through the steps and, Shazzam!, salvation. But some people still try to "sell" it on those grounds.

Instead, this is Shaeffer's discussion of where he felt the average Western secular thinker of the mid-twentieth century was at, and some ideas for Christians to consider in light of that reality. It always seemed to me that his primary goal was to get Christians to "think outside the box" and to work harder at understanding positions and philosophies they did not hold. Granted, Schaeffer himself sometimes failed to do this effectively, but OTOH it is not an easy thing to do.

Learning to see the world from someone else's perspective is a challenge in itself -- Schaeffer is arguing that Christians not only learn to see the world from another perspective, but also that they need to truly listen to everyone they talk to, in order to see the world from that person's perspective, and to help that individual see where their unspoken assumptions logically lead. This is a huge challenge and, as Schaeffer rightly points out, can only be done through profound love.

Schaeffer does not precisely say so, but in light of his Reformed background, I think I can safely say that he figured Christians who truly loved, and who truly opened themselves to others, would receive aid from the Holy Spirit, because the challenge Schaeffer sets is not one people can do very often on their own. It is more a matter of creating a habit of openness and understanding, and a willingness to grapple with a multitude of ideas and philosophies, than it is an intellectual exercise per se. It is more a position of being open to foreign teaching than one of being highly educated, because knowing the broad positions of various philosophers is much less important than being able to see what philosophies the person you are actually speaking to uses to form their own personal world view.

I suspect that Schaeffer's understanding of some philosophers was gleaned more from listening to people's interpretations of said philosophers than from reading the philosophers for himself. Schaeffer was more of a populist than a deep thinker -- yet for a populist, he had some very deep thoughts. More importantly, he understood that Christianity is about love, and he honestly expressed God's love to many people. His intellectual accuracy may have been iffy, but he truly cared, and people responded to that.

Schaeffer's dislike of emotionalism and insistence on grounding ideas in reality were two of his strengths that come through pretty clearly in this book. I'm less convinced that his caring does, or the fact that it was crucial to his success, although I think both the caring and the necessity of it are there if you look for them. ...more

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Nov 15, 2016 Marlo rated it it was amazing

I've heard much about Schaeffer over the years, but I normally don't read these types of book. I appreciate fiction, and for non-fiction, I enjoy memoirs and such. I read this book with a pencil and a dictionary. While the book is a bit dated, it hold true and tracing the way thinking has changed and how it has affected the culture through art, science and so on was insightful and helpful. I believe, as Schaeffer does, that Christianity's view of a living, personal God is the only comprehensive ...more

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Jun 08, 2017 George rated it really liked it

well he likes antithesis.
and Kierkegaard is a naughty boy

Ellul reckons dialectic is scriptures get up.
so there's that.
the quest continues.

top marks for the evangelical heart
and perception of the modern problems

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Mar 28, 2015 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-i-believe-in

I keep meaning to read the fiction books sitting on my nightstand, but I keep picking up Francis Schaeffer's The God Who Is There instead.

I came to Schaeffer via my newfound respect for Nancy Pearcey, who sites Schaeffer's L'Abri ministry as the key to her return to faith. I don't know how to review this book without noting all the ways in which these books support and reinforce one another. There is simply no way I would have understood the first third of this book had I not read Saving Leonar

I keep meaning to read the fiction books sitting on my nightstand, but I keep picking up Francis Schaeffer's The God Who Is There instead.

I came to Schaeffer via my newfound respect for Nancy Pearcey, who sites Schaeffer's L'Abri ministry as the key to her return to faith. I don't know how to review this book without noting all the ways in which these books support and reinforce one another. There is simply no way I would have understood the first third of this book had I not read Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning with its terrific full color reproductions of paintings. Like Pearcey, Schaeffer begins his examination of culture by looking at the way an artist's world view and philosophy are expressed through art. Of course, these are not "propositional truths" to be examined, but nonetheless, art expresses a way of experiencing the world and I appreciate that now better than I ever have.

Schaeffer (I believe) originated the idea of the upper/lower story imagery, and Pearcey relies on it heavily in her two books. If you're not familiar, Schaeffer uses the upper/lower story image to explain how modern man must live in tension between his ideals of how he wants the world to work and the reality of how far the world is from those ideals. This despair can lead to nihilism, but it can also lead to a compartmentalizing of the two irreconcilable parts of life: if you imagine a person's mental life as a house, the "upper story" contains "a blind optimistic hope of meaning, based on a non-rational leap of faith" and the "lower story" contains "the rational and the logical which gives no meaning." If you're not convinced that this is the reigning contemporary mindset, read Pearcey. I think her work does a better job of explaining Schaeffer's ideas than he himself does.

My favorite part of the book was Schaeffer's helpful explanation of how to use these ideas to help modern people approach the gospel. He is not trying to show off his intelligence by dismantling faulty worldviews, he is trying to take compassion on the despair of the people who hold these views. Schaeffer says "The whole purpose of our speaking to twentieth-century people in this way is not to make them admit that we are right in some personally superior way, nor to push their noses in the dirt, but to make them see their need so that they will listen to the Gospel” (127). It is a very humble approach from a very intelligent man.

The crux of the issue is that God is there and he is not silent. He has interacted with humanity in ways that cannot be accounted for any other way. A personal God is the only rational source for people with personality. Modern man is prepared to explain away the whole universe as the products of blind chance and rational mechanics, but this doesn't explain (to use Schaeffer's words) the "mannishness" of man. Schaeffer makes the point often that “Personality is not an intrusion in the universe but central” (159). We can't help but have personality, and that means it is not something we can ignore when we attempt to explain where humans come from.

Actually, the crux of the issue is the cross. All of Schaeffer's ideas in this book are to help the person who claims to be a Christian to understand that calling oneself a Christian means actually believing that Jesus came to earth, died, and rose again. When we share the gospel, we must make sure that our audience knows "that we are talking to him about history, and that the death of Jesus was NOT just an ideal or a symbol but a fact of space and time” (127). God revealed himself in such a way that his existence was open to being verified.

Schaeffer was passionate about preparing Christians to speak the gospel into their current culture, and even 30 years later his books continue to help us to do that.

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Sep 27, 2012 Jason Isaacs rated it it was amazing

I believe one of the most important Christian philosophical writings from the twentieth century is “The God Who is There” by Francis Schaeffer. In his book, which is almost 50 years old, Schaeffer discusses recent cultural shifts and the effects these changes have had on people’s belief systems. These ideas emerge first in the areas of philosophy, art, music, and theology; from there, these beliefs permeate popular culture and thinking. Schaeffer describes this transition as one replete with nih I believe one of the most important Christian philosophical writings from the twentieth century is “The God Who is There” by Francis Schaeffer. In his book, which is almost 50 years old, Schaeffer discusses recent cultural shifts and the effects these changes have had on people’s belief systems. These ideas emerge first in the areas of philosophy, art, music, and theology; from there, these beliefs permeate popular culture and thinking. Schaeffer describes this transition as one replete with nihilism, a rejection of absolutes, and moral relativism.

Schaeffer contends that this transition began in Europe and later manifested itself in the United States. The transition has been gradual, and people in the United States have been experiencing changes for approximately the past eighty years. Today, the transition has almost completely set in, and younger people are accepting these beliefs as culturally normative. As a result, we are observing a culture in which many people have adopted a belief system that cannot account for meaning; these same people have been developing these beliefs in contrast to a predominate culture which does allow for meaning. Consequently, these ideas have been buffered from their logical consequences. As these new beliefs become culturally normative, a foundation of meaning will swept out from underneath them, and the decline of culture may accelerate unless people begin thinking differently.

Biblical Christianity has always been counter-cultural. Schaeffer describes how orthodox Christianity remains as fixed truth in a shifting culture. Christianity stands in opposition to meaninglessness; belief systems which do not allow for a synthesis of meaning must borrow these ends from others belief system in order to hold together. Light is meant to illuminate darkness, and beliefs about meaning have theological, political, and cultural consequences.

Readers of Schaeffer will want to take some time to understand how he defines several terms. His use of the terms ‘rationalism’, ‘antithesis’, and ‘dialectical method’ is slightly different than usually understood. Some readers have dismissed Schaeffer for these reasons; however, Schaeffer details his reasons for providing nuanced definitions and he applies them consistently.

As much as I have enjoyed reading this book multiple times, I understand that not all readers will find it as engaging as I do. Schaeffer’s detailed discussion of philosophy, art, and music is longer than many people are interested in reading. In this light, Ravi Zacharias’ assessment of Schaeffer is worth mentioning, “Few people deserve the accolade of being ‘prophetic.’ Among these few, Francis Schaeffer is unquestionably one. Virtually every social, moral or philosophical struggle that we face today was either addressed or envisioned by him.” Even though some will think Schaeffer’s cultural analysis is a bit antiquated, I believe that is the crux of the issue: the situation he describes is the challenge of our day since the cultural transition has become set.

We can read Schaeffer to understand how our culture got to the place it is today; doing so becomes more than an academic exercise when we understand that how we engage people about truth and meaning must be framed in the terms they use to understand these issues. We face the challenge of sharing the truth, when many believe there are numerous truths or simply dismiss the concept of absolutes out of hand. As cultural norms continue to shift, we must engage our culture on its own terms while remaining faithful to the truth which does not shift. ...more

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Feb 26, 2017 Naomi rated it liked it

Recommended to Naomi by: Joellen Armstrong

"We are surrounded by a generation that can find "no one home" in the universe....In contrast to this, as a Christian I know who I am; and I know the personal God who is there."

I found The God Who Is There by Francis Schaeffer to be really heavy reading. The book had been recommended to me by family and church-going friends who I don't think of as deep philosophical thinkers, so I was surprised at how thick it was to wade through some of the thoughts that Schaeffer lays out. Basically, he speaks ...more

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Apr 20, 2011 Al Datum rated it it was amazing

I stumbled across Francis Schaeffer in a used bookstore, and because of the title I thought I'd give it a shot. I only found out later that Francis Schaeffer was one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the 20th century, that he had founded the L'Abri fellowship which sponsors retreats in multiple countries where people can go to study and ask the deep questions of life.

In this book, we see a sampling of the sort of thought that pervades Schaeffer's writings. He is a committed Christian I stumbled across Francis Schaeffer in a used bookstore, and because of the title I thought I'd give it a shot. I only found out later that Francis Schaeffer was one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the 20th century, that he had founded the L'Abri fellowship which sponsors retreats in multiple countries where people can go to study and ask the deep questions of life.

In this book, we see a sampling of the sort of thought that pervades Schaeffer's writings. He is a committed Christian, a deep thinker, and someone who looks at culture and history, seeing the trend toward secularization all around us. He talks about the absurdity of meaning without God, describing the 'leap of faith' that non-believers must make into the upper story when there is no logical path to it via their own worldview (he does not seem to apply the same meaning of 'leap of faith' that Kierkegaard had, as far as I can tell). Schaeffer offers his thoughts on how we can re-connect the lower story of our lives (the material world) with the upper story (faith, purpose, meaning and destiny). He does this in a way that is both intellectually rigorous and deeply meaningful.

One thing I especially love about Francis Schaeffer is how he always presented himself in such a kind and respectful manner. No matter the type of question he was being asked, he would assume it was being asked legitimately (rather than just to stir up controversy), and he would answer it calmly and kindly. This is the model we should all follow when discussing our worldview with a hostile secularized culture.

Schaeffer advocated a process of "taking the roof off" of the other person's worldview. He used the analogy of a roof which kept falling rocks from hitting those beneath, and said that the non-believer's worldview is like the covering which prevents him from dealing with the problems of life...death, suffering, meaninglessness, etc. He felt that the Christian's task was to show the non-believer that their worldview was inadequate (what he called "taking the roof off") and then being willing to let them experience the rocks falling while there was nothing to cover them (since their worldview has been shown not to provide adequate answers to the hard questions...the rocks...of life).

Only after the worldview of non-believers has been shown to be flawed, and only after they have experienced living life without a roof, can we have any success in showing them the true roof that does provide actual protection from the hard questions of life.

This was Schaeffer's philosophy, and he introduces it quite well in this book. Schaeffer is another one of those "must read" theologians. His writings are classics of Christian thought. For anyone interested in (or even willing to consider) theological and philosophy, Schaeffer's writings are indispensable.
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Aug 17, 2013 John rated it really liked it

"The God Who is There" is one of Francis Schaeffer's earliest books. He revised and updated it and added three appendices in the early 1980s, not long before his death.
Schaeffer argues that figures such as Kierkegaard in philosophy, John Cage in music and Van Gogh in art led our culture down an existential path to despair. Without understanding and engaging in that culture, Christianity can't offer solutions, he said. Before we get to "Jesus died for your sins," we have to start with "In the beg "The God Who is There" is one of Francis Schaeffer's earliest books. He revised and updated it and added three appendices in the early 1980s, not long before his death.
Schaeffer argues that figures such as Kierkegaard in philosophy, John Cage in music and Van Gogh in art led our culture down an existential path to despair. Without understanding and engaging in that culture, Christianity can't offer solutions, he said. Before we get to "Jesus died for your sins," we have to start with "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
The evangelical church of his day was a middle-class institution that spoke to the middle class, Schaeffer said, but it did little to reach intellectuals or laborers, are its own youth.
"Every honest questions deserves an honest answer," he wrote in Appendix B. "It is unbiblical for anyone to say, 'Just believe.'"
Truly engaging our culture is risky business, he said.
"To be engaged in personal 'witness' as a duty or because our Christian circle exerts a social pressure on us is to miss the point," he wrote. "The reason we do it is that the person before us is an image-bearer of God, and he is an individual who is unique in the world. This kind of communication is not cheap. To understand and to speak to sincere but utterly confused twentieth-century people is costly. It is tiring; it will open you up to temptations and pressures. Genuine love, in the last analysis, means a willingness to be entirely exposed to the person to whom we are talking."
What historic Christianity had to say to his generation, and to our generation, is a message of objective truth in the midst of postmodern murkiness.
This is from Appendix A:
"For the 'modern person,' we can keep talking in a way which helps because in contrast to the concept that everything is relative, we know that there are good, adequate and sufficient reasons to know that Christian answers are truth. I do not believe that there is a leap of faith needed ..."
I won't pretend to have fully grasped what Schaeffer had to say in a single reading. This isn't a long book, but it's packed full. I don't really understand, for example, his use of the term "antithesis," even though the term itself is simple enough. (Joy is the antithesis of sorrow.)
There are deep waters here, and I feel I'll have to buy my own copy -- so I can put my highlighter to use -- and read this book again, and perhaps a few more times after that. I think it will be worth it.
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Jul 31, 2011 Carl rated it liked it

This is definitely a work written with the lay church as the audience, which means that both the educated clergy and readers outside the church may not find much to draw them in.
Despite a rough start, wherein Schaeffer comes out with a very aggressive and unreflective tone, mishandling history, crouching at the door of fear-mongering, and glorying in intellectual bully tactics, The God Who is There finishes with a few far more moderate and thoughtful chapters, and appendices that continue in a l This is definitely a work written with the lay church as the audience, which means that both the educated clergy and readers outside the church may not find much to draw them in.
Despite a rough start, wherein Schaeffer comes out with a very aggressive and unreflective tone, mishandling history, crouching at the door of fear-mongering, and glorying in intellectual bully tactics, The God Who is There finishes with a few far more moderate and thoughtful chapters, and appendices that continue in a less offensive, if not quite intellectually humble mode.
Schaeffer's argument in favor of Christian belief is primarily grounded in reducing complex theories into manageable villains. He knocks down Hegelian dialectics, Kierkegaardian Existentialism and Heideggerian Epistemology with relish, but his counterarguments are weakened because they are not well nuanced and appear to be mostly a form of dismissal. Greater detail in his analysis and a better sense of the role that citation can play in establishing case studies as representative of general trends would make the reader less dependent on blindly accepting him as an authority in handling very heady topics in order to be persuaded by his argument. The acknowledgment that he is not a philosopher and that he very well might be wrong should have been made in the first chapter, not put out as an appendix that borders on retraction. Additionally, drawing in the work of other thinkers with whom Schaeffer can agree would save him from painting his work as the single light in a dying world, something he certainly is not.
Once the argument is done with critique and moves on to dealing with Schaeffer's specialty, pastoral counseling, it improves immeasurably. While, in the text itself, Schaeffer still makes little room for personal humility, he does write with greater deftness and insight. His primary focus becomes the need for each person to come to grips with the realities around them, and in themselves, in a way that pushes them out of the fantasies and philosophical cages that imprison them. There are things which are really real, he says, and we are tricking ourselves if we do not face them. Enter the title of the work.
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Jul 16, 2013 Patrick S. rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book was a bit difficult in that it is dated by the topic covered. I feel that the subject that Schaeffer is writing to address has come and gone and we are currently in the aftermath of what was then the approaching postmodern relativism. In that sense, this book was difficult to get into. In another sense this exists for more the intellectual Christian than possibly the ordinary. The first half of the book is a struggle to get to and it's hard to see where it's coming from or what its poi ...more

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Jun 18, 2016 Brent Pinkall rated it really liked it

Schaeffer's influence on evangelicalism in the 20th century is incalculable and overwhelmingly positive. In this book Schaeffer challenges Christians to engage with modern culture where it is at, particularly by discovering modern man's presuppositions and forcing him to recognize the final end of those presuppositions. He suggests that in the end, every worldview except the Christian worldview will prove to be inconsistent. Schaefer's main paradigm in the book involves the "line of despair," be ...more

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Jan 22, 2016 Ben Adkison rated it really liked it

I love all things 1960's culture. Many of the cultural and philosophical changes that occurred during 1960's still affect Western society today. So, I'm not really sure why I haven't read more of Francis Schaeffer's writings until now. His discussion of 1960's culture, and the surrounding decades, expertly offers theological and cultural commentary. And he does so with a heart tuned towards loving 13not just callously understanding 13his fellow man. The God Who is There is a good book. Having fi ...more

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Nov 22, 2014 The other John rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: theology, history, oneofthewifesbooks, philosophy

My wife was going to get rid of this book, one of the remnants of her college career. The book is pushing 50 and, in her opinion, a lot of the contents are dated. Unfortunately for her and our ever crowding book shelf, I took the chance to reread the book and declared a stay of execution. Back in 1968, Dr, Schaeffer addressed the social and intellectual climate of the Western World. Many were saying, "God is dead," and were proposing a variety of solutions to the despair that followed. This book ...more

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May 17, 2017 David rated it it was amazing

There is a reason some books endure, and The God Who Is There is truly a classic in Christian thought. If you're interested in learning how to reach people in our culture here's your book. However, this book is philosophically heavy, especially when Schaeffer explains how the culture arrived at its current state (to oversimplify: faith divided from reason) during the first half of the book. Indeed, without a creator, Schaeffer expertly illustrates how mankind is in constant disrepair because the ...more

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May 19, 2014 J. Alfred rated it really liked it

Schaeffer, I think, has very important and wise things to say. I think his ideas of pre-apologetics is vital, and I love his insistence on the importance of art, and dealing honestly with art as such. Some of his thought, however, I find a little too black-and-white. For instance, calling the postmodern dialectic style of thought the "line of despair" is kind of poisoning the well, yes? I could be too much a postmodern to appreciate enough what Schaeffer has to say, but his thoughts on the adequ ...more

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Jun 30, 2014 Brigitta rated it really liked it

The first couple sections of the book are difficult to maintain interest in, as they go into detail about various philosophers and artists I was not familiar with. About 1/3 of the way in, Schaeffer begins discussing Christianity's position on modern philosophy, making it more relevant and understanding. This book goes beyond the typical evangelism explanations and guides the reader to an understanding of a doubter of God's existence, while illuminating the wonder and hope we have in the gospel.

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Oct 03, 2014 Jaimie rated it liked it

Read this as part of a Christian Classics goal I set for myself. Trying to read at least one a month over the next year. This one certainly took me the whole month to get through. I couldn't read more than a chapter or two at a time and still absorb the information. I really struggled to understand many of the concepts in this book. I think I understand the main thrust of the book, but I don't know how well I will be able to apply the concepts in my life.

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May 19, 2014 Pete Kieffer rated it it was amazing

I wish I would have discovered Schaeffer years ago. He definately speaks to my experience with religion, growing up a child of the 60s. Anyone, who doubts that Christianity has any basis in rational thought, should take a look at this book. Schaeffer does an amazing job of showing that faith and reason are not at odds, and that the foundation for christian faith can be found in rational thought. This is not an easy read but I think it's worth the effort.

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Aug 15, 2016 Kathleen Dixon rated it did not like it

Shelves: religion-and-spirituality, 100

I can see why the authors of 100 Christian Books That Changed the Century have listed this - the book is thoroughly written and appears comprehensive. It does appear very similar to other books in this vein, but I daresay the publication date is quite different and therefore it had a separate impact.

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Apr 19, 2014 Joshua Haskell rated it it was amazing

Francis Schaeffer is an extremely intelligent man with a deep insight into the nature and character of the human nature and mind. This apologetic book unearths the flaws in various philosophies, and their futility, and shows how we can love the people who follow them, so that we can show them the Gospel.

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Oct 17, 2015 Nick Brown rated it it was amazing

Shelves: apologetics

Francis Schafer examines the shift in our cultures thinking pertaining to the truth. Is there truth? If something is true is it's opposite false. He shows how the shift has taken place at different times in philosophy, art, music, general culture and finally theology; and why that shift is important to us as Christians.

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Sep 19, 2016 Jo rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, christian, adult

A challenging read. I enjoyed the last part of the book the most. I appreciated Schaeffer’s emphasis on loving people as we engage them in dialogue and on treating people as individuals since we are personal people with a personal God.

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Mar 31, 2015 Olanma Ogbuehi rated it it was amazing

Really thought provoking.

Made me think and process my thoughts about culture and worldview, theologically.

Really (I hope) challenged me to engage my mind with people. Thinking theologically and hopefully being able to meet people where they are in their thinking and interact helpfully, for the sake of their souls.

Not an easy book to begin with, but it grew and grew on me. I really could not put it down in the end and consequently accidently finished reading it!

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Jun 25, 2014 Tim Tuttle rated it liked it

Shelves: philosophy-world-religion

Very difficult to get into this book with all the deep philosophical development, but it ended well. If I understand Schaeffer correctly... the, not so surprising, presupposition of the unbeliever in modern culture is no longer that truth is absolute nor is God personal or even there at all. So the evangelical then, instead of leading by arguing for truth, should engage them in exploring the depths of their ideologies below the "line of despair". Then, when they reach the inevitable hopelessness ...more

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Sep 09, 2013 Josh Anderson rated it really liked it

I have seen quotes everywhere by Schaeffer & have been curious to read something of his for years. I finally got ahold this book. I must say, his writing style is quite a bit different than I had expected from such an intellectual. At the same time I was thinking "That seems like an armature way to say that", though, I would step back and think, "Wait a minute, that was deep what he just said!".
In a society that is continually eroding absolute truth, Schaeffer shows us, through, art, philoso ...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Josh Craddock added it

"Schaffer's ""God Who Is There"" is a systematic analysis of the paradigm shift in philosophy, media, and culture since Hegel and the birth of the ""modern man"". I loved presuppositional approach to historical examples which demonstrated the deterioration of thought since the rejection of true Christianity. While Schaeffer's re-definition of words made his writing difficult to follow at times, I felt that his message was communicated effectively to his readers overall. I recommend this book esp ...more

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Oct 26, 2016 Henry Owaga rated it it was amazing

Very thought provoking. Quite clearly Schaeffer makes you see everyday scriptures in a way you have never seen them before.

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Jun 27, 2012 Justin Wiggins rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I had been eager to read Schaeffer after hearing very good things about him from Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. This book, written in the 60's deals with the meaninglessness of the naturalistic and pantheistic worldviews( what he calls "the new theology) and how they fail to answer any of man's questions. Contrasted with this, he argues only historical Christianity has the answers to man's tension inside of himself because it is a worldview that is coherent in it's exclusive claims when cha ...more

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