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LIBRARY of RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHY Edited by Mark A. Noll Color profile: Disabled Composite 140 lpi at 45 degrees LIBRARY OF RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHY Edited by Mark A. Noll, Nathan O. Hatch, and Allen C. Guelzo The Library of Religious Biography is a series of original biog- raphies on important religious figures throughout American and Brit- ish history. The authors are well-known historians, each a recognized author- ity in the period of religious history in which his or her subject lived and worked. Grounded in solid research of both published and archi- val sources, these volumes link the lives of their subjects — not always thought of as “religious” persons — to the broader cultural contexts and religious issues that surrounded them. Marked by careful scholarship yet free of academic jargon, the books in this series are well-written narratives meant to be read and enjoyed as well as studied. EERDMANS -- Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Hankins) final text Monday, September 29, 2008 9:47:38 AM 1 Color profile: Disabled Composite 140 lpi at 45 degrees LIBRARY OF RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHY William Ewart Gladstone: Faith and Politics in Victorian Britain David Bebbington Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody’s Sister • Edith L. Blumhofer Her Heart Can See: The Life and Hymns of Fanny J. Crosby Edith L. Blumhofer Orestes A. Brownson: American Religious Weathervane Patrick W. Carey Thomas Merton and the Monastic Vision • Lawrence S. Cunningham Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America • Lyle W. Dorsett The Kingdom Is Always but Coming: A Life of Walter Rauschenbusch Christopher H. Evans Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America • Edwin S. Gaustad Sworn on the Altar of God: A Religious Biography of Thomas Jefferson Edwin S. Gaustad Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President • Allen C. Guelzo Charles G. Finney and the Spirit of American Evangelicalism Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America Barry Hankins Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief • Roger Lundin The Puritan as Yankee: A Life of Horace Bushnell • Robert Bruce Mullin Prophetess of Health: A Study of Ellen G. White • Ronald L. Numbers Blaise Pascal: Reasons of the Heart • Marvin R. O’Connell Occupy Until I Come: A. T. Pierson and the Evangelization of the World Dana L. Robert God’s Strange Work: William Miller and the End of the World David L. Rowe The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism • Harry S. Stout Assist Me to Proclaim: The Life and Hymns of Charles Wesley John R. Tyson EERDMANS -- Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Hankins) final text Monday, September 29, 2008 9:47:38 AM 2 Color profile: Disabled Composite 140 lpi at 45 degrees Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America Barry Hankins William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K. EERDMANS -- Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Hankins) final text Monday, September 29, 2008 9:47:38 AM 3 Color profile: Disabled Composite 140 lpi at 45 degrees © 2008 Barry Hankins All rights reserved Published 2008 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 / P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K. www.eerdmans.com Printed in the United States of America 131211100908 7654321 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hankins, Barry, 1956- Francis Schaeffer and the shaping of Evangelical America / Barry Hankins. p. cm. — (Library of religious biography) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8028-6389-8 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Schaeffer, Francis A. (Francis August) 2. Evangelicalism — United States — History. 3. United States — Church history — 20th century. I. Title. BR1643.S33H36 2008 267¢.13092 — dc22 [B] 2008026250 The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission of Good News/ Crossway to quote from The Complete Works of Francis Schaeffer, 5 vols. (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1982). EERDMANS -- Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Hankins) final text Monday, September 29, 2008 9:47:38 AM 4 Color profile: Disabled Composite 140 lpi at 45 degrees For Becky EERDMANS -- Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Hankins) final text Monday, September 29, 2008 9:47:38 AM 5 Color profile: Disabled Composite 140 lpi at 45 degrees EERDMANS -- Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Hankins) final text Monday, September 29, 2008 9:47:38 AM 6 Color profile: Disabled Composite 140 lpi at 45 degrees Contents Acknowledgments viii Introduction x 1. The Making of an American Fundamentalist 1 2. The Making of a European Evangelical 28 3. L’Abri 51 4. An American Evangelical Star: The Trilogy 74 5. Progressive Prophet of Culture 109 6. The Battle for the Bible 136 7. Filmmaker 160 8. A Manifesto for Christian Right Activism 192 Conclusion: Francis Schaeffer’s Legacy 228 Notes 240 Index 265 vii EERDMANS -- Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Hankins) final text Monday, September 29, 2008 9:47:38 AM 7 Color profile: Disabled Composite 140 lpi at 45 degrees Acknowledgments There are several individuals and institutions who helped make this book possible. A Baylor Horizons Grant, part of a Lilly Endowment project, funded the travel necessary to conduct the research, and Baylor provided a summer sabbatical in 2005 during which I was able to write the second half of the book. Doug Henry, Ronny Fritz, and Vickie Dunnam in Baylor’s Institute for Faith and Learning were all of great assistance in administering the grant. Wayne Sparkman, direc- tor of the PCA Historical Center at Covenant Theological Seminary, was an immense help during the early research stage, not only in pro- curing documents but also in providing helpful leads about stories and sources concerning Schaeffer’s early career. David Malone, David Osielski, and Keith Call at the Wheaton College Archives and Special Collections aided my foray into the Hans Rookmaaker Papers. Editor David Bratt proved to be a good adviser and friend as the book was shepherded into the Eerdmans fold. I would like to thank all those who were willing to interview with me. They are duly cited in the endnotes. Among interviewees, histo- rian Mark Noll, attorney and religious liberty activist John Whitehead, and author and editor James Sire provided copies of their personal correspondence with Schaeffer. Much of chapter eight is based on this correspondence. (Members of the Schaeffer family were unwill- ing to be interviewed for this book.) Graduate assistants Randa Barton, Hunter Baker, and Steele Brand (the killer B’s) chased down numerous rabbits during the research for the book, always with good cheer. Several individuals read parts of the manuscript, including Da- viii EERDMANS -- Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Hankins) final text Monday, September 29, 2008 9:47:38 AM 8 Color profile: Disabled Composite 140 lpi at 45 degrees Acknowledgments vid Bebbington, Margaret Bendroth, Mike Hamilton, and Bill Trollinger. Darryl Hart, Sean Lucas, William Edgar, my Baylor col- league Tommy Kidd, and doctoral student Hunter Baker read the en- tire manuscript. Tommy listened to endless interpretive possibilities at a picnic table next to the Brazos River over barbeque sandwiches from Vitek’s Grocery, so thanks to Bill and Sue Vitek as well. My wife was a constant source of support, serving as sounding board, encourager, and ruthless editor. Her name appears on the ded- ication page. While all of these individuals offered invaluable criti- cism and helped me avoid embarrassing factual mistakes and un- helpful interpretations, I take full responsibility for any errors that remain. ix EERDMANS -- Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Hankins) final text Monday, September 29, 2008 9:47:38 AM 9 Color profile: Disabled Composite 140 lpi at 45 degrees Introduction On Friday, March 11, 2005, several hundred people gathered at the America’s Center in downtown St. Louis for the kickoff of L’Abri Jubi- lee, the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Christian community in the Swiss Alps founded by Francis and Edith Schaeffer. While one might have expected a lineup of speakers to heap praise on the Schaeffers, this was no time for hero worship. Instead, most of the sessions consisted of serious lectures about the practical work of transforming culture through an authentic exercise of the Christian faith. Dick Keyes, leader of L’Abri near Boston, told of being asked one time at a conference why evangelical Christians seem so ineffective within the larger culture. Keyes told his audience at that meeting to review their conference programs and the kinds of sessions listed. That conference, he said, offered sessions on personal finances, devo- tional life, the Christian family, and worship, but nothing on the envi- ronment, art, architecture, economics, sociology, psychology, or higher education. By contrast, L’Abri Jubilee included sessions deal- ing with these and other culturally relevant topics. Keyes’s own L’Abri Jubilee session was “The Lordship of Christ in All of Life,” which could very well have been the subtitle for the entire weekend in St. Louis. In nearly all the sessions, presenters stressed that the Christian faith should not take a believer out of the world, but rather Christians should live deeply in the culture, bringing their faith commitment to bear in all areas of God’s creation. In keynote addresses at the Jubilee’s plenary sessions, Har- old O. J. Brown stressed apologetics, Charles Colson advocated the x EERDMANS -- Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Hankins) final text Monday, September 29, 2008 9:47:38 AM 10 Color profile: Disabled Composite 140 lpi at 45 degrees Introduction political engagement of the Christian Right, while Os Guinness gave a Christian critique of western intellectual history. Ranald Macaulay, a Schaeffer son-in-law and early L’Abri student, argued that while the Schaeffers valued intellectual matters, the central thrust of their min- istry was set on April 1, 1955, the first day the family lived at L’Abri.
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