 Book Reviews / CHRC .– () –

Barry Hankins, Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI , xvi +  pp. ISBN . US.

The past few years have seen a steady production of biographies of Ameri- can Christian standard bearers such as Harold J. Ockenga, , and Bill Bright, claiming them as the shapers of American in the twentieth century. Most of them were preachers, organizers, theologians active in the evangelical subculture. To this group has been added Francis Schaeffer (–), Presbyterian minister, , founder of l’Abri Fellowship, apologist for the Christian faith, prolific author and speaker, pro-life activist, and inspirer of the . Barry Hankins, professor of history at the (Christian) Baylor University and author of various books on American evan- gelicals has written an exemplary biography, which not only offers a balanced view of this sometimes controversial life, but also a convincing analysis of the internal battles and switches in the fundamentalist-evangelical subculture of America between the s and the s. Those who doubt whether this rela- tive obscure operator who did not create a large organization, receives too much honor as a founding father of the post-world war II evangelical mold, will be persuaded by this well-researched and elegantly written book. This study helps us to better understand how the evangelicals became such a force in American culture. Schaeffer’s claim to fame as a thinker was his making of concerted efforts to reveal the shortcomings of Enlightenment rationalism by confronting the resulting sense of meaninglessness, darkness, and despair with a consistent Christian of hope. His passion for truth was equaled by his passion for God and his love of people. Initially, this trilogy was hidden in the first part of his life as a separatist fundamentalist, who fought for recognition of the infallibility of the Bible and the defense of objective reality. This happened during his formative phase as a seminary student and young pastor and lasted till the late s. Then he moved to Europe, driven and restless to rescue the old world from modernism by mission work among children. His original cooperation with separatist Carl T. McIntire, for whom nobody was pure enough, eventually failed in  and left him outside of institutional support of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, to which he belonged. In a leap of faith, the Schaeffers opened up their house in a small Swiss village to the wandering souls of the growing counterculture. Here Schaeffer was at his best: while he criticized the competing for not living consistently to their bleak message, he offered hundreds of students a hos-

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden,  DOI: 10.1163/187124111X610052 Book Reviews / CHRC .– () –  pitable environment to carefully consider, discuss, and disagree with him on the intellectual relevance of the Bible and the central tenets of Christianity. The combination of rational debate and informal hospitality proved very attractive. Cruising through Europe’s intellectual history and culture, Schaeffer was one of the rare fundamentalists who analyzed modern culture instead of rejecting it. The middle part of his life, from  to , was his most creative and rewarding period. He built a consistent worldview avoiding the division of reality in a realm of grace and of nature. This discovery broadened his cultural horizon and liberated him to explore contemporary culture. This made him address the immorality of race relations, economic injustice, and of abuse of creation, and opened his eyes for appreciation of art. These issues made him a unique progressive voice in the traditional Christian America. Yet, he did not develop into a liberal evangelical. He kept his earlier concerns about the inerrancy of the Bible, despite his progressive-looking agenda. He could not abandon the reading of Genesis as a historical account because he feared theological liberalism more than anything. He lamented the lack of unity among orthodox Christians and invested most of his energy to save them from the dangers of a middle position. When his funding needs brought him back to the United States, he reassumed the battle for the Bible. His fresh ideas made him a welcome speaker in the lecture circuit of Christian colleges. In addition, he began to publish his lectures in books. Back in America and prodded by his son, he went out to spread his ideas by film. His books reconstructed the birth of human autonomy which led to despair and potentially to disaster. Because he concluded that life was not safe in “enlightened” hands, he eagerly joined the campaign fighting the liberaliza- tion of abortion. This explicit connection between worldview and a political issue launched Schaeffer in the frontline of the culture wars in the s. While he privately disliked the style and the extreme patriotism of the leaders of the Christian Right, he considered them allies in the struggle to reclaim Amer- ica’s Christian heritage. Schaeffer found a confirmation in the ideas of John Whitehead, a lawyer who traced America’s democratic institutions to Chris- tian influences. Fearing the triumph of in the state, Schaef- fer sympathized with acts of civil disobedience, moving away from reflection to activism. Thus he became a prime example of the merger of cultural engage- ment and political militancy among American evangelicals, which we tend to take for granted. The main for Schaeffer’s elevation to a founding father of con- temporary evangelical America is that he inspired three very different groups: inerrancy defenders, Christian intellectuals, and political activists. The