The Areopagus Update – August/September 2022
Our Areopagus fall seminar is “HOW SHOULD WE NOW LIVE? PART 1: THE LIFE & LEGACY OF FRANCIS SCHAEFFER.” Unless you’re a young adult or a relatively new Christian, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Francis Schaeffer who, along with C. S. Lewis, was one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the 20th century. Whereas Lewis focused primarily on classical apologetics – the basic philosophical arguments and historical evidence in support of the truth of the Christian faith, Schaeffer was the acknowledged “father” of Christian cultural apologetics. In that regard he wrote and taught extensively on the ramifications of a comprehensive Christian worldview and how our faith should condition our beliefs and practices toward the whole range of life issues from biblical theology to church and family relations, sexual morality, social and culture issues, art and entertainment, and politics.
The upcoming Areopagus seminar provides an in-depth and biblically-based analysis of the current state of American culture, and how Christians can can live faithfully and responsibly in the midst of a ‘post-Christian’ society that is becoming increasingly hostile toward Christian beliefs and values. In this context, our seminar will focus primarily on the life and legacy of Francis Schaeffer, one of the most perceptive and influential religious, social and cultural critics of our time. Given all the current apostasy and other crises in contemporary American Christianity, Schaeffer was the kind of wise sage whom we so desperately need today.
Ours is a society and culture that celebrates narcissism, hedonism and materialism. In the process, virtually every area of American life has become secularized, socialized, sexualized and racialized under the influence of demonic forces that are waging aggressive and unrelenting attacks on morality in general and Christianity in particular. As our spiritual, moral and ethical foundations continue to erode and collapse, so goes our religious and cultural institutions, our economy, our political system, any remaining standards of propriety, decency and civility, and even the rule of law itself.
As Bob Dylan sang in the early 1960s, “The Times, They Are A-changin’.” They definitely have a-changed, but generally not for the better. But no one back then could possibly have foreseen the tectonic shift that has radically altered our society and culture in the past 50 years or just how far our nation has strayed from its religious and cultural origins and heritage over this time. We live in society that increasingly calls evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20), and as the Christian philosopher J. Budziszewski has written, we are living in a strange and unprecedented time. In is words:
“We are passing through an eerie phase of history in which the [moral truths] that everyone really knows are treated as unheard-of doctrines, a time in which the elements of common decency are themselves attacked as indecent. Nothing quite like this has ever happened before. Although our civilization has passed through quite a few troughs of immorality, never before has vice held the high moral ground. Our time considers it dirty-minded to treat sexual purity as a virtue… [and] a sign of impious pride to profess humble faith in God. The moral law has become the very emblem of immorality.” [J. Budziszewski, What We Can’t Not Know, p. 10.]
“How Should We Now Live?” is an interactive study centered around directed readings and focused discussions on two seminar issues:
(1) The challenges of living in an increasingly dysfunctional and degenerate ‘post-Christian’ society and culture; and
(2) The opportunities our current situation affords in terms of practicing a faithful and comprehensive view of Christian discipleship.
Schaeffer’s influence and legacy can hardly be exaggerated among thinking Christians who take their faith seriously and strive to relate it to the full range of life’s issues.
Billy Graham: “[Francis Schaeffer] was truly one of the great evangelical statesmen of our generation. He was no ivory tower intellectual, but had a deep love for people and a profound commitment to evangelism. More than virtually any other thinker, he had keen insight into the major theological and philosophical battles of our time.”
J. I. Packer: “Francis Schaeffer was an amazing man – intellectually brilliant and set on truth, emotionally intense, devoted to God and compassionate; like Jeremiah, perplexed by the world, not because he didn’t understand it but because he did.”
Os Guinness: “I have never met anyone with such a passion for God, combined with a passion for people, combined with a passion for truth. That is an extremely rare combination, and Schaeffer embodied it. Francis Schaeffer was quite simply the most brilliant and compassionate face-to-face apologist I have ever met.”
Join us for this unique, informative and stimulating study of the life and legacy of Francis Schaeffer, and what it means to understand and practice wholistic Christian discipleship in the midst of our current cultural disintegration. Never in American Christian history have the internal forces aligned against us been so formidable, and never before have American Christians needed to be better informed and engaged in the battle for all that is True, Good and Beautiful for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Areopagus Fall 2022 Seminar sessions can be viewed here.
