Over my spring break, I have had the opportunity to read Francis Schaeffer’s Escape from Reason for my Introduction to Philosophy class. I had already had the chance to read How Should We Then Live and thoroughly enjoyed it. I can once again say the same for Escape from Reason. Since I do not have time to post a full review of the book, I would like to share what I believe to be one of the most eye-opening points in the book.
To give a little bit of context, Schaeffer traces the historical progression of Western philosophical thought. His goal is to show why the modern man thinks in the manner he does. Though most people are unaware of their own philosophical views, the general consensus among the modern man amounts to relativism. Thus Schaeffer says,
I have come to the point where, when I hear the word "Jesus"—which means so much to me because of the Person of the historic Jesus and his work—I listen carefully because I have with sorrow become more afraid of the word "Jesus" than almost any other word in the modern world. The word is used as a contentless banner, and our generation is invited to follow it. But there is no rational, scriptural content by which to test it, and thus the word is being used to teach the very opposite things from those which Jesus taught. Men are called to follow the word with highly motivated fervency, and nowhere more than in the new morality which follows the New Theology. It is now Jesus-like to sleep with a girl or a man if she or he needs you. As long as you are trying to be human you are being Jesus-like to sleep with the other person, at the cost, be it noted, of breaking the specific morality which Jesus taught. But to these men this does not matter because that is down-stairs in the area of rational scriptural content.1
It is a scary thing to think about how many people have fashioned a Jesus according to their own liking. It is worse yet to think that Christians are guilty of the same thing by softening the message of the Gospel, feminizing Christ, or simply failing to declare the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). It seems as if we are able to slap Jesus’ name on something, it becomes okay. Though I have heard it joked about, there seems to be a “Christianized” version of everything the world comes out with. As a result, Christianity no longer stands for anything; affirming the name of Jesus is cool as long as you have do not have truth to back it. Those are just some thoughts that really hit me as I was reading. I hope that they can remind us all to make sure that our affirmation of Christ really does mean something.
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”
Jude 24–25
1 Schaeffer, Francis. Escape from Reason. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books),
Pgs. 100–101.
