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Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life

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I think it is safe to say that, of all theologians contemporary or ancient, few have had as profound an affect on my life as Francis Schaeffer. Though I've read little of what he wrote, though he died when I was only a young child, and though I have never heard even one of his sermons, I know that my faith has been shaped by him. He was, after all, a major influence on my parents and on so many of their friends. Shortly after their conversion, my parents went three times to various European L'Abri locations, spending upwards of a year at them. In so many ways Schaeffer shaped their fledgling faith just as they later shaped mine. I am indebted to him as I am to them. And in this I am hardly the only one. Though it has been almost twenty five years since his death, Schaeffer's impact is still felt throughout the Christian church.

Despite my indebtedness, and despite his influence over me, I know so little about Francis Schaeffer. Though widely admired, it seems that few people have taken on the challenge of documenting his life (his son's recent attempt notwithstanding). It was with great interest, then, that I turned to Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life, a new biography written by Colin Duriez, who has previously written accounts of the lives of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

The publisher's description aptly summarizes the content. "From his working-class childhood in Pennsylvania, to the founding of L'Abri, his personal crisis of faith, and his latter years as a compassionate controversialist in the worldwide spotlight, all the eras of Schaeffer's life unfold within these pages. But Duriez, who studied under and interviewed Schaeffer, also takes a deeper look, revealing those distinct life phases, as well as Schaeffer's teachings and his complexities as a person, within their historical context so that contemporary readers may better understand all of who Schaeffer was--and why he still matters today." Duriez depends largely on oral history he gathered--upwards of 150,000 words of it, to describe the life of this great Christian.

I find that there are at least two kinds of biographies. There are some where the reader closes the cover and feels as if he now knows a lot about the book's subject; then there is the occasional sublime biography where the reader closes the book and feels as if he truly knows the subject. While I wanted this biography to fit in the latter category, I feel that it fits instead in the former. This is not meant as a critique as much as an honest assessment. Though the book has undoubtedly increased my knowledge of Francis Schaeffer, my respect for him, and my understanding of his impact on the church, I do not feel as if I really know him, as perhaps I did with Jonathan Edwards after reading Marsden's great account of his life or with Whitefield after enjoying Dallimore's two-volume masterpiece.

Yet the book stands on its own merits and it stands well. It is thorough without being burdensome and grapples well with the complexities of Francis Schaeffer, his life, and his ministry. It describes a man who had a unique gift for teaching and a deep, reverent love for his Saviour.

The best and, to my knowledge, the only full-length biography of Schaeffer available today, this one is well worth the read. I do not think it will stand in history as the definitive account of Schaeffer's life, but it is still a very good account and one that will bless you as you read it. If you have been influenced by Schaeffer or if you have sought to understand his ministry, you will want to secure a copy for yourself.

Introducing Francis A. Schaeffer
Francis A. Schaeffer was perhaps the most influential Christian apologist of the latter twentieth century. His fame was such that even Time magazine reported on his "mission to intellectuals" in 1960 and noted his passing in 1984. Yet few individuals today, even among evangelical Christians, know who he was. He studied the changing culture of the sixties and seventies and tried to make it understandable. But like many of the best known cultural icons of that "Age of Aquarius," only those who knew him or were influenced by his diverse ministry still remember him. It is largely they who keep his many books in print. The Swiss alpine study center (L'Abri) founded by he and his wife Edith remains a destination for individuals seeking answers to life's many troubling questions. There, or at its branches in England or the U.S.A, individuals are encouraged to challenge the relativism of our postmodern age by asking if there is such a thing as truth (i.e., truth spelled with a capital "T") or merely many truths.
Colin Duriez's new biography, Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life, is a brief, straight forward, chronological biography particularly suited as an introduction to the man and his important intellectual contributions. It is not, as claimed by its author in the Preface, "a comprehensive biography." Those already familiar with Schaeffer will find nothing new here. It has all been said before in other books about Schaeffer and L'Abri. Those looking for a discussion and assessment of Schaeffer's ideas or methodology will be disappointed. That must be found elsewhere.
Duriez's biography of Francis Schaeffer is a glowing tribute to a teacher by a devoted student. But saying so is not meant to diminish its value in any sense. It is well-written and a pleasure to read. For the newcomer to Francis Schaeffer, it is the best introduction available in print, well worth the price and highly recommended by this reviewer, who, like Duriez, is a great admirer of Scaeffer and former student of L'Abri.

As an admirer of Francis Schaeffer, one of the saddest things I have witnessed during the last few years is the attempts by both his own son and by other detractors to impugn his integrity or, at least, to redefine him as something he was not. Reading son Frank Schaeffer's memoir, both father and mother are portrayed negatively, Francis as a reclusive, depressed, sometimes suicidal man and Edith as a perfectionist nut. Well, perhaps the title says it all --- "Crazy for God." This book by biographer Colin Duriez, Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life, should set the record straight.

Colin Duriez is sympathetic toward the Schaeffers and deeply appreciative of the time he studied under Francis, yet at the same time he is engaged in writing an authentic and carefully researched biography, of telling "true Truth" (to use Schaeffer's nomenclature) about this extraordinary man. While noting Frank Schaeffer's very subjective memoir, and even quoting from it on occasion, he acknowledges that it added little to what he already knew (little, that is, that can be documented, that actually squares with reality). What he takes issue with is Frank's contention that his father kept up a "facade of conviction" in his latter years, something he says is not borne out by the evidence. And that's about all we hear of the strange memoir until near the end of the book where, in a footnote, Duriez cannot seem to restrain his feelings, noting that "he [Frank] is at times in error over fact or interpretation . . . in his unashamedly subjective and at times bizarre memoir." That's a restrained critique by a historian.

But enough of what the book is not. What it is is the best biographical treatment of the man and his mission that has yet been written --- scholarly, without being pedantic or lifeless; sufficiently nuanced, without chasing every thread of the man's life and work; sympathetic, and yet not avoiding the truth about the man's weaknesses and struggles. If you want to feel what animated Francis and Edith Schaeffer, to be caught up in the emotion of what they felt, read Edith's Tapestry and L'Abri. (Set aside sufficient time for their combined 906 pages, however!) But this is the biography for most to read, as it is concise and yet comprehensive enough not to miss any important detail of their story.

In eight chapters and a total of 208 pages, Duriez covers Schaeffer from birth in 1912 until death in 1984 from cancer. Along the way he speaks of his conversion, his years as a pastor, his involvement with the separatist movement and subsequent divergence from it, the L'Abri years, and the latter years of films and more political involvement. What emerges is a portrait of a man who, like any Christian, matured in faith and whose understanding of scripture and culture developed. And yet, looking at Francis Schaeffer's whole life, there no sense that he was a wholly different person in 1975 than in 1955. What comes across is his integrity and consistency. And while Duriez acknowledges Schaeffer's occasional anger or impatience, and even his depression, none of this does anything to damage his reputation. They endear him to us, demonstrating his humanity and his honesty (as these failings and struggles were acknowledged by him to those who knew him).

For most who are familiar with the Schaeffers and who have, perhaps, read Tapestry and L'Abri, much of what is written here will be familiar and unsurprising. What Duriez's succinct book does, however, is provide a kind of condensation for those much longer stories. I found myself drawn back into memories of some details contained in those books that were not included here, a very helpful effect. But the book is more than a revised Tapestry. It also contains excerpts of fresh interviews with the daughters of Francis and Edith Schaeffer: Priscilla, Susan, and Debbie. Once again, there are no surprises, and yet it is helpful to hear their memories and to hear the respect they had for their parents. Then are many other interviews as well, with L'Abri workers like Os Guinness and Dick and Marti Keyes, and perhaps going back farther than any other, with Hurvey and Dorothy Woodson (who actually had a L'Abri in Italy in the late 1950s). Dorothy said that "When Mr. Schaeffer would talk to you, there was nothing else in the world that was going on. He was totally focused on you and what you were talking about. . . ." Great comment. And that's how it goes. Real insights are given into the character of the man. Much is there to emulate.

I recommend Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life. If you think you already know him, this summary study of his character will sharpen your appreciation for him. If you don't know much about him, you'll meet someone you want to know better. And if all you've read is Frank Schaeffer's Crazy for God, remedy ignorance: get the "true Truth" here. (taken from www.outwalking.net)

A decade ago, my pastor at the time introduced me to Francis Schaeffer. Since then, I have read his trilogy, The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason and He Is There and He Is Not Silent, annually and read through The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview (5 Volume Set) at least four times. Outside the Bible, Schaeffer's writings have influenced my thinking more than any other. It is from that perspective that I read Colin Duriez's biography, Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life.

Admittedly, my expectations were unattainably high, but I was moderately disappointed. A characteristic of a good biography is the way an almost intimate relationship develops between the reader and the subject. When the reader puts the book down, it should be as if they've ended a conversation with a close friend (unless the subject is a villain--in which case the reader is anxious to leave but somehow mysteriously drawn to return). Such was not the case with this biography.

This is not to say that there were not periods of intimacy. There were, but they were isolated and disjointed. As a matter of fact, that seems to be the best descriptor for the book--disjointed. The author consistently jumps from subject to subject with very little regard for developing and focusing on a theme. Here is an example:

"In those two remaining years from the move to Chalet Bijou to the beginning of an extended furlough in the United States, the work of lecturing throughout Europe on the dangers of the New Modernism and maintaining and encouraging the Children for Christ outreach continued. Mingled into it, hospitality and question times for constant visitors to Chalet Bijou became a significant element in a slowly changing focus. Fran and Edith's perpetual activity on this "escalator" of events was punctuated in this period by a new and distinctive arrival in the family, following the disappointment and grief of a previous miscarriage. Franky, as he was known through much of his life (Francis August Schaeffer V), was born August 3, 1952. He is now well-known as the novelist Frank Schaeffer and is also a filmmaker and artist who wrote brash books in the eighties for an unwieldy evangelical constituency along the lines of his father's concerns, such as Addicted to Mediocrity, before converting to Eastern Orthodoxy. His Calvin Becker trilogy of novels (Portofino, 1996, Saving Grandma, 1997, and Zermatt, 2003) openly mocks a "fundamentalist" and pietistic lifestyle."

And so goes most of the book. In that paragraph alone, the author spans decades of topics from Schaeffer lecturing during a furlough to the birth of a son to that son's controversial writings. Rather than building a familiarity with the subject, the reader is left with a feeling of vertigo.

Despite the lack of coherency, it was a worthwhile read. In addition to the beneficial snippets scattered throughout the book (such as the brief section dealing with Schaeffer's confrontation with Barth--fascinating, especially considering how he skewered Barth in his writings), overall it was encouraging. Many biographies portray giants of the faith as springing forth Athena-like, fully developed from the womb. Piper seems to have been laser-focused on his mission statement since seminary. Tozer seemed never to waver from the time he pastored a tiny rural church in West Virginia. Spurgeon evidently was born with sword in one hand and trowel in the other. Schaeffer was not that way. He developed and grew and struggled throughout his lifetime. He mellowed in some areas and maintained his fiery firmness in others. Despite the areas in which he could have improved the book, the author could not have picked a better title. Of all the things one could say about the life of Francis Schaeffer, the most accurate is that his was an authentic life. Just as he knew that God is there and is not silent, he lived authentically before Him.

The historical significance of recently occurring events is rarely understood in the present or even for several years-or decades-later. (For that matter, historians are still debating the meaning and significance of the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and so on). A biblical writer can capture the ultimate significance of an act and put it into both a cosmic and theological context of perennial value, given divine inspiration. But the uninspired historian is, of course, differently situated and imperiled by sins of omission, commission, and misinterpretation. Even the best hindsight of professional historians is less than 20/20, being somewhat tentative and open to revision.

Francis A. Schaeffer, evangelist, apologist, pastor, author, and social critic, died at the age of 72 in 1984 after a long and heroic battle with cancer. In approximately the last twenty years of his life, Schaeffer attained notoriety as one who knew how to speak Christian truth to those experiencing the upheavals of the counterculture. Although his first book, The God Who is There (1968), was not published until he was in his late fifties, Schaeffer and his inestimable wife Edith (a writer herself), had pioneered a Christian community in the Swiss Alps in 1955 called L'Abri that became a hub for Christian hospitality, conversation, apologetics and evangelism in the modern world. His lecture tours around Europe and the United States, such as at Wheaton College, were also becoming widely known and respected. In 1960, Time Magazine called him a "missionary to intellectuals." Schaeffer went on to write over twenty books on apologetics, theology, and ethics. Most of these were developed from lecture transcripts or were aided by considerable editorial assistance. Schaeffer's great strength was discussion and lecturing, not crafting the academic manuscript. In fact, for all his status as a Christian intellectual, Schaeffer did not hold an earned doctorate and never held a full-time academic post, although he taught as an adjunct periodically at Covenant Seminary.

Colin Duriez is a freelance writer and biography and, importantly, was a student at the Schaeffer's Swiss L'Abri Ministry. Duriez has a firm grasp of the considerable Schaeffer corpus, but there is so much more to Schaeffer than his books, which were, in some ways, an afterthought that came after many years of ministry in the United States and Europe. Duriez makes very good use of extensive interviews with members of the Schaeffer family and of his associates such as Os Guinness, and Schaeffer's students. Duriez says he was "guided by over 180,000 words of oral history concerning Francis Schaeffer" (10). Edith Schaeffer, who is now in her mid-nineties, was, Duriez writes, "not well enough to give me more than a warm smile and a greeting" (13). This deep resource of oral history helps fill out the biography of Schaeffer in existentially significant ways.

Duriez enters into some of the charges made against Schaeffer's understanding of the history of philosophy and pulls in an interesting ally: C.S. Lewis. Schaeffer famously credited Aquinas as opening the door to autonomous human reasoning by his distinction of nature from grace. Nature is what can be known through unaided human reason and grace provides knowledge from a supernatural source, the Bible. Schaeffer argued (albeit very briefly) that Aquinas's way of construing these two sources of knowledge paved the way for nature to "eat up grace"-that is, autonomous human reasoning would set itself up against biblical revelation and end us secularizing our Western worldview. Duriez notes that C.S. Lewis, an Oxford Don and scholar of much higher rank than Schaeffer, made much the same point in The Allegory of Love (172-73). Although Duriez does not mention it, the controversial Catholic theologian, Hans Kűng made the same point about Aquinas in his book, The Existence of God in 1980.

This book provides a rich account of the full gamut of Schaeffer's life and teachings. Schaeffer was born into a humble, working class and nonintellectual family in Germantown, Pennsylvania. He surprised his parents by becoming a serious Christian and attending college and seminary. After pastoring in America, he ventured to Europe to examine the state of the churches after the devastation of World War II. He eventually settled in Switzerland where his home became a center for evangelism and hospitality. Out of this ministry eventually came Schaeffer's books and in the final decade of his life, his unexpected and largely unwanted celebrity as a culture warrior of the New Christian Right in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Duriez argues that here was a continuity to Schaeffer's life. Although in the early 1950's he left the cultural isolationism and incessant in-fighting of his early Fundamentalist days, just before starting L'Abri, Schaeffer would not sacrifice what he took to be the essentials of biblical orthodoxy for popularity or for anything else. Nevertheless, he did not treat people as objects on which to protect truth. His early pastoral ministry as well as his work at L'Abri and even into his last stage as something of a Christian luminary were marked by a profound concern for human beings, who (as he never ceased emphasizing) were made "in the image and likeness of God." In his later years, through his book and film series, "Whatever Happened to the Human Race?" (co-written with C. Everett Koop, who went on to become Surgeon General under President Ronald Reagan), he led the way for evangelicals to join and sustain the pro-life movement. Given Schaeffer's theology of the person (divinely created, fallen, and in need of Christ's redemption), he took their intellectual questions, their art, and their God-forsaking lives very seriously. Schaeffer was also a man of the Bible (and of the Reformation) until the end. He was not interested in academic apologetics per se, but wanted souls to know the God revealed in Holy Scripture. He consistently taught and preached from the Bible and wrote books commenting on Scripture (such as Genesis in Space and Time and Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History).

While some claims Schaeffer's apologetics is out of date, they are wrong. Schaeffer anticipated much of postmodern thinking-for example, critiquing Foucault in 1971-and realized that many in the sixties and seventies had already made "the escape from reason" (the title of his second book.) His apologetic was as much one for the importance of reason as it was as a reasonable apologetic. Moreover, Schaeffer was never an arid rationalist who unloaded his apologetic system on unsuspecting unbelievers (something which might be said for some of the followers of fellow Reformed philosophers Gordon Clark and Cornelius Van Til). Schaeffer's writings always engaged humans as cultural and individual beings, not disembodied intellects; hence, his emphasis on painting, music, architecture, and literature as revealing the conditions of non-Christian individuals and cultures. Further, Schaeffer was renowned for his ability to make Christianity pertinent in one-on-one and small group conversations, which involved much give and take and creativity. Schaeffer was no mere logic chopper. Schaeffer believed in the necessity of reason for a coherent, cogent, and livable worldview, but he did not affirm the sufficiency of reason. We finite and fallible humans need God's propositional revelation in Scripture to make sense of ourselves, our world, and our God.

While Schaeffer admitted that he was not an academic philosopher-and even wrote in a letter to Duriez that his thin book, He is There, He is Not Silent, would probably be his last philosophy book (174)-Schaeffer's basic apologetic insights hold up well today, even if we must refine his method address ideas he did not tackle. Let me mention two basic ideas that I (as a professional philosopher, unlike Schaeffer) find profound and helpful.

First, Schaeffer taught that worldviews need to be compared on the basis of objective criteria. That is, one does not simply presuppose one's worldview apart from rational testing. Every worldview-or basic perspective on life's deepest questions-needs to pass three individually necessary and jointly sufficient tests. First, it must be internally consistent. That is, its defining beliefs must cohere with one another. Second, a worldview needs to fit the facts of reality; it must be "true to what is," as Schaeffer put it. A worldview needs to match the external facts of history and science. Third, a worldview needs to be livable to be credible. This means that it must pass the existential test of fitting the facts of the internal world. For example, any worldview that denies the objective reality of evil (such as secular relativism or Eastern monism) cannot be lived out consistently, since we intuitively know that rape, murder, and racism are wrong. These three apologetic criteria can be nuanced and made much more sophisticated, but they form the backbone of any solid apologetic method. These truths are far from outdated!

Second, Schaeffer repeatedly emphasized that the God of Christianity was an "infinite and personal" being, and that humans were not machines or little gods, but made in the image of this infinite-personal God. In other words, for Christianity, personality is the deepest and most profound ontological category of reality-not impersonal time, space, law, chance, matter or some impersonal sense of deity held by Eastern religions. Schaeffer's apologetic capitalizes on this uniquely personal sense of reality held by Christianity. Persons, though fallen, have objective and eternal meaning on this scheme-as does community, since God himself is a Trinity: a relationship of divine persons coexisting in one Godhead from eternity.

I fear that the younger generation of evangelicals does not know enough about the remarkable life and achievements of Francis Schaefer; instead they are opting for the trendy but intellectually barren hype of much of the emergent church movement-which claims to be "authentic." ("Authentic" often means little more than emotional, unconventional, and obsessively autobiographical.) Many older evangelicals may have forgotten many of the salient lessons from his life and teachings as well. Reading this biography can help rectify this problem. But better yet, one can read or reread (as I have done many times) Schaeffer's own books and watch his two film series (the ten-part, "How Should We Then Live?" and five-part, "Whatever Happened to the Human Race?" which are both available on DVD). Indeed, Schaeffer did live an "authentic" life-a life of piety, truth, and courage-worthy of our attention and of our thanksgiving to the triune God Schaeffer served.

One of the most important figures in the areas of theology, apologetics, and culture of the last century is Francis Schaeffer. Until now there had not been a solid biographical work dealing with the life of this important figure. Colin Duriez, someone who knew the man personally, has helped to fill this great need by providing a look at the life of this great man. With an analysis of his books, interviews with Schaffer before he died, his family, friends, colleagues, and people who studied at L'Abri, Duriez offers a volume on the man that essentially comes from the very heart of Schaeffer himself.

Francis Schaeffer was born in 1912 and lived quite a tumultuous life until the Lord took him prematurely from Cancer in 1984. Growing up poor in Pennsylvania, he studied hard in school and sensed the call to pastoral ministry. He studied at Hampden-Sydney College and after studied for his seminary studies at Westminster Theological Seminary and then finished at the new Faith Theological Seminary which was formed out of controversy at Westminster. Much of Schaeffer's apologetical thinking was developed under the Father of Presuppositional Apologetics, Cornelius van Til (although he departed in some key areas). Schaeffer saw how Christianity affected all of life. This thinking is what began his great cultural studies and how he developed the thinking that one could see where one was at and where one was going by studying the development of cultural expression in previous years (areas of art, music, philosophy, etc.). Serving as a Presbyterian pastor for a number of years he convinced the denominational body that a survey trip of Europe was necessary following World War II to see how the New Theology there had affected the churches. Schaffer's trip was something that changed his thinking and developed a new approach to ministry as he sought to intellectually address issues in the growing modernist and soon-to-be postmodernist society. This resulted in the founding of L'Abri (The Shelter) in Switzerland where Schaffer could meet with those who were searching and talk openly about how Christianity was relevant and addressed issues of culture, the arts, and everything. Through Schaeffer's speaking and writing, vast amounts of believers became in-tune with what was going on around them and were becoming more and more willing to present Christianity as culturally relevant and intellectually responsible.

There was much controversy and pain in the life of Francis and his wife Edith. People did not understand their new approach to ministry by interacting with people on this kind of casual level at L'Abri. The schedule was intense and with people living with the family it often took tolls on the family relationships and on health in general. Schaeffer though saw himself as being a defender of Christianity by presenting the Christ of the Scriptures and how all men everywhere need to be transformed by Him. Schaeffer's unique approach allowed him to reach people who were not being reached by the church. The intellectuals of the world turned to Schaeffer as the one who presented a culturally relevant Christianity. To this end he was greatly used of the Lord.

Duriez traces all the events of the life of Schaffer from birth to death in a very readable way. He presents the life of this man and his family as a choice servant of God. This is a solid contribution to the history of evangelicalism in the last decade, to the history of apologetics, and ultimately, to the life of this man, so often misunderstood in his own life and today. The only real weakness is that Duriez does not interact with his theology as much as would be helpful. He admits in the beginning that this is not a theological biography, but one is necessary. Duriez offers a helpful look at the life of this man. Now, someone must look at the theology of this man to continue to better help the church. But, this book is highly recommended as a well-written account (from the very mouths of Schaeffer and those who knew him best) of the life of pastor turned denominational leader turned missionary turned prophet and apologist. May all of us have the dedication that Schaffer did for the cause of Christ today in our ministries. Read and be challenged and encouraged by the work of God in the life of His servant.

This book does an excellent job of showing that Francis Schaeffer was someone that attempted - and sometimes failed - to practice what he preached. Though Schaeffer had bouts of anger, depression, and slowly began to drift towards some of his earlier fundamentalism, he also attempted to live his life valuing each individual.

This book is excellent for anyone attempting to see the "man behind the message." It is valuable to understand why Schaeffer wrote what he did and, more importantly, why he became politically active later in his life. I would recommend this book to anyone wishing to understand exactly who Schaeffer was.

The book is a fun read. The author scatters quotes from Francis Schaeffer, his wife Edith, his daughters, his son Frank, and the friends of the Schaeffers. The narrative covers the arc of his life very well. His childhood, his conversion, his call to ministry, how he met Edith, his different US ministries, his move to Europe, his crisis of faith, L'Abri, his writing and his political activism. The author throws in his personal reminisces as well. The book actually builds excitement because Francis becomes more and more famous with more and more influence until his death. Francis never flinched. He grew and modified some views, but remained faithful to the lordship of Christ until the very end.

The downside is the book is missing intimacy. He mentions Frank's polio only in passing. His problems with anger is mentioned only briefly. The book focuses on the ministry and his theology, but very little on his family life. However, this does not distract from usefulness of the book. Future biographies may go more in depth in other areas.

The book does a great job of putting Schaeffer's ministry and books in a historical and theological context. I learned much about Schaeffer and it challenged me to think about how the Church should relate to world around. How does one live an authentic life.

Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life
Since I'm starting my own "micro-brew" L'Abri out of our home, it was very inspiring to read this excellent biography. I began it Summer of 'O9 while staying with my family for six nights in Greatham, Hampshire at L'Abri Fellowship in England. I had to put it down and leave it there. However, being involved as I am with creating events to commend the Christian world view, and being unwilling to give up on a book, I bought one from Amazon.
The strength of the volume lies in the history. Whereas my wife actually enjoys plowing through the minutiae of Edith's recollections in her numerous books, I prefer the non-fiction stuff. But with Duriez, I felt very much carried along by the story of a commoner of Philadelphia who, like Reagan whom he unwittingly partnered with in buttressing the Christian Right, was a man who exceeded expectations. He fought and labored and even risked his own soul to ensure he was not following some fancy but the revealed will of God in the Gospel. We see this pursuit take place in Germantown and Grove City and St. Louis and then in Europe.
There was a tenderness and manliness in showing Schaeffer's struggles with his separatist Presbyterian brethren. And the extended interview at the close of the book showcases not only his immense working knowledge of historical and cultural trends, it also puts us in mind of what most of us loved about Dr. Schaeffer: He was a pastor to thousands, not primarily a thinker or philosopher or co-belligerent in social justice.
For the uninitiated, the description of the finer points of Schaeffer's apologetic in comparison to the strict Presuppositionalism of VanTil will be educational at best and tedious at worst.
Mr. Duriez clearly knew the Schaeffers well yet keeps his enthusiasm at bay. He doesn't wink at the long trips from Swiss L'Abri that certainly didn't help young Frank's upbringing. He makes it clear that Francis was doing the best with what he had. Though slow to embrace new technologies (books, tapes, massive lectures), Schaeffer seemed to become more flexible with age. Duriez presents a Schaeffer who today would likely Tweet between his long walks in the Swiss Alps with students asking honest questions. And the chin beard, slicked hair and knickers would only enhance his welcome in the Indie crowd. I don't have the guts for that.

Other reviewers have concentrated on the subject - this review is about the author, the outstanding British thinker, cultural critic and accomplished biographer Colin Duriez. Colin's books are always fun to read and highly accessible, though always based upon firm scholarship and research, and this life of the great Francis Schaeffer, whom Colin knew well, is an ideal introduction not just to Schaeffer's thought but also his life as well. This sits superbly well with Colin's splendid books on CS Lewis, Tolkien and on the Inklings, and his definitive book on the origins of Christianity. If you want a full orbed biography of a significant Christian, Colin is your person and this book shows beyond doubt that Colin Duriez has done it again. Christopher Catherwood (author of CHURCH HISTORY: A CRASH COURSE FOR THE CURIOUS).