Customer Reviews

Back to Freedom and Dignity (Hodder Christian paperbacks)

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As many of Schaeffer's works are, Back to Freedom and Dignity is not "armchair" reading. This is a scholarly pamphlet for serious students of human thought. Using his impeccable organization and logic, Schaeffer includes and analyzes many quotes from Skinner's work and from other modern thinkers and artists. I suggest it for anyone interested in modern philosophy and for every single English teacher or professor.

Francis Schaeffer in his early life was left to accept agnosticism because of what he was taught by the liberal church. But today he is a warrior for Jesus Christ and a defender of Truth. He says, "the Christian is the real radical of our generation, for he stands against the monolithic modern concept of truth as relative" Schaeffer has come to an understanding that few of us will reach. He brings a new and refreshing perspective in apologetics, backed with powerful arguments; he is able to communicate to the laymen as well as test the Scholar. He tells us, "first I am not an apologete if that means building a safe house to live in, so that we Christians can sit inside with safety and quiescence. Christians should be out in the midst of the world as both witnesses and salt, not sitting in a fortress surrounded by a moat."

In this book Schaeffer again concentrates on the scientists and men who have influenced our thinking. He carries this over from his last book, "He is there and He is not silent". He brings us to the 70's: the "biological bomb" that hit: genetic engineering and manipulation. And the technological change and the moral and religious issues that are raised because of it.

Is government social and human engineering the answer? Some think so. Some thinkers believe environmental conditioning determines our lives. So, we change the environment or change for the better through the government, drugs, or the elite intellectuals----its inevetable. These great intellectual minds think: maybe not today but some day we will reach a true understanding. Who is going to do the controlling? Who is going to determine then? Who will bring us this utopianism? We, as Christians, can not be asleep at the wheel.

Wish you well
Scott

Perfect example of Schaeffer's botched attempt at dialogue with contemporary culture.

He holds up B.F. Skinner's BEYOND FREEDOM AND DIGINITY as the result of what secular humanism leads to and pleads for a return to the good old-fashioned certainties of the Old Princeton brand of Calvinism he learned from his mentor Carl MacIntyre.

Toward the end, he mentions how the (then) newly released film "A Clockwork Orange" will serve to promote acceptance of Behavior Modification. How anyone with an ounch of irony could think that Burgess or Kubrick were trying to promote Behaviorism is beyond me, but then we *are* talking about Schaeffer.

Poor Francis, so concerned with fighting heresy, he couldn't even recognize occasional agreement.