A Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy: Three Essential Books in One Volume (Hardcover)

by Francis A. Schaeffer (Author), Lane T. Dennis (Preface), J. I. Packer (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Few Christians have had a greater impact during the last half of the twentieth century than Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer. A man with a remarkable breadth of cultural interest, with penetrating insight into modern life, and with a clear sense of spiritual reality, Schaeffer was also a man who cared deeply about people and their search for truth and reality in their lives.

With the publication of this Trilogy, Dr. Schaeffer's three foundational books are available for the first time in one volume. Schaeffer himself considered these three books to be essential to everything he wrote (twenty-three books in all), and it is here especially that we see his ability to understand the deep need of modern man for truth, beauty, and meaning in life.

In the first book, The God Who Is There, Schaeffer shows how modern thought has abandoned the idea of truth with tragic consequences in every area of culture--from philosophy, to art, to music, to theology, and within culture as a whole.

Escape from Reason, the second book, explains especially how the disintegration of modern life and culture grows from corrupted roots that reach far into the past.

In the last book, He Is There and He Is Not Silent, Schaeffer contrasts the silence and despair of modern life with the Christian answer that God can indeed be known because He is there and He is not silent. In addition to the convenience of having Schaeffer's three foundational books in one volume, the Trilogy is especially valuable in that it uses the text revised and updated by Schaeffer shortly before his death.

Why was Schaeffer able to understand and communicate so effectively to a generation? The best way to know is to find out firsthand, by reading his essential works as found in this Trilogy. Few who begin this journey will come to the end without having their life profoundly changed.

"What is the long-term significance of Francis Schaeffer? I am sure... that I shall not be at all wrong when I hail Francis Schaeffer--who saw so much more... and agonized over it so much more tenderly than the rest of us do--as one of the truly great Christians of my time." --Dr. J. I. Packer, Regents College

"There is no other important Christian thinker of our era who has tackled as many fundamental intellectual, philosophical, and theological issues as Schaeffer did, and no one else has so revealed their relevance to us." --Dr. Harold O. J. Brown, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Crossway Books (April 10, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891075615
• ISBN-13: 978-0891075615
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #22,923 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for the Thinking Christian, February 7, 2002

By	Tobie van der Westhuizen (South Africa) - See all my reviews

Have you ever wondered what existentialism is all about, or what the real difference between absolute and relative truth is? When is theology liberal?, when is it orthodox?, and when is it neo-orthodox? What is it that separates Reformed theology from 'Leap in the Dark' theology? Is Christian faith rational or irrational? How can I know what I believe is true, and how can I know that I know? I am not aware of any book that serves as a better introduction to these and other issues than Francis Schaeffer's Trilogy. And, of course, it paves the way for all his other books. In his own words: 'All the others fit into these as spokes of the wheel fit into the hub.'

Schaeffer remains the leading Christian apologist for the 60s generation, and has done many of us an immense favour by exposing the countercultural, flower-power utopianism of the Woodstock generation for what it was: A non-rational escape leading to nothing but despair. I first read this book as a college student and it impacted me so much that I rushed out to buy his collected works - one of the best investments of my life. If you are serious about understanding your faith, Schaeffer is a must. And if you are serious about understanding Schaeffer, his Trilogy is a must.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Plato to Camus...., July 19, 2006

By	nto62 (Corona, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Francis Shaeffer's Trilogy is a complex apologetic if it's precisely an apologetic at all. Rather than a patterned defense of the Christian worldview, it offers a philosophical dissection of those worldviews which compete with it. Shaeffer's three essential books could fairly be one in three parts when overlap is eliminated. Thickly worded, a bit repetitive, though often brilliant, Shaeffer time and again trots out for display the contradictions of materialism, pantheism, liberal theism, etc., the denouement of which is the flipside cogency of orthodox Christianity.

Whether the reader agrees is entirely problematic for everyone finds what they wish to find and no single book is likely to change that. But Shaeffer, on a level visited by relatively few, certainly takes a legitimate swing at it. He offers valuable insight, shows extraordinary range, and unerringly pinpoints the chink in the materialist's armor. Shaeffer's trilogy is by no means a light read, but certainly worth the investment. Should you prefer a primer, try Pearcey's "Total Truth". 4+ stars.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perceptive analysis of modern thought, August 19, 1996

By A Customer

Schaeffer deserves to be widely heard. These three books generally focus on the necessary conclusions that must be reached based on much of modern thought. Coining the word 'anti-philosophies', Schaeffer contends that it is impossible to sustain philosophical coherence when a transcendent basis is lost. The effect of modern philosophical trends are traced through music, art, philosophy, and theology, providing a much more well rounded perspective than books of this sort usually do. I read the series twice, taking notes the second time through, as it was the only way I could really absorb the material