Escape from Reason (IVP Classics)

Many have struck water as they dig into the soil of life, then look into their well with joy and satisfaction. There’s enough to sustain, never enough to bath in. Escape from Reason fills the mind with enough depth to immerse your soul, and soak in a serious look at what’s available to our Christian walk. I recommend this book to those that can be intentional in their search for a God that “sees them”. Onward!

This book may hAve been more profound if I had read it when it was written. He speaks about various figures as if I already have a deep understanding of who they are and what they preached. That being said though the fruit of much of what Schaefer was alluding to is here and for that foresight he deserves at least a four.

Short, insightful very important word on how modern thought is death and the Gospel of the Lord Jesus is the light of life for all mankind. May the Lord give us grace to share that life and May He bless His church to grow in our time.

Francis Scheaffer wrote about 40 years ago that the church had forgotten "The Larger Story" of God and so lost the supernatural element of Christianity. His warning to the church was not taken and now today the Holy Spirit has revealed to John Eldredge to take up the banner again and proclaim to the church that we have got to get back to teaching the "Larger Story". Eldredge wrote a small book called "Epic" in which he tells the "Larger Story" like a play with four acts.Scheaffer shows how through the years the church has slowing been ignoring the fact that God created the universe, then angels, and then man. That there was a war in the heavens between Lucifer and Michael and Lucifer and his angels fell and were cast to earth long before man was ever created. This world has always been the dwelling place of Satan and his angels. Man was created and the war continues. Satan his angles lost the war with God but the war with man is still going on and this war is spiritual and supernatural.Anyone with questions about how the church lost the total story of God will see through Schaeffer's writings the chipping away by men down through the years. One thought building on another thought until all is lost. We have to get it back and reclaim the "Larger Story of God" so that the supernatural elements of this world are understood.

Once again, I understand that what I am about to write reads a ignorance to some and/or arrogance to others. I am sorry for that, however, meaningful, usable communication is very nearly impossible if people do not tell the truth to the best of their ability and knowledge when they try to offer their thoughts. I am a Christian, not because I caught a religion they way one catches a local virus, as it floats by, but because I found sufficient evidence to make as reasonable of a decision as possible on the matter, then, having decided to take the chance, I committed myself to the historically traditional central teaching of Biblical Christianity. Shcaeffer's writings, including these, are excellent resource for helping lay a solid, honest-as-possible, philosophical foundation in approaching reality. My life has been greatly helped by his thinking and experience for some fifty years.

I really disliked how the author kept talking about above and below the line, which I did not understand. Most of the book was about the history of philosophy, in philosophical language.Near the end, though, he was making a lot of sense, encouraging us to use the Bible when we talk to others, but to put it in language that modern people can understand.Also, it seemed that the book ended abruptly.

I read this short book with a religious study group since it was said to have been a very influential Christian book. I came away a bit confused since Schaeffer had a completely different take on several theologians and philosophers than I had. I have recently finished reading a history of theology and my view of Aquinas, Kierkegaard, and Barth are quite different than Schaeffer's. I find that the men all came up with valuable perspectives on Christianity that it does not hurt for anyone to consider. I can come up with what I consider are flaws in their thinking also, but I don't think they are the cause of so much evil.I was also confused by his terminology in trying to discuss grace over nature. His usage of these terms is completely different than what I am used to.I think I finally understood and somewhat agree with what he was trying to say by the last chapter, but his logic in getting there did not make sense to me nor concur with my reading of theology, philosophy, and history. I kept getting distracted by my disagreements with what he was using as examples.The good news is that the book was good fodder for our group and we had a lot of interesting discussions, but it is not a book I am interested in reading again.

Francis beautifully deals with several mediums through which man separated himself to think that he could thrive autonomously. From Thomas Aquinas to the movies of the late 20th century he traces art, poetry, and more to distinctively show how the biblical answer is the only fitting response to man’s despair.

Escape from Reason (IVP Classics) is virtually the history of western culture in a nutshell.That may seem ludicrous but Francis Schaeffer has managed to put the history of western culture in a comprehensive package. In fact he does so much more. He shows how all philosophical movements have gone first to the visual arts before being taken up in the other artistic and scientific disciplines. He also places them in the order in which they fall.He shows how man's thinking has step-by-step descended into the confusion it is today. He also show why and how this has happened.As a sideline, this book also makes the abstract art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries comprehensible to the average person.Had Francis Schaeffer been known as a philsopher and not a theologian he would have turned the philosophical world on his head, in the ways that Aquinas (also a theologian) and Hegel, as two examples, did in the past.The academic world has a prejudice against theologians, even when they are philosophers--unless of course they are men such as Kierkegaard or Barth who are willing to compromise.Francis Schaeffer never did compromise and he stuck to logic, hard facts, and Scripture.Escape From Reason is an education in itself and it is to my mind almost astonishing that such a small and easily readable book can contain so much information.

Essential to understand Schaeffer. He saw the future before it came to be. Good book - delivered on time. Many thanks

This is as interesting, useful and as readable as when it was first published. I read it then and am enjoy it now.

Bought it for a friend

It’s a must