Back to freedom and dignity

by Francis A. Schaeffer

Book by Francis A. Schaeffer

Genres: Theology, Christian, Philosophy, Christianity, Cultural, Nonfiction

48 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1973

About the author

Francis August Schaeffer was an American Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He is most famous for his writings and his establishment of the L'Abri community in Switzerland. Opposed to theological modernism, Schaeffer promoted a more historic Protestant faith and a presuppositional approach to Christian apologetics which he believed would answer the questions of the age.

Wife: Edith Schaeffer
children: Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

Reviews

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of an article than a book. A Christian response to B.F. Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity, and a general challenge to the idea that people should reconfigure mankind to their own ends. Interesting in part because it exposes that some of the predictions we hear today of this or that "being possible in the next ten years" (or other shortish timeframe) were being made in the 1970s, and still have not yet come to pass.

[Ryan Hawkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the forth book in Schaeffer’s Complete Works volume one (it’s very short, more a booklet). Apparently he thought it belonged in the same volume as the trilogy, and you can see why. In it, Schaeffer is taking a lot of what he unpacked in the trilogy and then applying it to modern (1970’s modern) events and articles.

Specifically, he talks about genetic and chemical engineering and the increasing belief in behaviorism. In both, he goes to primary source scientists and psychologists (again, from the 1970’s) to interact with them. And although this is dated, 1) it’s still quite helpful to read primary sources, and 2) these issues, although not new like they were to Schaeffer, still exist today, just in more advanced forms.

As a result, the booklet is still worth reading, and very interesting, just like the trilogy. It certainly isn’t up there with the trilogy—it rather reads more like well researched blog posts. But it’s worth reading to see Schaeffer’s applications of his trilogy to modern events and technological advances.

[Father Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Democracy, freedom without chaos, as we know it in northern Europe was built on the Reformation and it does not exist anywhere else, except perhaps for a very few years in very small city states in Greece long ago. This cannot be built or last long without the position outlined and Samuel Rutherford’s Rex Lex. When one removes both the Bible in which God has spoken propositionally and the resulting Christian consensus, freedom without chaos will not long remain. It can’t. Something will take its place, and it will be one of the elites.”

[Emma S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of its time. Schaeffer engages critically with scientists who insist that decisions in life are all made as a reault of environmental pressures and incentives; man does not have a mind, and is simply a product of whatis around him. I think arguments have changed somewhat since then, towards a ‘you know who you are, so act as you like’ kind of culture, but it’s a helpful model for engaging with scientific views that contradict Christian truth.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dated, as this book is a response to B.F. Skinner's work "Beyond Dignity and Freedom." Still very worthwhile.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This response of sorts to B.F. Skinner's "Beyond freedom and dignity" really helps to distinguish the type of autonomy that Schaeffer had in mind in his three major publications of "The God who is there," "Escape from reason," and "He is there and He is not silent." To Schaeffer, the autonomy of man is an attempted divorce from the natural revelation of God, such that man attempts to reason, believe, and live apart from the standards of God. But to Skinner, autonomous man is a divorce from the system entirely, such that he is a walking robot benefiting simply from chemical reactions in his brain. There is no true connection to God, to fellow man, or even to self. This type of autonomy is to be rejected for dissimilar reasons as Schaeffers reasons for rejecting autonomy. While both are errant, they are errant for different reasons. This short work delineates the differences in between chasing rabbits down different trails.

[Ben Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinarily prescient book. Although written in 1972, the thoughts and ideas are completely relevant to what is happening before our very eyes. It covers the topics of the establishment of an elite class, technological surveillance, genetic engineering, and operant conditioning. Read if you want to understand the basis and foundation of how a world with freedom without chaos is being destroyed for tyranny with chaos.

[Scquest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schaeffer pulls back the curtains on what was happening in the 1970’s in genetic research. Much of this, read today, results in a “So what?”
What he says is valuable to read and consider today, perhaps more than ever.
I would rate it higher but it really is just a short pamphlet and he is mostly reacting, not proactively helping the reader.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schaeffer walks the reader through how the modern, materialistic view, does not free man but enslaves man to despair, hopelessness and meaninglessness. The individual is lost, is dehumunized and man is merely to be used and manipulated by those in charge as they see fit.

There is no such thing as meaning or anything transcendent because it all just happened by chance.

[Daniel Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skinner who??

[Keegan Hatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. The section dealing with skinner was solid. The rest was dated a bit.

[Jessica Lowery · Rating 4 out of 5]

An argument against Skinner's book "Beyond Freedom and Dignity". Applying biblical principles to these ideas.