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To Think Christianly: A History of L'Abri, Regent College, and the Christian Study Center Movement
In the late 1960s and on into the next decade, the American pastor and bestselling author Francis Schaeffer regularly received requests from evangelicals across North America seeking his help to replicate his innovative learning community, L'Abri, within their own contexts. At the same time, an innovative school called Regent College had started up in Vancouver, British Columbia, led by James Houston and offering serious theological education for laypeople. Before long, numerous admirers and attendees of L'Abri and of Regent had launched Christian "study centers" of their own--often based on or near university campuses--from Berkeley to Maryland. For evangelical baby boomers coming of age in the midst of unprecedented educational opportunity and cultural upheaval, these multifaceted communities inspired a generation to study, pray, and engage culture more faithfully--in the words of James M. Houston, "to think Christianly." In this compelling and comprehensive history, Charles Cotherman traces the stories of notable study centers and networks, as well as their influence on a generation that would reshape twentieth-century Christianity. Beginning with the innovations of L'Abri and Regent College, Cotherman elucidates the histories of
The C. S. Lewis Institute near Washington, DC
R. C. Sproul's Ligonier Valley Study Center in Stahlstown, Pennsylvania
New College Berkeley
The Center for Christian Study at the University of Virginia
The Consortium of Christian Study Centers, which now includes dozens of institutions
Each of these projects owed something to Schaeffer's and Houston's approaches, which combined intellectual and cultural awareness with compelling spirituality, open-handed hospitality, relational networks, and a deep commitment to the gospel's significance for all fields of study--and all of life. Cotherman argues that the centers' mission of lay theological education blazed a new path for evangelicals to fully engage the life of the mind and culture. Built on a rich foundation of original interviews, archival documents, and contemporary sources, To Think Christianly sheds new light on this set of defining figures and places in evangelicalism's life of the mind.
The C. S. Lewis Institute near Washington, DC
R. C. Sproul's Ligonier Valley Study Center in Stahlstown, Pennsylvania
New College Berkeley
The Center for Christian Study at the University of Virginia
The Consortium of Christian Study Centers, which now includes dozens of institutions
Each of these projects owed something to Schaeffer's and Houston's approaches, which combined intellectual and cultural awareness with compelling spirituality, open-handed hospitality, relational networks, and a deep commitment to the gospel's significance for all fields of study--and all of life. Cotherman argues that the centers' mission of lay theological education blazed a new path for evangelicals to fully engage the life of the mind and culture. Built on a rich foundation of original interviews, archival documents, and contemporary sources, To Think Christianly sheds new light on this set of defining figures and places in evangelicalism's life of the mind.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published April 28, 2020
10 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
Charles E. Cotherman
4 books12 followersCharles E. Cotherman (PhD, University of Virginia) is pastor and planter of Oil City Vineyard Church in Oil City, Pennsylvania. He is the administrative director of the Project on Rural Ministry at Grove City College and has taught church history at Fuller Seminary and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
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May 5, 2020
I have read this book...a lot. I wrote it. (But I will say that I still like it, even after all those times through. I hope you will, too. 🙂)
December 7, 2020
"To Think Christianly: A History of L'Abri, Regent College, and the Christian Study Center Movement" by Charles E. Cotherman provides a compelling overview of one of the most dynamic developments in the evangelical world in the latter half of the twentieth century. The two principle institutions highlighted in this book are Francis Schaeffer's L'Abri and James M. Houston's Regent College. Schaeffer and his wife Edith established L'Abri in Huémoz-sur-Ollon, Switzerland in 1955, seeking to minister to young people. Francis' intellectual prowess and Edith's homespun hospitality made L'Abri an inviting place of pilgrimage for young people, drawing figures like Hans Rookmaaker, Os Guinness, and Larry Norman. Schaeffer became a superstar for baby boomer evangelicals, particularly those who were now entering college and university, with his apologetics books providing intellectual defences for their Christian faith. With his increased prominence, Schaeffer's publications took him far away from Switzerland and for long stretches at a time; the original, intimate hospitality that the Schaeffers had offered in L'Abri's early days was gone.
Houston and others saw limitations with Francis' approach. Schaeffer lacked the academic credentials that Houston had as an Oxford lecturer (Guinness relates that he "never saw him open a single book except the Bible. Much of his reading came from magazines such as NEWSWEEK and THE LISTENER") and where once he had innovatively brought Christianity out of the confines of the church, he eventually retreated into a conservative evangelical bubble (p. 32-33). Houston and the Plymouth Brethren leaders in Vancouver who brought him over from Oxford wanted laity to think Christianly in all areas of life. They founded Regent College in 1968, initially as a summer school; laity could come to Regent and spend a week taking courses with such prominent Christian scholars as Rookmaaker, F.F. Bruce, J.I. Packer, and philosopher Arthur Holmes. One interesting short-lived initiative in Regent's early years was for the school to be a Young Life training centre (p. 67-69).
Cotherman tends to focus on L'Abri's and Regent's early days and pioneering initiatives - readers are left wondering what happened to L'Abri after Francis Schaeffer's death and Regent's coverage is connected to James Houston's tenure as the College's leader, not the golden age of the 1990s when Packer, Stanley Grenz, and Eugene Peterson were teaching at Regent.
From L'Abri and Regent, Cotherman chronicles other Christian study ventures, including the R.C. Sproul's Ligioner Valley Study Center, the C.S. Lewis Institute, New College Berkeley, and the eventual proliferation of Christian study centres that often established a campus presence (particularly the one based at the University of Virginia that was faithfully led for many years by Dr. Andrew Trotter). Even during Regent's first decade, Houston tried to replicate the Vancouver school and Cotherman's chapter on the C.S. Lewis Institute showcases the early attempt to create "Regent College East." I'd also long-wondered at David Gill's position in the evangelical world and the Gasques' involvement with the New College Berkeley and the chapter on this California school traces its aspirational rise and eventual restructuring away from degree-granting institute to evangelical presence within the Graduate Theological Union. Writing on early Christian efforts at Berkeley, Cotherman writes that "Campus Crusade gave members of the Christian World Liberation Front a taste for bold and aggressive Christian witness in the university - traits that contrasted with the quieter, more intellectual style of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship" (p. 155). Ever since reading Andy Le Peau's book on IVP I have been thinking of how even within evangelicalism there are two approaches - the "bold and aggressive Christian witness" of The Gospel Coalition, Crossway, and Campus Crusade vs. the "quieter, more intellectual style" of Christianity Today, IVCF, and IVP.
Many Roman Catholics convert to evangelicalism but there has been a trickle of intellectually-minded Protestants who convert to either Eastern Orthodoxy (Richard Swinburne, Jaroslav Pelikan, Edith Humphreys, etc...) or Catholicism (Richard John Neuhaus, Christian Smith, Mark Galli). However, the Christian student centre movement is a distinctly evangelical initiative, even though Catholics and Orthodox might make use of these centres (Cotherman mentions how one study centre changed its name to Anselm House in order to be more amenable to Catholic students) and highlights the value the best of evangelicalism places on the life of the mind. The priesthood of all believers arguably encourages lay theological training to a far greater extent than that found in Catholicism or Orthodoxy (the only venture I know of that would be similar from a Catholic or Orthodox angle could be the Eighth Day Institute which I believe has Orthodox roots?).
As a Regent graduate, this book was a delight to read, though I wish there was more included; Cotherman basically just follows Houston's role at the College (but as Cotherman admits, he did not set out to write an exhaustive history). 'To Think Christianly' also helped me to think about initiatives like the Theopolis Institute and the Davenant Institute, neither of which are mentioned but which seem to fulfill the same visions as Christian study centres (indeed, at least the latter is a member of the Consortium).
Houston and others saw limitations with Francis' approach. Schaeffer lacked the academic credentials that Houston had as an Oxford lecturer (Guinness relates that he "never saw him open a single book except the Bible. Much of his reading came from magazines such as NEWSWEEK and THE LISTENER") and where once he had innovatively brought Christianity out of the confines of the church, he eventually retreated into a conservative evangelical bubble (p. 32-33). Houston and the Plymouth Brethren leaders in Vancouver who brought him over from Oxford wanted laity to think Christianly in all areas of life. They founded Regent College in 1968, initially as a summer school; laity could come to Regent and spend a week taking courses with such prominent Christian scholars as Rookmaaker, F.F. Bruce, J.I. Packer, and philosopher Arthur Holmes. One interesting short-lived initiative in Regent's early years was for the school to be a Young Life training centre (p. 67-69).
Cotherman tends to focus on L'Abri's and Regent's early days and pioneering initiatives - readers are left wondering what happened to L'Abri after Francis Schaeffer's death and Regent's coverage is connected to James Houston's tenure as the College's leader, not the golden age of the 1990s when Packer, Stanley Grenz, and Eugene Peterson were teaching at Regent.
From L'Abri and Regent, Cotherman chronicles other Christian study ventures, including the R.C. Sproul's Ligioner Valley Study Center, the C.S. Lewis Institute, New College Berkeley, and the eventual proliferation of Christian study centres that often established a campus presence (particularly the one based at the University of Virginia that was faithfully led for many years by Dr. Andrew Trotter). Even during Regent's first decade, Houston tried to replicate the Vancouver school and Cotherman's chapter on the C.S. Lewis Institute showcases the early attempt to create "Regent College East." I'd also long-wondered at David Gill's position in the evangelical world and the Gasques' involvement with the New College Berkeley and the chapter on this California school traces its aspirational rise and eventual restructuring away from degree-granting institute to evangelical presence within the Graduate Theological Union. Writing on early Christian efforts at Berkeley, Cotherman writes that "Campus Crusade gave members of the Christian World Liberation Front a taste for bold and aggressive Christian witness in the university - traits that contrasted with the quieter, more intellectual style of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship" (p. 155). Ever since reading Andy Le Peau's book on IVP I have been thinking of how even within evangelicalism there are two approaches - the "bold and aggressive Christian witness" of The Gospel Coalition, Crossway, and Campus Crusade vs. the "quieter, more intellectual style" of Christianity Today, IVCF, and IVP.
Many Roman Catholics convert to evangelicalism but there has been a trickle of intellectually-minded Protestants who convert to either Eastern Orthodoxy (Richard Swinburne, Jaroslav Pelikan, Edith Humphreys, etc...) or Catholicism (Richard John Neuhaus, Christian Smith, Mark Galli). However, the Christian student centre movement is a distinctly evangelical initiative, even though Catholics and Orthodox might make use of these centres (Cotherman mentions how one study centre changed its name to Anselm House in order to be more amenable to Catholic students) and highlights the value the best of evangelicalism places on the life of the mind. The priesthood of all believers arguably encourages lay theological training to a far greater extent than that found in Catholicism or Orthodoxy (the only venture I know of that would be similar from a Catholic or Orthodox angle could be the Eighth Day Institute which I believe has Orthodox roots?).
As a Regent graduate, this book was a delight to read, though I wish there was more included; Cotherman basically just follows Houston's role at the College (but as Cotherman admits, he did not set out to write an exhaustive history). 'To Think Christianly' also helped me to think about initiatives like the Theopolis Institute and the Davenant Institute, neither of which are mentioned but which seem to fulfill the same visions as Christian study centres (indeed, at least the latter is a member of the Consortium).
May 27, 2020
Summary: A history of the Christian study center movement, beginning with Francis Schaeffer's L'Abri, and James Houston's Regent College.
A Presbyterian pastor goes through a personal renewal, embarks with his family on a mission in Europe and ends up establishing creating a hospitable place for the deep questions students and drifters are asking. And so L'Abri in Huemoz, Switzerland was born, and the very public ministry of Francis and Edith Schaeffer. And through them, according to Charles E. Cotherman, the Christian Study Center movement may trace its origins.
L'Abri was distinguished by four marks that have been evident in the study centers that followed. Foundational to L'Abri was its spirituality, grounded in the prayer life of the Schaeffers for daily provision of both people and means, and the awareness of the Gospel's implications for all of life, from eating to art to deep intellectual questions. Second was the intellectual community, that supported honest questions, and devoted four hours a day to study, as well as talks with the Schaeffers and weekly discussions. Third was the practice of hospitality, from clothing for the ill prepared, to feeding, and housing, as well as an ethos hospitable to ideas and art and music, and the dress of those arriving at their doors. Finally, L'Abri cast a vision for all of life under Christ's Lordship that was rich and multi-faceted, from thought and the arts, and the meaning of work, and a vision of Christian presence in society, and the wonders of the artistry and in the life of a community.
Half a world away, a group of Plymouth Brethren in Vancouver, influenced by L'Abri took the idea of a learning community in a different direction, launching the graduate school for Christian lay education that would become Regent College under the leadership of James Houston. Beginning with summer courses, students many others enrolled in the year long program, and the question quickly became one of finding a location, and developing additional academic programs.
From here, Cotherman traces the replication of the idea of study centers in various forms throughout the United States. Again and again, Francis Schaeffer and Jim Houston played significant roles in the beginning of these centers. Cotherman profiles four of earliest centers. The C.S. Lewis Institute, began at the University of Maryland, moving to Washington, DC, and then propagating around the country. The Ligonier Valley Study Center in Stahlstown, Pennsylvania began as a residential study center in the mountains east of Pittsburgh, closely connected with the Coalition for Christian Outreach Ministry as well as drawing many other interested lay people before morphing into the media ministry of R. C. Sproul based in Orlando, Florida.
New College Berkeley grew out of the Jesus Movement and the street paper Right On, edited by David Gill and Sharon Gallagher. Cotherman traces the financial struggles of this effort to form a Berkeley version of Regent. Finally, the first of the student-oriented study centers near a university campus is profiled with the beginnings of The Center for Christian Study in Charlottesville, near the University of Virginia. From the work of Beat Steiner and Daryl Richman with economics faculty Kenneth Elzinga, we see the growth of the Center under the leadership of Drew Trotter as a gathering place for ministry leaders and students, and a hospitable host for thoughtful students.
The concluding chapter chronicles the multiplication of these centers to a number of other campuses, featuring Chesterton House at Cornell University and Upper House at the University of Wisconsin. The development of these centers and the movement they represent has been facilitated by Drew Trotter, through the formation of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers.
Cotherman's account captures the pivotal role of Francis Schaeffer during the L'Abri years. Many of us were captured by the vision of L'Abri even if we never visited and Schaeffer's books led us to think about engaging our culture with the mind of Christ. The decades of creative literature coming from Regent faculty have enriched us for that work. David Gill's work helped so many of us make the transition from the communal experiences of the Jesus movement to a thoughtful Christianity. I first heard Bill Lane speak about discipleship in Mark in R. C. Sproul's living room and tapes from Ligonier helped lay a theological foundation for a young campus minister.
He also traces the changing cultural landscape and how each of these efforts shifted and adapted the focus of these centers, particularly as programs shifted from educational efforts for lay people to student ministry and engagement with the people and ideas of university campuses. He chronicles the development of study centers from "houses" near a university campus to the innovative Upper House, more like a campus student center with meeting facilities, kitchen, study areas, and classrooms, an effort of the Steve and Laurel Brown Foundation.
More than a walk down memory lane, this book reminds me of why I have so loved work in the world of collegiate ministry: providing hospitable places to explore life's most important questions, and bridging the divide of Christ and culture. It also reminds me of the great debt of gratitude I owe to the places and people Cotherman chronicles--from Francis Schaeffer and how he first helped me think Christianly, to Jim Houston and the influence he and Regent had on a close ministry colleague, to the vision of the doctrine and life that I acquired through Ligonier, and the vision of campus engagement Ken Elzinga and the Center for Christian Study have given so many of us. Because of these, To Think Christianly is not merely a book title, but a way of life for so many of us.
________________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
A Presbyterian pastor goes through a personal renewal, embarks with his family on a mission in Europe and ends up establishing creating a hospitable place for the deep questions students and drifters are asking. And so L'Abri in Huemoz, Switzerland was born, and the very public ministry of Francis and Edith Schaeffer. And through them, according to Charles E. Cotherman, the Christian Study Center movement may trace its origins.
L'Abri was distinguished by four marks that have been evident in the study centers that followed. Foundational to L'Abri was its spirituality, grounded in the prayer life of the Schaeffers for daily provision of both people and means, and the awareness of the Gospel's implications for all of life, from eating to art to deep intellectual questions. Second was the intellectual community, that supported honest questions, and devoted four hours a day to study, as well as talks with the Schaeffers and weekly discussions. Third was the practice of hospitality, from clothing for the ill prepared, to feeding, and housing, as well as an ethos hospitable to ideas and art and music, and the dress of those arriving at their doors. Finally, L'Abri cast a vision for all of life under Christ's Lordship that was rich and multi-faceted, from thought and the arts, and the meaning of work, and a vision of Christian presence in society, and the wonders of the artistry and in the life of a community.
Half a world away, a group of Plymouth Brethren in Vancouver, influenced by L'Abri took the idea of a learning community in a different direction, launching the graduate school for Christian lay education that would become Regent College under the leadership of James Houston. Beginning with summer courses, students many others enrolled in the year long program, and the question quickly became one of finding a location, and developing additional academic programs.
From here, Cotherman traces the replication of the idea of study centers in various forms throughout the United States. Again and again, Francis Schaeffer and Jim Houston played significant roles in the beginning of these centers. Cotherman profiles four of earliest centers. The C.S. Lewis Institute, began at the University of Maryland, moving to Washington, DC, and then propagating around the country. The Ligonier Valley Study Center in Stahlstown, Pennsylvania began as a residential study center in the mountains east of Pittsburgh, closely connected with the Coalition for Christian Outreach Ministry as well as drawing many other interested lay people before morphing into the media ministry of R. C. Sproul based in Orlando, Florida.
New College Berkeley grew out of the Jesus Movement and the street paper Right On, edited by David Gill and Sharon Gallagher. Cotherman traces the financial struggles of this effort to form a Berkeley version of Regent. Finally, the first of the student-oriented study centers near a university campus is profiled with the beginnings of The Center for Christian Study in Charlottesville, near the University of Virginia. From the work of Beat Steiner and Daryl Richman with economics faculty Kenneth Elzinga, we see the growth of the Center under the leadership of Drew Trotter as a gathering place for ministry leaders and students, and a hospitable host for thoughtful students.
The concluding chapter chronicles the multiplication of these centers to a number of other campuses, featuring Chesterton House at Cornell University and Upper House at the University of Wisconsin. The development of these centers and the movement they represent has been facilitated by Drew Trotter, through the formation of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers.
Cotherman's account captures the pivotal role of Francis Schaeffer during the L'Abri years. Many of us were captured by the vision of L'Abri even if we never visited and Schaeffer's books led us to think about engaging our culture with the mind of Christ. The decades of creative literature coming from Regent faculty have enriched us for that work. David Gill's work helped so many of us make the transition from the communal experiences of the Jesus movement to a thoughtful Christianity. I first heard Bill Lane speak about discipleship in Mark in R. C. Sproul's living room and tapes from Ligonier helped lay a theological foundation for a young campus minister.
He also traces the changing cultural landscape and how each of these efforts shifted and adapted the focus of these centers, particularly as programs shifted from educational efforts for lay people to student ministry and engagement with the people and ideas of university campuses. He chronicles the development of study centers from "houses" near a university campus to the innovative Upper House, more like a campus student center with meeting facilities, kitchen, study areas, and classrooms, an effort of the Steve and Laurel Brown Foundation.
More than a walk down memory lane, this book reminds me of why I have so loved work in the world of collegiate ministry: providing hospitable places to explore life's most important questions, and bridging the divide of Christ and culture. It also reminds me of the great debt of gratitude I owe to the places and people Cotherman chronicles--from Francis Schaeffer and how he first helped me think Christianly, to Jim Houston and the influence he and Regent had on a close ministry colleague, to the vision of the doctrine and life that I acquired through Ligonier, and the vision of campus engagement Ken Elzinga and the Center for Christian Study have given so many of us. Because of these, To Think Christianly is not merely a book title, but a way of life for so many of us.
________________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
January 22, 2021
Historian Mark Noll once famously worried about a scandal of the evangelical mind, contending that Christians had turned their backs on the academic world.
Decades earlier a small group of leaders were laying the groundwork for developing the Christian mind in the church pews.
The quest accelerated after World War II, thanks to writers and thinkers such as C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer and Carl Henry. Blending theology, philosophy and other academic tools for popular evangelical audiences, they wanted Christians to use their minds, as well as their hearts, in the full service of Christ.
Charles Cotherman traces the fruits of this movement with new insights and in-depth research in this new book, To Think Christianly (InterVarsity Press).
The book records the stories of leaders who paved the way for groups such as Gospel Coalition, 9 Marks and the other restless and reformed organizations. These leading thinkers never launched a formal coalition, but Francis Schaeffer, R.C. Sproul, Jim Houston and others created an unofficial network, consulting about how to help the average believer in the pew to know God and pay close attention to theology. In an age of growing secularism, they offered a new idea – to think Christianly, to develop a Christian worldview, or to develop the Christian Mind, the title of a 1963 book by Harry Blamires, a British scholar influenced by C.S. Lewis.
Charles Cotherman’s subtitle is A History of L’Abri, Regent College and the Christian Study Center Movement. He starts at Schaeffer’s L’Abri in the Swiss Alps, then flies to Regent College in Vancouver and stops in with the Jesus movement at Berkeley, California. He also visits R.C. Sproul’s Ligonier Valley Study Center in western Pennsylvania and the C.S. Lewis Institute in Washington D.C.
The personalities were very different. Had they tried to form a gospel coalition, they might have clashed with one another in personality and theology.
Cotherman, a Pennsylvania pastor with a Ph.D. in history, finds some important common ground among them, not so much in theology, because these leaders fell on different sides of issues of scripture authority and apologetic method. What they shared was a zeal for the Lordship of Christ, or a heart for applying the Bible to philosophy, business, art, music, news, theater and film. They wanted to enlist others to pass the passion on to business leaders, mothers, writers, musicians, artists, athletes, journalists and everyone else.
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER
Francis Schaeffer started the conversation for evangelical Christians in the 1950s. As a kind of low-key alternative to evangelist Billy Graham’s well-publicized crusades, Schaeffer and his wife mixed hospitality with evangelism and answers to hard questions at L’Abri in Switzerland, and later in branches in Holland and England. They offered much more than a bed and breakfast. They mixed work and study with long after-dinner conversations about rock music, current films, Marx, Hegel and Jesus Christ.
Schaeffer came to his own faith by reading philosophy books in high school. In contrast to many other believers of his era, he never went forward at a Billy Sunday rally. As an inquiring agnostic, he figured he should read the Bible along with Plato, Aristotle, Kant and the others. His conclusion: “The strength of the Christian system – the acid test of it – is that everything fits under the apex of the existent, infinite-personal God, and it is the only system in the world where this is true. No other system has an apex under which everything fits. That is why I am a Christian and no longer an agnostic.”
He had read reformed reformed theology in three volumes of Charles Hodge of Princeton Seminary but felt that relativism in philosophy was changing the conversation among educated Americans. He saw that the Dutch theologians like Abraham Kuyper were ahead of Americans in their presuppositional thinking, or the Dutch Calvinist bent to question the basic premises of secular assumptions about how we can know what we know.
Cotherman traces the rapid rise of L’Abri, which spread by word of mouth and Schaeffer’s 1960s books defending Christian faith in the context of modern alternatives such as existentialism and relativism. “Schaeffer invited a generation of evangelicals to engage their minds and the world with a scope as wide as creation and a confidence rooted in the trustworthiness of God,” he writes. Cotherman also reveals the challenge for Schaeffer and his family. They were building a ministry rooted in personal relationships and small group conversations. Pretty quickly in the 1960s they were facing big crowds of people who were fascinated by a very serious evangelical leader who could talk about painting, existentialism, abortion and Hinduism.
Cotherman also has an interesting insight into Schaeffer’s earlier 1940s years, when he had been a rising star in fundamentalist circles in the United States. Already a believer, he went to Europe after World War II, questioned the roots of his faith in Christ and came out stronger as an evangelical believer. Later Schaeffer wrote of that shift in his more personal book, True Spirituality. Cotherman thought Schaeffer appeared to have peaked by 1955. “Francis Schaeffer seemed well past his influential days,” he writes. Actually Schaeffer was just coming into his years of even greater influence in the 1960s and 1970s.
REGENT COLLEGE AND JIM HOUSTON
Cotherman then describes the rise of Regent College as a serious academic effort to give students a post-graduate course in Christian thinking, eventually becoming a master’s degree program in Vancouver, Canada. For some it was the next stop after a few months at L’Abri. With a background in the Plymouth Brethren movement, Jim Houston also wound up collaborating with some initiatives that became study centers instead of colleges, strategically located near large American universities. Examples were launched at the Universities of Virginia and Berkeley, California, to help students learn to think Christianly or to take thoughts captive for Christ.
R.C. SPROUL
Meanwhile a young R.C. Sproul was starting the Ligonier Valley Study Center in 1971 near Pittsburgh, with backing from gospel patron Dora Hillman, a wealthy widow helping Sproul. Sproul got practical tips from Schaeffer on L’Abri, as a model for the study center, with students living in homes with staff families.
Sproul went on to become an influence in the lives of former Nixon administration lawyer Charles Colson and other key evangelical leaders. The study center ministry included inmates from Colson’s prison ministry, including softball games in which Sproul sometimes argued with the umpires.
“AUTHORITY!!” would come back loud and clear from the inmates on the field. He had taught them well.
The study center was influential in other ministries in the Pittsburgh region, as businessman Wayne Alderson brought union leaders out from Pittsburgh to help resolve labor-management tensions through Sproul’s teaching. Sproul responded to the challenge of growth by ending his residential ministry and moving to Orlando to become a national teacher of theology. He was the key player in what became a strong Calvinistic influence in the larger evangelical movement, as explained in Collin Hansen‘s 2014 book, Young, Restless and Reformed.
Cotherman explains how Sproul gained a vision for multiplying his audience to thousands of students with new tech video and audio resources. For readers over 40, remember those big VHS tape cassettes? Churches and families suddenly had Sproul teaching them systematic theology and philosophy classes in living rooms and Sunday School classrooms.
CALIFORNIA JESUS MOVEMENT
Out in California, Cotherman traces New College Berkeley back into the Jesus movement, through believers who wanted to think Christianly. These people strove to be in the world but not of it, adapting to the 1960s west coast counterculture, identifying in the early years as the Christian World Liberation Front. Sharon Gallagher visited L’Abri and read Schaeffer books, with a new excitement about faith and culture, having grown up in a more fundamentalist background. Journalist David Gill also also appreciated Schaeffer’s thinking, proposing a L’Abri branch on the Berkeley campus, using an old fraternity house. Struggling over whether to become a degree-granting college, they eventually became New College Berkeley.
Most of these groups decided not to become accredited colleges, usually because of financial and credentialing challenges. None of these groups found easy formulas for the balance between seemingly conflicting priorities of study, hospitality, evangelism, discipleship and academic excellence. These ventures had two solid models to consider: Regent College, with Houston’s desire to invade the university world on its own terms; and L’Abri, with Schaeffer’s more informal pastoral approach to helping young people think Christianly.
At the University of Virginia Cotherman traces the center’s origins back to a providential meeting between campus minister Daryl Richman and student Bob Bissell. Lifting weights in the gym, Richman shared his faith with Bissell, whose friends started gathering for small group fellowship. Eventually that gym connection would indirectly help the university become a hub for various evangelical initiatives, including a study center. Strengthening the UVA venture was an informal partnership with Trinity Presbyterian Church, PCA, and pastor Skip Ryan, then a rising star in the PCA who had spent six months at L’Abri. Cotherman captures how this para-church truly came alongside the church in an unusual but important partnership.
In Washington Jim Houston connected with former pro golfer Jim Hiskey at the University of Maryland. Eventually that ministry became the C. S. Lewis Institute, with Hiskey drawing inspiration from several months at L’Abri.
The strength of Cotherman’s story is how he traces the friendships and personalities. In many respects Cotherman mixes both the skills of an excellent news reporter with the benefits of academic research, along with a keen grasp of the relationship/friendship emphasis underlying all these ministries. If journalists write the first rough draft of history, historians such as Cotherman write the next draft.
Cotherman writes about some wise men and women, who read their Bibles seriously and dedicated themselves to thinking Christianly. He lets them do much of the talking and analyzing. He also watches out for signs of sexism or second-class treatment of women, and most of the ministries come up not guilty.
These people never had a formal meeting to compare notes. Schaeffer, Sproul, Houston and the others were relationally-oriented believers who often were turned off by popular three-step formulas floating around other evangelical ministries. They would never come up with four or six spiritual principles to invade the secular university or grow the Christian mind.
Some of the centers did join what is now called the Consortium of Christian Study Centers. But Cotherman’s story reveals how the pioneers met here and there and corresponded by letter, long before email. They created a growing band of brothers who pioneered to help many Christians to love the Lord with all of their minds as well as their hearts.
Decades earlier a small group of leaders were laying the groundwork for developing the Christian mind in the church pews.
The quest accelerated after World War II, thanks to writers and thinkers such as C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer and Carl Henry. Blending theology, philosophy and other academic tools for popular evangelical audiences, they wanted Christians to use their minds, as well as their hearts, in the full service of Christ.
Charles Cotherman traces the fruits of this movement with new insights and in-depth research in this new book, To Think Christianly (InterVarsity Press).
The book records the stories of leaders who paved the way for groups such as Gospel Coalition, 9 Marks and the other restless and reformed organizations. These leading thinkers never launched a formal coalition, but Francis Schaeffer, R.C. Sproul, Jim Houston and others created an unofficial network, consulting about how to help the average believer in the pew to know God and pay close attention to theology. In an age of growing secularism, they offered a new idea – to think Christianly, to develop a Christian worldview, or to develop the Christian Mind, the title of a 1963 book by Harry Blamires, a British scholar influenced by C.S. Lewis.
Charles Cotherman’s subtitle is A History of L’Abri, Regent College and the Christian Study Center Movement. He starts at Schaeffer’s L’Abri in the Swiss Alps, then flies to Regent College in Vancouver and stops in with the Jesus movement at Berkeley, California. He also visits R.C. Sproul’s Ligonier Valley Study Center in western Pennsylvania and the C.S. Lewis Institute in Washington D.C.
The personalities were very different. Had they tried to form a gospel coalition, they might have clashed with one another in personality and theology.
Cotherman, a Pennsylvania pastor with a Ph.D. in history, finds some important common ground among them, not so much in theology, because these leaders fell on different sides of issues of scripture authority and apologetic method. What they shared was a zeal for the Lordship of Christ, or a heart for applying the Bible to philosophy, business, art, music, news, theater and film. They wanted to enlist others to pass the passion on to business leaders, mothers, writers, musicians, artists, athletes, journalists and everyone else.
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER
Francis Schaeffer started the conversation for evangelical Christians in the 1950s. As a kind of low-key alternative to evangelist Billy Graham’s well-publicized crusades, Schaeffer and his wife mixed hospitality with evangelism and answers to hard questions at L’Abri in Switzerland, and later in branches in Holland and England. They offered much more than a bed and breakfast. They mixed work and study with long after-dinner conversations about rock music, current films, Marx, Hegel and Jesus Christ.
Schaeffer came to his own faith by reading philosophy books in high school. In contrast to many other believers of his era, he never went forward at a Billy Sunday rally. As an inquiring agnostic, he figured he should read the Bible along with Plato, Aristotle, Kant and the others. His conclusion: “The strength of the Christian system – the acid test of it – is that everything fits under the apex of the existent, infinite-personal God, and it is the only system in the world where this is true. No other system has an apex under which everything fits. That is why I am a Christian and no longer an agnostic.”
He had read reformed reformed theology in three volumes of Charles Hodge of Princeton Seminary but felt that relativism in philosophy was changing the conversation among educated Americans. He saw that the Dutch theologians like Abraham Kuyper were ahead of Americans in their presuppositional thinking, or the Dutch Calvinist bent to question the basic premises of secular assumptions about how we can know what we know.
Cotherman traces the rapid rise of L’Abri, which spread by word of mouth and Schaeffer’s 1960s books defending Christian faith in the context of modern alternatives such as existentialism and relativism. “Schaeffer invited a generation of evangelicals to engage their minds and the world with a scope as wide as creation and a confidence rooted in the trustworthiness of God,” he writes. Cotherman also reveals the challenge for Schaeffer and his family. They were building a ministry rooted in personal relationships and small group conversations. Pretty quickly in the 1960s they were facing big crowds of people who were fascinated by a very serious evangelical leader who could talk about painting, existentialism, abortion and Hinduism.
Cotherman also has an interesting insight into Schaeffer’s earlier 1940s years, when he had been a rising star in fundamentalist circles in the United States. Already a believer, he went to Europe after World War II, questioned the roots of his faith in Christ and came out stronger as an evangelical believer. Later Schaeffer wrote of that shift in his more personal book, True Spirituality. Cotherman thought Schaeffer appeared to have peaked by 1955. “Francis Schaeffer seemed well past his influential days,” he writes. Actually Schaeffer was just coming into his years of even greater influence in the 1960s and 1970s.
REGENT COLLEGE AND JIM HOUSTON
Cotherman then describes the rise of Regent College as a serious academic effort to give students a post-graduate course in Christian thinking, eventually becoming a master’s degree program in Vancouver, Canada. For some it was the next stop after a few months at L’Abri. With a background in the Plymouth Brethren movement, Jim Houston also wound up collaborating with some initiatives that became study centers instead of colleges, strategically located near large American universities. Examples were launched at the Universities of Virginia and Berkeley, California, to help students learn to think Christianly or to take thoughts captive for Christ.
R.C. SPROUL
Meanwhile a young R.C. Sproul was starting the Ligonier Valley Study Center in 1971 near Pittsburgh, with backing from gospel patron Dora Hillman, a wealthy widow helping Sproul. Sproul got practical tips from Schaeffer on L’Abri, as a model for the study center, with students living in homes with staff families.
Sproul went on to become an influence in the lives of former Nixon administration lawyer Charles Colson and other key evangelical leaders. The study center ministry included inmates from Colson’s prison ministry, including softball games in which Sproul sometimes argued with the umpires.
“AUTHORITY!!” would come back loud and clear from the inmates on the field. He had taught them well.
The study center was influential in other ministries in the Pittsburgh region, as businessman Wayne Alderson brought union leaders out from Pittsburgh to help resolve labor-management tensions through Sproul’s teaching. Sproul responded to the challenge of growth by ending his residential ministry and moving to Orlando to become a national teacher of theology. He was the key player in what became a strong Calvinistic influence in the larger evangelical movement, as explained in Collin Hansen‘s 2014 book, Young, Restless and Reformed.
Cotherman explains how Sproul gained a vision for multiplying his audience to thousands of students with new tech video and audio resources. For readers over 40, remember those big VHS tape cassettes? Churches and families suddenly had Sproul teaching them systematic theology and philosophy classes in living rooms and Sunday School classrooms.
CALIFORNIA JESUS MOVEMENT
Out in California, Cotherman traces New College Berkeley back into the Jesus movement, through believers who wanted to think Christianly. These people strove to be in the world but not of it, adapting to the 1960s west coast counterculture, identifying in the early years as the Christian World Liberation Front. Sharon Gallagher visited L’Abri and read Schaeffer books, with a new excitement about faith and culture, having grown up in a more fundamentalist background. Journalist David Gill also also appreciated Schaeffer’s thinking, proposing a L’Abri branch on the Berkeley campus, using an old fraternity house. Struggling over whether to become a degree-granting college, they eventually became New College Berkeley.
Most of these groups decided not to become accredited colleges, usually because of financial and credentialing challenges. None of these groups found easy formulas for the balance between seemingly conflicting priorities of study, hospitality, evangelism, discipleship and academic excellence. These ventures had two solid models to consider: Regent College, with Houston’s desire to invade the university world on its own terms; and L’Abri, with Schaeffer’s more informal pastoral approach to helping young people think Christianly.
At the University of Virginia Cotherman traces the center’s origins back to a providential meeting between campus minister Daryl Richman and student Bob Bissell. Lifting weights in the gym, Richman shared his faith with Bissell, whose friends started gathering for small group fellowship. Eventually that gym connection would indirectly help the university become a hub for various evangelical initiatives, including a study center. Strengthening the UVA venture was an informal partnership with Trinity Presbyterian Church, PCA, and pastor Skip Ryan, then a rising star in the PCA who had spent six months at L’Abri. Cotherman captures how this para-church truly came alongside the church in an unusual but important partnership.
In Washington Jim Houston connected with former pro golfer Jim Hiskey at the University of Maryland. Eventually that ministry became the C. S. Lewis Institute, with Hiskey drawing inspiration from several months at L’Abri.
The strength of Cotherman’s story is how he traces the friendships and personalities. In many respects Cotherman mixes both the skills of an excellent news reporter with the benefits of academic research, along with a keen grasp of the relationship/friendship emphasis underlying all these ministries. If journalists write the first rough draft of history, historians such as Cotherman write the next draft.
Cotherman writes about some wise men and women, who read their Bibles seriously and dedicated themselves to thinking Christianly. He lets them do much of the talking and analyzing. He also watches out for signs of sexism or second-class treatment of women, and most of the ministries come up not guilty.
These people never had a formal meeting to compare notes. Schaeffer, Sproul, Houston and the others were relationally-oriented believers who often were turned off by popular three-step formulas floating around other evangelical ministries. They would never come up with four or six spiritual principles to invade the secular university or grow the Christian mind.
Some of the centers did join what is now called the Consortium of Christian Study Centers. But Cotherman’s story reveals how the pioneers met here and there and corresponded by letter, long before email. They created a growing band of brothers who pioneered to help many Christians to love the Lord with all of their minds as well as their hearts.
May 27, 2023
I would probably never have opened this book but for two reasons: 1) it has a chapter on L'Abri and Schaeffer's work and 2) I heard the author give a deeply moving talk on Becoming More Human. (DM me and I'll happily send you a recording of it.)
The book is easily readable and accessible, covering the Christian study movement that came out of a new space where it was safe to ask theological, intellectual questions. These centers were non-traditional educational communities. The connecting thread of each of the study centers that Cotherman tells about is holistic Christian living and thinking that always included embodied hospitality: staff led students in not only thinking Christianly but they demonstrated it "where their feet were." Thus, place and presence were critical pieces of a thriving Christian study center. When a center became driven by numbers, convinced they needed to impact the masses for a revolution via video, place and presence didn't matter anymore, and the center died. (Ligonier Valley is the cautionary tale here.)
The author's autograph to me is very special. He heard my enthusiasm for the Schaeffers, and he cautioned me that they met a specific need in a specific place, and our time/place/need is different here. Then he wrote with a Sharpie, "Anita, may you carry the presence of God (and the hospitality of L'Abri) wherever your feet take you."
I enjoyed the first chapter and the conclusion the most because they were most relevant to me. But throughout, the tone and style of the book is one that I admire and learned much from.
The book is easily readable and accessible, covering the Christian study movement that came out of a new space where it was safe to ask theological, intellectual questions. These centers were non-traditional educational communities. The connecting thread of each of the study centers that Cotherman tells about is holistic Christian living and thinking that always included embodied hospitality: staff led students in not only thinking Christianly but they demonstrated it "where their feet were." Thus, place and presence were critical pieces of a thriving Christian study center. When a center became driven by numbers, convinced they needed to impact the masses for a revolution via video, place and presence didn't matter anymore, and the center died. (Ligonier Valley is the cautionary tale here.)
The author's autograph to me is very special. He heard my enthusiasm for the Schaeffers, and he cautioned me that they met a specific need in a specific place, and our time/place/need is different here. Then he wrote with a Sharpie, "Anita, may you carry the presence of God (and the hospitality of L'Abri) wherever your feet take you."
I enjoyed the first chapter and the conclusion the most because they were most relevant to me. But throughout, the tone and style of the book is one that I admire and learned much from.
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October 8, 2020"This book delivers exactly what the subtitle promises: it is a survey of the idea behind, events leading up to, and establishment of some of the most important Christian institutions of the mid-20th century. To be more specific, it is the history of mid-20th century Christian institutions that were designed specifically to engage the culture (as opposed to, say, important seminaries, churches, organizations, or colleges that are more focused on the church). Each of the institutions covered in this book was created to reach out to non-believers even while working to equip and build up believers."
Read the rest here: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/schaeff...
Read the rest here: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/schaeff...
September 25, 2024
The depth of research and the tethering of disparate strands was what I thought was best about this book. Probably not one that anyone would just pick up and read, mostly because the subject matter is more niche. But, speaking as someone who’s very interested in the Christian Study Center Movement (and what that could look like in the days ahead), I think Charles Cotherman’s book is a wonderful place to begin. Thankful for this clear history, and more than anything, I left with a clear sense of the challenges posed to pursuing a “faithful presence” in the present age while still having hope that the good news of the kingdom - embodied by the Church as those who are brought in to be sent back out into the world - will continue to capture hearts and change lives, as the Lord wills.
December 14, 2020
As a young adult pastor I really appreciated this book. The convictions of those in the Christian study center movement are the very ones I have seen take hold of young adults in my own ministry. If the church is to reach the rising generations it will be through a conception of the gospel that bears weight on every book and cranny of the cosmos.
July 11, 2021
A great history. Well done.
January 4, 2026
Many interesting insights concerning the Schaeffers, Ligonier, and other movements to have Christian study centers on college campuses. Cool stuff.
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