Schaeffer Transformer of Culture

A few months ago I read a book by Francis Schaeffer entitled, How Should We Then Live?. In it he describes how Christians should transform their culture around them. I’ve been meaning to write a review of this book, and how it relates to Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture categories, but have been unable to do so until now.

One of Schaeffer’s core theses is that one’s worldview is reflected in their creative output- especially art. He traces the history and philosophy of Western civilization (my favorite class in college) and shows how their art reflects their philosophy.

As he traces Western civilization he eventually comes to the Protestant Reformation. This movement he views as the penultimate example of a correct worldview. In a sense, he characterizes the Reformation as a transformer of culture. He admits that there are some areas that the Reformation did not transform culture- namely slavery, racism, and the abuses of the industrial revolution- but tries to show how ultimately this is the correct worldview and the correct implications of Christ in the world.

The churches could have changed things in that day if they had spoken with clarity and courage. The central reason the church should have spoken clearly and courageously on these issues is that the Bible commands it. Had the church been faithful to the Bible’s teaching about the compassionate use of wealth, it would not later have lost so many of the workers. And if it had spoken clearly against the use of wealth as a weapon in a kind of “survival of the fittest,” in all probability this concept as it came into a secularized science would not have been so automatically accepted. Of course, the church’s silence was not only a problem in England. It was equally a problem in the United States. And in the area of slavery, the United States muse bear special criticizm, since slavery based on race continued there until such a late date.