Purpose of Text and Intended Audience Written for a Christian audience ill at ease in the dominant culture, Francis Schaeffer traces European or “Western” civilization through a Biblical lens. The purpose of the text is twofold. One of the main functions of the text is to provide an alternative view of history and of Western civilization. While European history can never avoid direct discussions of the role religion has played in matters of identity construction and state-building enterprises, Schaeffer takes the discussion to a whole new level. For Schaeffer, Western history and culture has evolved either towards a Biblical worldview or antithetical to that worldview. A second major purpose of Schaeffer’s text is to offer readers solace, encouraging them to deepen their faith and forge ties with the Christian community that is likewise at odds with the modern world. Intended audiences are squarely Christian, specifically leaning evangelical, and socially conservative. Schaeffer assumes the readership to be sympathetic with the author’s core assumptions and beliefs.

Thesis and Bias

Schaeffer is uncomfortable with modernity in general, and outright averse to postmodernism. The thesis of the book is that Christianity offers redemptive power to transform humanity, whereas secular humanism has led to moral and aesthetic decay. Schaeffer dismantles the common belief that humanism, the Enlightenment, empiricism, and rational inquiry represent the progress of civilization. In fact, Schaeffer turns the pro-humanistic bias inherent in Western society on its head, reversing the narrative entirely. The title, “How Should We Then Live?” refers to the collective Christian community that struggles to find psychological, social, and spiritual footing in a progressive secular world.

Biases abound in Schaeffer’s text, which is unabashedly critical of humanism. Schaeffer lives in a world of moral absolutes, and decries the trends toward relativism and individualism, taking a decidedly pessimistic view of human progress too. The author is also narrow-minded in his approach to history, still believing that Europe and the Western world are the center of the universe and patently ignoring the remainder of the planet. Schaeffer is especially uncomfortable with human sexuality; the author even blushes when...

No historian can deny the decadence of ancient Rome, to be sure, but Schaeffer is uniquely critical of the Roman aesthetic.
Theoretical Assumptions/Issues

The central premise of the book is that humanism leads to moral decrepitude because a human-centric world cannot be a Christ-centric world. Well within the confines of evangelical logic, it is difficult to argue with an author whose theoretical assumptions rest firmly on a foundation of Biblical truth. If the Bible is the absolute truth, and if faith in Christ is the only means to achieve salvation, then of course, any non-Christian worldview is wrong. Schaeffer devotes a large portion of the book to analyzing European art and architecture, which the author correctly believes is a manifestation or reflection of the prevailing attitudes, beliefs, and norms. The theory is that the fusion of church and state, which persisted throughout the Middle Ages and well into the Renaissance, led to an ideal social order in which absolute moral truths reinforced Christian values and norms while sanctioning opposing views. However, the Renaissance also signalled the first split in the Christian consciousness: the split between faith in Jesus and the theocratic model of governance on the one hand, and secular humanism on the other. The tensions brewing in the Renaissance led to the Reformation, and in turn towards the Enlightenment, and European society went downhill from there. As an evangelical Protestant, though, Schaeffer celebrates the Reformation because of its exposure of Church corruption of both power and theology. Reformation theology shifted the focus back to faith in Christ and away from faith in the institution of the Church—essentially a repository of human, not divine, authority.

Historical and Current Issues/Implications

Schaeffer’s goal in writing How Should We Then Live is to apply the past to present concerns, using history to encourage a new world order. Therefore, the implications of Schaeffer’s text are to reinforce the split between fundamentalist religion and secularism. Schaeffer uses a chronological approach to history to trace the evolution of church-sponsored art and…