Evangelicalism and Philosophy
Copyright 2006: Dr Gregory J. Laughery
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This paper was published in The Futures of Evangelicalism. The excerpt
below begins the discussion of 'Evangelicalism and Philosophy.'
I remember the day, some years ago, when I arrived on the doorstep of a
rather large chalet, following many others to the small Alpine village
of Huémoz, Switzerland. This tiny farming village is where Swiss L'Abri
Fellowship has its home. When I got off the postal bus, after the long
and arduous climb up the winding road, I met with a staff member and was
welcomed into one of the L'Abri chalets for a period of study. Little
did I know it then in 1980, but this day was to change the course of my life.
In the next days and weeks I discovered L'Abri was made up of a
community of people from all over the world. Each student taking part in gardening,
preparing meals, studying, attending prayer meetings, lectures and
discussions. All these activities, combined with the intense
interaction of a community life, had the aim of being something of a demonstration of
the existence of God. In addition to the centrality of Christ, Christian
worldview, Spirituality and so on, one of the pivotal things that was
emphasized at L'Abri, contrary to much of the evangelical focus at the
time, was the relevance of philosophical ideas for understanding God,
ourselves, others, the world, and the cultures in which we live. Francis
Schaeffer, who with his wife Edith started L'Abri, comments:
Christians have tended to despise the concept of philosophy. This has
been one of the weaknesses of evangelical, orthodox Christianity - we have
been proud in despising philosophy, and we have been exceedingly proud in
despising the intellect.