The Thoughts That Ruled the World - Schaeffer’s Historical View

The Thoughts That Ruled the World

Schaeffer believes there is a flow to history which is directly tied to the thoughts of the individual. His premise is that these thoughts become values, which then become actions. Using very broad generalities and only touching on the major events of history, Schaeffer traces these historical thoughts through philosophy, science, art, religion, and government.

SCHAEFFER’S HISTORICAL VIEW

Chapters 1 through 3 cover the Roman Empire through the Renaissance. Schaeffer believes Rome fell because it had “no sufficient inward [moral] base” (Schaeffer 29) upon which to stand. He believes that during the Middle Ages Aquinas placed “revelation and human reason on an equal footing” (Schaeffer 43) creating “an increasing distortion of the teaching of the Bible” (Schaeffer 56). While the Renaissance saw nature becoming important, it was the rise of humanism, the thought that “man starting from himself [not God] could solve every problem” (Schaeffer 78), which troubled Schaeffer the most.

Chapters 4 through 6 cover the Reformation to the Enlightenment. Dedicating two chapters to the Reformation and a return to Biblical truths, Schaeffer believed this thought shift allowed a freedom of religion and representative forms of government where “ordinary citizens discovered a freedom from arbitrary governmental power” (Schaeffer 108) and even monarchs were held responsible. The Enlightenment, to the contrary, marked a return to Renaissance (man-centered) thinking, which could “be summed up by five words: reason, nature, happiness, progress, and liberty” (Schaeffer 121).

The Scientific Revolution is Schaeffer’s seventh chapter. While he knew not all scientists were Christian, he believed they all had a “Christian thought form” (Schaeffer 133). The scientific belief was that man lived in a “cause-and-effect universe … that [could] be changed by God or by people” (Schaeffer 142-143), in other words, science included rather than excluded God.

A breakdown in philosophy science is Schaeffer’s eighth chapter. He proposes that a shift in thought occurs “from the older optimistic view of philosophy to the modern outlook where hope is lost” (Schaeffer 160). He attributes this thought shift to four men: Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard.

Schaeffer then spends four chapters lamenting the pessimism of the 1970’s mindset: the existential and surreal philosophy of “life stinks and then you die.” He explores this breakdown of modern society through the drug culture, art, films, music, and the media (the “new elite”).

SCHAEFFER’S SOLUTION

Schaeffer throughout his book laments the condition of man: government, culture, economy, etc. He believes that the solution to this condition, in a word, is truth; the truth we find