I’m really thinking about changing the titles to this series to “Friday’s with Francis.” Even so, here’s what hit me during my read of Chapter 4 on the Reformation.
It is interesting that Renaissance and Reformation were dealing with the same question and were going on about the same time. I forget about that.
They dealt with the same basic problems, but they gave completely opposite answers and brought forth completely opposite results.
Schaeffer, F. A. (1982). The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview (Vol. 5, p. 119). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
Reformation view of Man
The Renaissance was a logical progression of some of the ideas of Thomas Aquinas.
You will remember that to Thomas Aquinas the will was fallen after man had revolted against God, but the mind was not. This eventually resulted in people believing they could think out the answers to all the great questions, beginning only from themselves. The Reformation, in contrast to Aquinas, had a more biblical concept of the Fall. For the people of the Reformation, people could not begin only from themselves and on the basis of human reason alone think out the answers to the great questions which confront mankind.
Schaeffer, F. A. (1982). The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview (Vol. 5, p. 121). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
I found it interesting that a critical outlook “toward what had previously been accepted without question” taken from the Renaissance was of great benefit to the Reformation.
However, in contrast to the Renaissance humanists, they refused to accept the autonomy of human reason, which acts as though the human mind is infinite, with all knowledge within its realm. Rather, they took seriously the Bible’s own claim for itself—that it is the only final authority. And they took seriously that man needs the answers given by God in the Bible to have adequate answers not only for how to be in an open relationship with God, but also for how to know the present meaning of life and how to have final answers in distinguishing between right and wrong. That is, man needs not only a God who exists, but a God who has spoken in a way that can be understood.
Schaeffer, F. A. (1982). The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview (Vol. 5, p. 121). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
Reformation Strengths and Weaknesses
Schaeffer claims that humanistic philosophy had permeated the church in at least three ways:
1) Authority of church made equal to the bible;
2) A strong element of human work was added to the work of Christ for salvation;
3) Increasing syncretism between pagan thought and Christian thought.
Schaeffer does see some weaknesses of the Reformation. He argues there were inconsistencies with biblical truth such as Luther’s view of the peasant’s revolt. Also, Schaeffer believed there was a lack of zeal to share the gospel with other parts of the world. However, see here, here and here challenging that assumption.
However, there were strengths as well.
In the answer the Reformation gave, the problem of meaning for individual things, including man, was so completely answered that the problem—as a problem—did not exist. The reason for this is that the Bible gives a unity to the universal and the particulars.
Schaeffer, F. A. (1982). The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview (Vol. 5, p. 123). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
The Reformation returned to the centrality of Scripture and that men can rest on two things. The Bible tells us true things about God because God has revealed himself; and, Bible tells us true things about men and nature. Although these truths may not be exhaustive, it does give truth.
Yet, because the Bible does not give exhaustive truth about history and the cosmos, historians and scientists have a job to do, and their work is not meaningless. To be sure, there is a total break between God and His creation, that is, between God and created things; God is infinite—and created things are finite. But man can know both truth about God and truth about the things of creation because in the Bible God has revealed Himself and has given man the key to understanding God’s world.
Schaeffer, F. A. (1982). The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview (Vol. 5, p. 124). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
However, there was a bitter irony about humanism. Man’s being central eventually led to having no real meaning for people. But, if God is Creator, then humans have dignity because they are created in His image. All people are equal as persons regardless of “status” in society.
Further, truth about the fall explains some reasons for evil in the world.
[P]eople are now abnormal. The Reformation saw all people as equal in this way, too—all are guilty before God.
Schaeffer, F. A. (1982). The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview (Vol. 5, p. 125). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
The Reformation and Art are not mutually exclusive
Some might argue that a byproduct of the Reformation was an attempt at killing the arts. This was not so. The doctrines of the Reformation spread through hymns (e.g., Luther, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God). Even before the dawn of the Reformation Huss, Wycliffe and others put their doctrine in song.
Concerning paintings, sculptures, and the like, we must remember that in the mindset of the Medieval Roman Catholic, they were not just art, but images that were worshipped in contrast to the biblical view of Jesus role as the only mediator between God and man. The actions by the people of the Reformation (some who destroyed their own paintings) was similar to cutting down sacred groves during times of covenant faithfulness of Israel in the Old Testament. They cut the groves, not because they hated trees, but because of their anti-Christian religious significance.
In fact, there was a great emphasis on joy and creative expression by the Reformation. Schaeffer references “Geneva jigs” (p. 89) It would have been interesting to have one set out in the chapter.
Counter to the prevailing culture of the day, the Reformers’ churches began allowing the congregation to sing again. Music was not just for the favored elite, but art, music, and writing were for all people.
Bach consciously related both the form and the words of his music to biblical truth. Out of the biblical context came a rich combination of music and words and a diversity with unity. This rested on the fact that the Bible gives unity to the universal and the particulars, and therefore the particulars have meaning. Expressed musically, there can be endless variety and diversity without chaos. There is variety yet resolution.
Schaeffer, F. A. (1982). The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview (Vol. 5, p. 128). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
I am not at all saying that the art which the Reformation produced was in every case greater as art than the art of the south. The point is that to say that the Reformation depreciated art and culture or that it did not produce art and culture is either nonsense or dishonest.
Schaeffer, F. A. (1982). The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview (Vol. 5, p. 132). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
It is not only Christians who can paint with beauty, nor for that matter only Christians who can love or who have creative stirrings. Even though the image is now contorted, people are made in the image of God. This is who people are, whether or not they know or acknowledge it. God is the great Creator, and part of the unique mannishness of man, as made in God’s image, is creativity.
Schaeffer, F. A. (1982). The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview (Vol. 5, p. 132). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
A person’s world-view almost always shows through in his creative output, however, and thus the marks on the things he creates will be different.
Schaeffer, F. A. (1982). The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview (Vol. 5, p. 132). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
I love the statement made about Rembrandt.
[H]e neither idealized nature nor demeaned it.
However, his biblical base enabled him to excel in painting people with “psychological depth.” Rembrandt understood that man was great because of the image of God, but man was also cruel and broken because of the Fall.
Up to a certain point the development of the Renaissance in the south could have gone in a good direction or a poor one. But humanism took over—all was made autonomous and meaning was lost. In the Reformation, the right direction was regained, and nature and the whole of life were things of dignity and beauty.
Schaeffer, F. A. (1982). The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview (Vol. 5, p. 133). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
He indicated that freedom was introduced both in the north by the Reformation and in the south by the Renaissance. But in the south it went to license; in the north it did not. The reason was that in Renaissance humanism man had no way to bring forth a meaning to the particulars of life and no place from which to get absolutes in morals. But in the north, the people of the Reformation, standing under the teaching of Scripture, had freedom and yet at the same time compelling absolute values.
Schaeffer, F. A. (1982). The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview (Vol. 5, pp. 133–134). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
Leave a Reply