We are very excited about the Life and Works of Francis Schaeffer class, which will start filming this Sunday! We will be covering the life and works of Francis and Edith Schaeffer. We are including Edith's works to be true to how Schaeffer saw his works himself. He saw his works and Edith’s works as part of a greater whole. As Schaeffer says in the preface to his complete works, “All of the books are to be read and understood together (along with my wife Edith’s books). They together are a unit.” (Note: Due to time, we will only be giving brief overviews of Edith's works to give context as they relate an enhance to Dr. Schaeffer's works.)
CLASS LOCATION
The class will be at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Overland Park, KS on Sunday Morning (Adult Sunday School Hour). See http://redeemer-pca.org/ if you would like to attend.
CLASS INTENT
The class is intended to not only give an overview of their life and history, but to give background information on each of their books and specifically in the case of Francis Schaeffer, the context into which they were written.
RESEARCH BEHIND THE CLASS
The class was formulated by taking the time line provided by Lane T. Denis in the Letters of Francis Schaeffer and then enhancing and overlaying it with the dates of the works of Francis and Edith. Then we further augmented the time line with details from Jeram Barr's very wonderful and granular lectures on the life of Schaeffer (Francis A. Schaeffer: The Early Years & The Later Years) and specifics from Colin Duriez's book, Francis Schaeffer an Authentic Life, which is an honest an excellent, treatment.
In addition to this, we created a "works overview" time line, where we further researched Schaeffer's comments on each book, when available, as well as the historical background behind them to gain an understanding of the context of which they were written. Other sources included Edith's four historical books: L'Abri, The Tapestry, and her two volumes of the L'Abri letters (With Love, Edith 1948-1960 , Dear Family 1961-1968 ) .
DISCLAIMER
We realize that this class will not be exhaustive, yet we hope that it will be helpful to the Francis Schaeffer and L'Abri community as well as to those who are seeking an introduction and understanding of Schaeffer. We also will do our best to make ongoing corrections to any historical errors or misrepresentations that might happen.We feel the value of this project is that people will be able to quickly, at-a-glance, get a "big picture" understanding of what Schaeffer was all about. Our goal in all of our work here at Francis Schaeffer Studies is about providing a service in furthering the Schaeffer legacy. We each here at Francis Schaeffer Studies are but the "man on the street" trying to introduce ideas "into the public square." We believe this is what Schaeffer intended to be done with his works.
USAGE OF VIDEOS
Our plan is to use the videos to both enhance francisschaefferstudies.org as well as provide a concise series of videos that give people and introduction and context to Dr. Schaeffer's works. All of these videos and class materials will be made freely available via the web. Watch for information, notes, discussion, audio downloads, and video as they become available! We will do the best we can to pull things together quickly. Obviously video editing takes some time. Follow this blog and our Facebook page for the latest news.
Pray for us as we start the filming on this very important work!
Dan Guinn
Founder of FSS.
