Schaeffer’s Christian Humanism

By Douglas Groothuis, PhD

When I refer to Schaeffer’s “Christian humanism,” I do not mean anything like secular humanism or the attempt to find truth and meaning by placing man at the center of the universe. Schaeffer rightly found this to be the source of all philosophical and cultural errors in the very good from which this quote is taken. But humanism can be Christian in the sense that Christians know that human beings have unique objective value because they are made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). Man is not the measure of all things, as Protagoras taught; but neither is man a zero, having no objective value. Only the Christian worldview rightly situates man as special because of his divine creation, as a creature of God, who is now fallen.

We thus know something wonderful about man. Among other things, we know his origin and who he is—he is made in the image of God. Man is not only wonderful when he is “born again” as a Christian, he is also wonderful as God made him in his image. Man has value because of who he was originally before the Fall. I was recently lecturing in Santa Barbara and was introduced to a boy who had been on drugs. He had a good-looking, sensitive face, long curly hair, sandals on his feet and was wearing blue jeans. He came to hear my lecture and said, “This is brand new, I’ve never heard anything like this.” So he was brought along again the next afternoon, and I greeted him. He looked me in the eyes and said, “Sir, that was a beautiful greeting. Why did you greet me like that?” I said, “Because I know who you are—I know you are made in the image of God.” We then had a tremendous conversation. We cannot deal with people like human beings, we cannot deal with them on the high level of true humanity, unless we really know their origin—who they are. God tells man who he is. God tells us that he created man in his image. So man is something wonderful.

Schaeffer, Francis A. Escape from Reason: A Penetrating Analysis of Trends in Modern Thought (IVP Classics), 29-30.