Foreword to the Second Edition
Foreword to the Second Edition
The impact of the work of Francis A. Schaeffer amazes me. Take these two examples.
Scene one: I was walking past the Fireside Room of my middle-of-the-road Presbyterian church. A few of us were bona fide evangelicals and knew it. A few held vaguely liberal ideas and would side with the voices for progress at the denominational level. But most wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between either group and wouldn’t have cared. Basically the congregation had slowly slipped from vibrant biblical faith to either faith in the local church or faith in faith itself. But that evening in the Fireside Room sat the Pastoral Nominating Committee (PNC), preparing to select a new pastor. To my great surprise they were reading The Mark of the Christian, a book I had edited a few years before but have no recollection of recommending to anyone in the church. My mistake, of course.
The chair of the PNC was an evangelical; most of the others were only vaguely Presbyterian. As a result of their work—and the work of the Holy Spirit—the pastor chosen was a marvelously gifted evangelical. In a few years the whole church had become both more educated in the faith and fully evangelical in theological understanding.
Scene two: In the spring of 1970, I was teaching two courses at Northern Illinois University. After what came to be called the Kent State massacre, student riots broke out on campuses across America, including ours. The day after the riots I found it impossible to teach either Milton or Shakespeare. So in each class I gave a thirty-minute analysis of what I thought had sparked the protest, using the ideas and some of the peculiar language of Francis Schaeffer. Then I opened the class to comments and questions. Afterward one student associated with the local Methodist student group commented, “If our other professors had done what you did today,” he said, “we wouldn’t be rioting.” Then he asked, “Have you ever heard of Francis Schaeffer?” How had Schaeffer’s unique cultural analysis penetrated this university Methodist community? I never learned.
Why did Schaeffer’s work have such impact? No doubt one factor was his insight into the twists and turns of intellectual and cultural history. His take on the university world was accurate, and the fresh diction he used to explain it struck students precisely where they lived. He listened well to students as they poured out their anguish over lack of value and sense of direction. So students understood him; he spoke their language. But just as important was the way he approached both university culture in general and the students who were caught in its bind. He displayed in glowing detail the mark of the Christian.
After one lecture at Yale University, my colleague Jim Hoover tells me, a student aggressively questioned Schaeffer. His response was quiet but profoundly apt. After the session ended, Schaeffer hurried directly to him to continue the discussion one on one. Love especially for those who had yet to believe and those who struggled with their faith in Christ marked his entire speaking ministry. A few years later that student became a major Christian force in urban ministry in Boston.
The story behind the publication of The Mark of the Christian also sheds light on Schaeffer’s own persistence in seeing its message reach as many as possible. If my memory serves me correctly (always an iffy thing with me), he first proposed the manuscript as a stand-alone book. As his editor, I said it just wouldn’t succeed that way. So he placed it as an appendix to The Church at the End of the 20th Century, which InterVarsity Press did contract. Then as I edited the manuscript, he again asked about separate publication. Having closely worked with the text, I now saw more clearly its virtues and its potential. The rest, as they say, is history. It has remained in print and selling well for thirty-six years.
I am delighted to commend it to a new generation of readers.
James W. Sire
Editor of InterVarsity Press, retired