Re: old earth tract bibliography

John W. Burgeson (73531.1501@compuserve.com)
03 Mar 96 13:48:37 EST

Fred writes:

"3) Can someone tell me Francis Schaeffer's position
regarding the age of the earth and evolution in the book "No Final Conflict"?
Also, the full bibliographic reference is needed."

Don't have that one; I do have his 1976 magnum opus, HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE.
I reread this last evening with an eye out for your question.

The book, which somewhat parallels P. A. Sorokin's THE CRISIS OF OUR AGE (1941)
deals with all of the unfortunate tendencies of humanity to "get away from God"
during the rise of modern civilization. As such, I would think Darwinism would
get
a prominent billing. But in 280+ pages, it appears only on page 148-151, and
there
not as "science," but as philosophy (Schaeffer attributes the evils of Nazism
-- in part -- to its mis-application as "social darwinism." He does mention in
passing
that "Questions still exist in regard to this concept," but spends no
appreciable time
developing this theme. I conclude, therefore, that it was not a top
prioity on his agenda, at least not toward the end of his life.

BTW, Sorokin's book, now nearly 60 years in the past, is fascinating. Chairman
of Harvard's
Sociology Dept for 15 years, called a "mastermind" on the cover (how archaic
that
word seems now), he was, though widely read, curiously myopic on some issues.
Page 288 illustrates this. There is no (other) evidence I have seen that
indicates
he was what we would call today "a racist," but here is a quotation:

He is writing of the decline of art -- particularly painting -- over the years.

"A glance at the history ... is sufficient ... it depicted ... the daily
events, the common types of persons, ... and then then increasingly the
exotic and pathological types and events, such as "Street Urchin," "Prostitute,"
and Indians, Hawaiians, Negroes, Mexicans, and so on. Like European art,
American
art has become increasingly a "muck raking" painting."

Burgy