This is a fascinating book. The author writes about philosophy and faith, and makes some deep points about how mankind sees God, morals, and reason. He extensively draws thoughts and teachings from the world's great philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Camus, and Sartre, to name a few.

It's not a long book, about 100 pages, but it took me several days to work through what Schaeffer was trying to convey. I am keeping it for a reread, and study.

One of the things that amazed me was the author's ability to predict what would be happening in the future, based upon trends in the 1960's and 1970's.

As I said before, fascinating. ( )

Schaeffer has become an evangelical voice that i appreciate and trust. His reasoning and pen are two powerful forces God has used for His Glory. The approach to this book takes mans basic assumptions concerning reality and God then shows how Christianity answers how God defines reality within His created world. Don't be frightened by the big words and concepts. Work through this book with pen in hand and think deeply about the consequences if God really has revealed himself through his word and world. ( )

This book looks at the necessity of God for metaphysics to make sense, and makes the point that the biblical understanding of the Trinity is necessary as a basis for the meaning of human personality. ( )

I’ll admit it, I’ve had this book for almost a year and haven’t been able to finish it. The fact it’s only 100 pages doesn’t help my cause, but in my defense I’ve tried to finish it a time or two…and I’ve been really busy. There is no doubt about it, if you aren’t used to deep philosophical thinking while reading this book will put you to the test, but it’s totally worth it.

This book is a Christian classic, and it deserves every bit of the distinction. Schaeffer is a master of getting to the root of the problem and illuminating the solution so clearly that when he comes to his God-ward logical conclusions you are left dumbfounded. The amazement doesn’t come because his answers to some of the toughest problems in life are so blatantly scandalous, but due to the fact they are so simple you are left wondering why you didn’t get to the same deductions he did on your own. There is one simple truth that applies to all of Schaeffer’s writings, by the time you are done reading, you will understand the problems and their solutions.

In this brief, but weighty book the founder of L’Abri fellowship tackles the utter necessity of Gods existence. His argument for this inevitability is the problem of epistemology, the study of how we know and how we know we know.

Schaeffer points out, with great (albeit sometimes longwinded and repetitive) accuracy that without God there is no foundation for anything. He starts this process by pointing out that “no man can live without a worldview; therefore there is no man who is not a philosopher.” He then shows that today’s postmodern thought that says objective truth doesn’t exist leaves us only with chaos. He states “Sometimes people try to bring a little bit of order; but as soon as you bring in a little bit of order, the first class of answer – that everything is meaningless, everything is irrational – is no longer self consistent, and falls to the ground.” There must be meaning, but where do we find it?

The author's conclusion is that only Christianity provides the answer to the epistemological necessity of every human being. “If modern science could be born on the basis of there being a reasonable God, which makes it possible to find out the order by reason, should we be taken by surprise that the knower who is to know and the object which is to be known should have correlation? It is exactly what we should expect. Because we have a reasonable God who made them in the first place there is a reasonable correlation between the subject and the object.”

This book is not easy, but with much patience…and perseverance comes great reward. If you have never even heard of presuppositional apologetics this is a good book to get an idea of how such an apologetic works.

Favorite quotes: “All men constantly and consistently act as though Christianity were true.”

“Every man is created in the image of God; therefore, no man in his imagination is confined to his own body.”

“The only answer in the area of morals, as true morals, including the problem of social evil, turns upon the fact of God’s being there.” ( )