A review by blossomgarden
How Should We Then Live?: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture by Francis A. Schaeffer

5.0

What an excellent book! I was a little hesitant to read this because I was concerned the topics would be beyond me. There is much I am unfamiliar with in terms of philosophies and worldviews. I actually found I am more familiar than I’d realized! Schaeffer writes in such a way, that even in areas I am not as knowledgeable, I was able to get a basic understanding. He does not come across as condescending of these differing views but rather perhaps there is a sadness in his discussion of them. I really feel he brought these to light in a straight forward manner without harsh judgment of them. Schaeffer contrasted them, rightly so, with the Christian worldview, showing how these have affected mankind to this day. He offers at the end possible outcomes or paths that the West (actually the world) may follow if a continued humanistic worldview is adhered to. As this book was written in the 1970s, we can actually see these outcomes today. He wasn’t wrong.
There were a few spots that Schaeffer seemed to neglect detail, giving the impression he felt his readers would have experience with the events and such. Since I was born around the time this book was published, I really would have appreciated a bit more detail. Also a few of the philosophies were very basically touched on- giving an ‘in-a-nutshell’ summary that didn’t quite give me enough to understand how it resulted in what Schaeffer suggested it did. But his inclusion of names and titles make it easy for me to research these further on my own.
I give this 4.5 stars -but there are no halves.