How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture Paperback | Pages: 288 pages

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Title	:	How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture
Author	:	Francis A. Schaeffer
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 288 pages
Published	:	April 1st 1983 by Crossway Books (first published 1975)
Categories	:	Philosophy. Christian. Religion. Theology. History. Nonfiction. Christianity. Cultural

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How Should We Then Live is a discussion of how philosophy, art, and music have changed throughout history, and what these changes say about the human race and where we are headed. This book reads like an art history class. Schaeffer takes you through history chronologically, through the dark ages, the renaissance, reformation, the enlightenment, all the way into modern time. Over this time period, art goes from being realistic and detailed to being highly abstract. Music becomes more dissident, fragmented. Popular philosophy becomes heavy on relativism and abandons the notion of universal truth. All of these things are a reflection of our worldview: we have become a people who are fractured, isolated, and lost, not interested in seeing things for how they really are, unable to believe in anything concretely, and with nothing solid to stand on. And when people, countries, or empires don't have anything solid to stand on, the smallest crises can cause them to collapse. Here are a few quotes: "But even people who believe they are machines cannot live like machines, and thus they must "leap upstairs" against their reason and try to find something which gives meaning to life, even though to do so they have to deny their reason." "...the Greeks found that society - the polis - was not a strong enough final authority to build upon, and it is still not strong enough today. If there are no absolutes, and if we do not like either the chaos of hedonism or the absoluteness of the 51-percent vote, only one other alternative is left: one man or an elite, giving authoritative arbitrary absolutes." "I believe the majority of the silent majority, young and old, will sustain the loss of liberties without raising their voices as long as their own life-styles are not threatened." "Edward Gibbon said that the following five attributes marked Rome at its end: first, a mounting love of show and luxury; second, a widening gap between the very rich and the very poor; third, an obsession with sex; fourth, freakishness in the arts, masquerading as originality, and enthusiasms pretending to be creativity; fifth, an increased desire to live off the state. It all sounds so familiar. We have come a long road since our first chapter, and we are back in Rome." It's definitely worth a read.

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Original Title:	How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture
ISBN:	0891072926 (ISBN13: 9780891072928)
Edition Language:	English

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Ratings: 4.17 From 11394 Users | 442 Reviews

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How Should We Then Live is a discussion of how philosophy, art, and music have changed throughout history, and what these changes say about the human race and where we are headed.This book reads like an art history class. Schaeffer takes you through history chronologically, through the dark ages, the renaissance, reformation, the enlightenment, all the way into modern time. Over this time period, art goes from being realistic and detailed to being highly abstract. Music becomes more dissident,

Although Francis' Schaeffer is not a scholar in the modern sense or standard of his day or today, he was a Christian intellectual who examined his day with other thinkers and brought forth important analysis and thoughts. In a sense, I could see Schaeffer as prophetic or ahead of his time as in this day an age of the new Atheist "Brights" and modern/post-modern scholarship seeking it's foothold in czar posts and public policy in a condescending manner where any type of moral or religious views

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 Id 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 enjoyed this. Full of insight and thought provoking topics.

Really bad, a book that contradicts itself. The whole problem of the book is that the author says, following Mr. Luther, that reason is the enemy of faith, he then goes on to attack St. Thomas, he says in the book that Thomas would teach that human reason is not fallen, which is false, he makes it very clear that he is very ignorant in the subjects he discusses. Further in the same book he goes into discussing the contemporary times, how the artists portray the universe as something chaotic and

AMAZING. Unfortunately there was some that was above my level of comprehension, but I can only imagine what I'll pick up the next time I read it. I got a ton of good out of it, though. Totally a must-read and a true Christian classic.

This is a prophetic book. Schaeffer saw the decline of western civilization over two decades ago, and foresaw the kind of economic collapse we are now witnessing. This is an important book for all Christians to read, and even more important for non-Christians. Schaeffer evaluates the big philosophical arguments presented throughout history, demonstrates that the humanist ideals always lead to nihilism and moral degeneracy, bankrupting the value of the human being.Read this book--it is the