After watching the whole series, there's not one prediction that Schaeffer makes that has not come true, or is in the process of coming true, here in 2020. Enlightening and frightening at the same time.
4 Reviews
43 Years Later
kkmoeigep23 October 2020
Gentle prophet with a Powerful Insight
scrcoachdm11 March 2021
"Come let us reason together" is the spirit of this review of human philosophical thought. Schaeffer continued to teach from a Biblical world perspective his entire adult life. This is a thinking man's introduction to that worldview with critique of the competing flows today. Our question today resides in the title "How Should We Then Live?" Or which do you choose from the many competing core philosophies of life?
On the date of this review, I would suggest episode 6, then 9 then 10. The rest is background for these prophetic words.
On the date of this review, I would suggest episode 6, then 9 then 10. The rest is background for these prophetic words.
Just thinking out loud here...
Jesse8002526 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I recently watched this. While an interesting thesis: that the Christian worldview is the only truly solid ground for a promising scientific, governmental, and moral worldview, I found his presentation of the evidence solipsistic. He also doesn't deal with any contrary evidence.
He essentially goes through all of Western history from the Roman Empire onward, explaining how each civilization rose and fell via how closely they came to a Judeo Christian ethic. The main emphasis being the existence of an infinite loving God. But he doesn't address many things that would seemingly contradict that idea. Think about it: for as far back as there has been human history, we've seen the Egyptian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Islamist empires, all of which have done pretty well, most lasting well over 400+ years and making major contribution to human science. Meanwhile, Rome fell around 470 but became Christian in around 380. It then splintered into the Byzantine Empire and that eventually fell further and further apart. He never addresses that at all. Then Europe fell into the dark ages, dominated by feudal slavery as Christianity took further hold, but Schaefer argues that these were actually very productive times, scientifically and "dark ages" is a pejorative term that secularist scholars have come up with to slander Christianity. Well, okay. I'm not a historian so I don't know. Then, of course, the Islamist empire rose and fell and the Christian imperialist countries of Western Europe took their place as they discovered the new world around 1500. 500 years later, of course we live under a World dominated by these same Western influences, more or less. Moreover, Western Christian society has had its share of evils that need not be named. Schaefer simply argues that these resulted from humanist influences. Let's go back a moment and also not that waaay back, around 1000-0 BC, there was this struggling Jewish power called Israel that, according to the Bible, was practically a superpower, although no other ancient history reflects much acknowledgement of this. Israel, despite being founded on the Judeo-Christian God, of course floundered time and time again as is recorded in the Bible itself. And, of course, in the Far East there have been countless Hindu, Chinese, and East Asian empires and their own scientific advances, all the while never having anything like a Judeo-Christian monotheistic God.
Ultimately, it's extremely hard to see the 1 to 1 correlation. A zoomed out view of history reveals that a myriad of empires have risen and fallen all while holding very different religious and philosophic views. Appealing to the recent success of Western countries seems like a weak argument because, in the scheme of things, none of the Western powers have persisted longer than the Egyptian or Roman empires, and, of course, we in the West today look nervously on while India and China grow more technologically and economically and militarily savvy. There's absolutely no treatment of this possible and very obvious criticism at all, in the show.
He essentially goes through all of Western history from the Roman Empire onward, explaining how each civilization rose and fell via how closely they came to a Judeo Christian ethic. The main emphasis being the existence of an infinite loving God. But he doesn't address many things that would seemingly contradict that idea. Think about it: for as far back as there has been human history, we've seen the Egyptian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Islamist empires, all of which have done pretty well, most lasting well over 400+ years and making major contribution to human science. Meanwhile, Rome fell around 470 but became Christian in around 380. It then splintered into the Byzantine Empire and that eventually fell further and further apart. He never addresses that at all. Then Europe fell into the dark ages, dominated by feudal slavery as Christianity took further hold, but Schaefer argues that these were actually very productive times, scientifically and "dark ages" is a pejorative term that secularist scholars have come up with to slander Christianity. Well, okay. I'm not a historian so I don't know. Then, of course, the Islamist empire rose and fell and the Christian imperialist countries of Western Europe took their place as they discovered the new world around 1500. 500 years later, of course we live under a World dominated by these same Western influences, more or less. Moreover, Western Christian society has had its share of evils that need not be named. Schaefer simply argues that these resulted from humanist influences. Let's go back a moment and also not that waaay back, around 1000-0 BC, there was this struggling Jewish power called Israel that, according to the Bible, was practically a superpower, although no other ancient history reflects much acknowledgement of this. Israel, despite being founded on the Judeo-Christian God, of course floundered time and time again as is recorded in the Bible itself. And, of course, in the Far East there have been countless Hindu, Chinese, and East Asian empires and their own scientific advances, all the while never having anything like a Judeo-Christian monotheistic God.
Ultimately, it's extremely hard to see the 1 to 1 correlation. A zoomed out view of history reveals that a myriad of empires have risen and fallen all while holding very different religious and philosophic views. Appealing to the recent success of Western countries seems like a weak argument because, in the scheme of things, none of the Western powers have persisted longer than the Egyptian or Roman empires, and, of course, we in the West today look nervously on while India and China grow more technologically and economically and militarily savvy. There's absolutely no treatment of this possible and very obvious criticism at all, in the show.
Western Civilization from a Protestant Perspective
mgem120028 February 2021
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
