Calvin, Pascal, Francis Schaeffer and Postmodern Apologetics

The purpose of this study is to incorporate the thought and apologetic impulse of John Calvin, Blaise Pascal and Francis Schaeffer into a Christian apologetics suited for an audience steeped in postmodernity. The striking similarities between Calvin, Pascal and Schaeffer’s thought, especially regarding their mutual disdain for the autonomy of reason, can be used as a point of connection to postmodern thought. Their collective view on the state of man, the centrality of Scripture and their emphasis on the Christian life is a corrective to the postmodern insistence on experience, emotion and autonomous feeling, especially prevalent in postmodern spirituality. The commonalities in thought between Calvin, Pascal and Schaeffer can be effectively applied to a Christian apologetic to counter a postmodern culture where truth seems to be abandoned and where Christianity is pushed to the periphery of society.