Escape from reason

Once, people judged truth by logic. That standard has largely given way to feeling, which many now treat as the most reliable guide to what is real. Even so, anxiety, despair and a sense of meaninglessness persist. The book asks how this shift came about and where a cure might be found.

Francis A. Schaeffer follows the course of twentieth-century intellectual life and shows how its leading ideas have influenced society. His survey ranges across philosophy, science, the arts and popular culture, and it pinpoints dualism, fragmentation and the erosion of reason as recurring patterns. Many of his observations anticipate the postmodern outlook that later became dominant.

Schaeffer's argument is that Christianity offers a response to this crisis. He presents it as a source of purpose and hope for a new century.