About this title: Frank Schaeffer grew up in Switzerland's L'Abri, an idealistic community founded by his parents, the American evangelicals Francis and Edith Schaeffer. By the time he was 19, his parents had achieved global fame as best-selling authors and speakers, l'Abri had become a mecca for spiritual seekers worldwide from Barbara Bush to Timothy Leary and Frank had joined his father on the evangelical circuit. By the age of 23, he had directed two multi-part religious documentaries and had helped instigate the marriage between the American evangelical community and the anti-abortion movement. But ...
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Your search:Books»Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back(41 available copies)
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: FINE. Superb, crisp, clean, unread hardcover with some light shelfwear to the dust jacket and a remainder mark to one edge-VERY NICE! read more
Description: Good. 0786718919 Book could have shelf wear, or a bump, or sunfade to edges. These are new unread books from the publisher with one of these conditions. See are feedback as customers are satisfied in how we grade our books. Fast shipping and customer service is our number 1 priority! read more
Description: Good. 2008-Paperback----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780306817502ISBN:0306817500
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Clean and unmarked with tight binding and light edgewear. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 417 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. Ships from US-NE. Support Independent Booksellers! Omahabooks offers same or next day shipping-satisfaction guaranteed. Priority, Expedited, APO, International may require additional postage-contact seller. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Da Capo Pr
Date Published: 2008-09-29
ISBN-13:9780306817502ISBN:0306817500
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780306817502. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Date Published: 2007-10-05
ISBN-13:9780786718917ISBN:0786718919
Description: New in New jacket. New hardback book. First Caroll & Graf edition, first printing, complete number line. We ship 6 days a week, generally within 24 hours; single CDs and DVDs upgraded to 1st class! read more
Description: Good in fine dust jacket. Moisture damage on right hand upper corner of fore-edge. affects pp.393ff won't affect readability. Glued binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 417 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: New. 0306817500 SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! NEW Book! May have remainder mark. Most orders ship within 1 BUSINESS DAY with ORDER CONFIRMATION. Great Book at a Great Value! read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780306817502ISBN:0306817500
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 417 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. brand new read more
Edition: 1st Da Capo Press Pb
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Date Published: 9/29/2008
ISBN-13:9780306817502ISBN:0306817500
Description: Very Good. 0306817500 Book is bent. little edge wear Ships Within 24 Hours. Excellent Customer Service. Upto 15 Days 100% Money Back Gurantee. Try Our Fast! ! ! ! Shipping With Tracking Number. read more
"When I picked this up in the bookstore, I was expecting an autobiographical Prodigal Son story, in the manner of Franklin Graham (the "Rebel With a Cause"). Children of superstar evangelists seem almost inexorably drawn to life outside their parents' fame and faith, and just as drawn back to the fold after they've strayed. Then they write a book about it.
It's possible, though unlikely, that you haven't heard of Francis Schaeffer. He was one of the few men of God who successfully brought the Gospel to the "hippie generation." In the late 50's, he founded a little place in Switzerland called L'Abri where students could come to study and ask questions about spirituality. His approach to theology and apologetics was conversational, down-to-earth, practical and completely free of the stuffy organized religion that was understandably unpopular with free-thinking types. He consequently became famous as an author, then a speaker and eventually was propelled to evangelical superstardom.
About two-thirds of the book covers the story of Frank's childhood and coming-of-age: the family vacations to Portofino; his parents' rocky relationship and flawed personalities; his escapades in boarding school; how he met his wife; the love of art and culture that eclipsed anything else his parents taught him. We learn about what L'Abri was like behind the scenes and exactly how invisible he felt when his parents were consumed with "the Lord's work." (Frank always puts Christian-ese phrases like that one in quotes in his writing.)
The remaining third covers Frank's part in his father's rise in the evangelical Christian world, and Frank's struggle to reconcile himself with the increasingly powerful evangelical right-wing movement forming around the political activism he and his father had stirred up. Frank is deeply critical of the men that spearheaded the movement and even more critical of himself for allowing what was for him a simple issue-abortion-to become a rallying cry for a group with whom he shared almost nothing else. He describes the events that unfolded with a kind of dispassionate disgust for the people he worked for and with.
Crazy for God is a supremely misleading title. I don't think it spoils the ending to tell you that Frank never was "crazy for God," and still isn't now. But, with his father's gift for words, Frank's description of his struggle with faith is compelling, and his self-critical look at the ugly underbelly of the evangelical movement is a good gut-check for anyone who's ever been part of it.
It's a book worth reading, for the stories and the honesty and the questions it'll generate. Just take my advice and queue up a more upbeat book to read afterwards. You'll thank me later."
"Francis A. Schaeffer was a Christian apologist who led a colony in Switzerland called L'Abri for much of the last half of the twentieth century. He had hundreds of thousands of followers who eagerly consumed his books, audio tapes, the films made by his son Franky, and made the pilgrimage to L'Abri. Many of us thought of him as a philosopher because he spent so much time debunking philosophies that differed from Christian Evangelicalism, but those of us who did had not read much real philosophy. He was also a founder, Franky thinks his father was "the founder," of the religious right. There was also his wife Edith Schaeffer, an author in her own right, a force of nature, and one of the most instantly impressive people I have ever met. Behind the façade of L'Abri was a highly dysfunctional family that turned out to be wrong about nearly everything. Frankie's book is perhaps too long, but it helped me understand an important part of my life, long since abandoned, by expanding the context of Fran's message and exposing the context of insecurity that generated the ideas. It is convincing because the world has evolved out of the world that L'Abri influenced, and so we can see the movement from a different perspective, but also because Frankie is true to the Fran and Edith we all met and knew a little, while exposing this very troubled family. In other words, he build on what we know is true; this does not feel made up. More than anything, the book is Frankie's autobiography. I may have read the book to understand my own experience following the Schaeffers, but I understood it through the often rough life that Frankie had in the family."
"This is the autobiography of Frank Schaeffer, the son of Francis Schaeffer, one of the most well known and well respected evangelical leaders and thinkers of the twentieth century. Schaeffer himself was a prominent evangelical leader in the eighties before he realized the sham that his life had become and the sham that evangelicalism is in general. While this book is the story of Schaeffer's life, it offers a much broader narrative of the history of evangelicalism in America, the founding of the religious right (in which he played a prominent role), the story of the famed L'Abri mission, and a consistent, blistering critique of the business that evangelicalism has become. What is more, Schaeffer retains credibility because he has not lost his faith in God, he has simply redefined it in what I perceive as a much more authentic expression than he experienced in evangelicalism. While one must read this with the knowledge that Schaeffer writes from a certain perspective, his critiques remain insightful and help to explain the religious situation in America in the twenty first century."
"Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. He's not a great writer--very simple sentences, lots of exclamation points and he interjects reminiscences/memories of others as they relate to the story that don't really add to the story and interupt the flow of the author's own story.
All that said, I found this to be a very compelling and nuanced read. The story of the author's early life with his parents at a Christian mission they founded in Switzerland was very interesting. As was the author's perspective on the rise and his own falling into the religious right, especially as it relates to abortion politics. I found the author to be quite honest and willing to explore and disclose his own foibles and mistakes. While I didn't necessarily agree with him on many points, I found his perspective on Christianity and the pro-life/pro-choice wars to be extremely nuanced and insightful. A great book to read if you want a thoughtful discussion of Christianity and politics today."
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