The most significant intellectual relationship for Francis Schaeffer, outside of his wife, was easily his relationship with Hans Rookmaaker. The meeting of the two seemed providential. Edith Schaeffer records the event,
Leaning against this historic wall, a young art critic for two Dutch newspapers, who was still taking his studies for his doctorate, chewed on his pipe and thoughtfully began to talk to Fran about art. They talked about art and history, art and philosophy, art and art, and [as] the time went by . . . a small blaze had started as two minds set each other on fire! It was Hans Rookmaaker’s [sic] and Francis Schaeffer’s first conversation, and Hans in student brashness had remarked, “These people in here,” pointing with his pipe, “don’t understand anything. But you and I, we can talk and understand each other.”[1]
Rookmaaker had been looking for an American to talk to about jazz music, and upon his future wife’s recommendation, he struck up a conversation with Schaeffer. According to Anky Rookmaaker, “They never talked about American jazz music, but they had all other kind of things to talk about, mostly religion, and art, of course.”[2] This late-night discussion led to a long and profound relationship between the two men.
The relationship between the two seemed mutually beneficial. As Colin Duriez notes, “The two men were shaped and enriched by each other’s ideas and biblical understanding.”[3] Duriez highlights that both men became Christians largely in isolation and by reading the Scriptures with philosophical questions in mind. Laurel Gasque captures their relationship beautifully, stating, “Like complementary colors, each giving a distinct hue, they contrasted but also exhibited an organic, underlying affinity. This produced a potent dynamism when they appeared together, as they often did.”[4] Their vibrant friendship resulted in benefit for both friends.
Even so, misconceptions concerning the relationship between Rookmaaker and Schaeffer abound. Barry Hankins’s thesis that Rookmaaker is the major influence on Schaeffer regarding art is difficult to substantiate but shared by others.[5] Edith records Francis’s interest in music and art before his move to Europe and friendship with Rookmaaker.[6] Schaeffer, while not a professional art critic, was versed in the importance and variety of art as early as 1950, if not before. Yet Rookmaaker was an expert in art history and certainly would have shaped and refined Schaeffer on some topics.[7] Likewise, Molly Worthen argues that “Rookmaaker . . . tutored him [Schaeffer] in the place of high culture in Dutch Reformed theology and steered him toward the New Calvinism of Dutch theologian and politician Abraham Kuyper.”[8] Worthen may overstate her argument on this point. Schaeffer certainly had been exposed to Dutch Reformed theology, Abraham Kuyper, and Neo-Calvinism before meeting Rookmaaker simply by attending Westminster Theological Seminary under J. Gresham Machen and Cornelius Van Til. Yet Worthen may be correct that Rookmaaker helped “tutor him,” helping him to refine his thinking in this area.
One might wonder, between these two friends, who was the originator of ideas. Schaeffer admitted, “Both he [Rookmaaker] and I have kicked stuff around for so long that in large areas, including art, we would hesitate to say who thought of an idea first.”[9] Interestingly, Rookmaaker first concedes influence from Schaeffer in his inaugural address as art history professor at the Free University in Amsterdam. He states, “Since the first time we met, in 1948, we have had many long talks about faith, philosophy, reality, art, the modern world, and their mutual relations. I owe very much to these discussions, which have helped shape my thoughts on these subjects.”[10] This friendship between the two men lasted for nearly thirty years.
Although great comradery arose between the two, Schaeffer did not publicly acknowledge any major intellectual debt to Rookmaaker. Instead, he admired the fact that Rookmaaker and he came to their complementary conclusions independently.[11] Perhaps, a more precise rendering recognizes that Rookmaaker and Schaeffer shared so much in common that it became nearly impossible to determine whether one had influenced the other. Their similarities abounded. While the debate may continue concerning how much intellectual tradeoff existed between the two friends, they both benefited greatly from their relationship.
Moreover, influences from others are more easily accounted for when one traces them through Rookmaaker to Schaeffer. In other words, the line of influence from Herman Dooyeweerd (or Kuyper) to Schaeffer passes easily through Rookmaaker. Or, as Clark H. Pinnock argues, Rookmaaker “mediated” the Dutch School to his friend Schaeffer.[12] After all, Rookmaaker was a self-proclaimed student of Dooyeweerd’s.[13] Rookmaaker writes, “Dooyeweerd himself wrote a good and short introduction to his work called [In] The Twilight of Western Thought. In the first part of that book he asks the question how Western thought is to be approached. Is it really Christian and if not, what is it? Escape from Reason is Schaeffer’s version of what Dooyeweerd develops in those chapters. They both talk for instance about nature and grace and about the influence of Greek concepts.”[14]
A similar sentiment could be expressed concerning Abraham Kuyper. Rookmaaker, who taught art history at the Free University in Amsterdam, was quite familiar with Kuyper’s teachings as well. Rookmaaker was at home within the Dutch Reformed tradition and rather versant in the works of Dooyeweerd. Schaeffer would have been familiar with the larger Dutch Reformed tradition and a willing recipient of that heritage.
Part of what made Schaeffer and Rookmaaker’s relationship interesting was the balance they offered one another. In some ways, Rookmaaker was Schaeffer’s main connection to the academic community in an otherwise isolated existence in the Swiss Alps at L’Abri. Likewise, Schaeffer offered Rookmaaker a clearer picture into the day-to-day ministry of wrestling with ideas. Thus, while Rookmaaker may not have been the originator of Schaffer’s various intellectual frameworks, he certainly could have offered refinement and nuance in a variety of areas, and pressed Schaeffer to think more deeply.
Regardless, the relationship between Schaeffer and Rookmaaker was mutually beneficial and only strengthened the two men in their approaches to Christian spirituality and cultural engagement. Gasque writes that if Schaeffer and Rookmaaker
exhibited stark contrasts, they also evidenced strong convergences. Both Schaeffer and Rookmaaker were committed to being faithful to Scripture in its full-orbed holy composition. They also shared a broad missional vision of seeing both individuals and society transformed by the reality of a living and loving God active in the world. If Schaeffer was an evangelist who was an intellectual, Rookmaaker was an intellectual who was an evangelist. Many came to faith through both of them. Neither of them fit the standard profile of an evangelist or an intellectual. Both of them blew apart the common prejudice that being biblical and theologically orthodox meant being culturally irrelevant.[15]
Gasque records Schaeffer writing to Rookmaaker and marveling “that although their thinking had developed independently, it flowed in a similar direction. Spiritually and intellectually they were in essential agreement.”[16] They seemed to strengthen one another. While Rookmaaker may have had other friends that were more intellectually advanced, he probably did not have many that were as insistent about faithfully living out their convictions within their particular culture.
[1] Edith Schaeffer, The Tapestry: The Life and Times of Francis and Edith Schaeffer (Waco, TX: Word, 1985), 285. Duriez notes that Edith was wrong in stating that he was in his doctoral studies. He was only an undergraduate at the time, though older than most students at the University of Amsterdam. Colin Duriez, Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 77.
[2] Interview with Anky Rookmaaker as quoted in Duriez, Francis Schaeffer, 77.
[3] Duriez, Francis Schaeffer, 78.
[4] Laurel Gasque, Art and the Christian Mind: The Life and Work of H. R. Rookmaaker (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005), 95.
[5] Barry Hankins, Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008), 124.
[6] See Schaeffer, The Tapestry, 53, 135, 230, 238, 263.
[7] Rookmaaker seemed to assume some disagreement with Schaeffer on their respective approaches to art. Linette Morgan records Rookmaaker confessing he had not read Schaeffer’s book on art, presumably Art and the Bible, instead stating, “Schaeffer and I are such good friends. I would rather not find I disagree with him over this.” Linette Morgan, Hans Rookmaaker: A Biography (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1979), 109.
[8] Molly Worthen, Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 211.
[9] Philip Yancey, Open Windows (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1985), 44.
[10] Hans Rookmaaker’s inaugural address at the Free University in Amsterdam, as quoted in Gasque, Art and the Christian Mind, 102–3.
[11] Gasque, Art and the Christian Mind,99.
[12] Clark H. Pinnock, “Schaeffer on Modern Theology,” in Reflections on Francis Schaeffer, ed. Ronald W. Ruegsegger(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1986), 179.
[13] Duriez, Francis Schaeffer,175.
[14] Hans R. Rookmaaker, “A Dutch Christian View of Philosophy,” in Our Calling and God’s Hand in History: The Complete Works of Hans Rookmaaker, ed. Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, vol. 6 of The Complete Works of Hans Rookmaaker (Carlisle, UK: Piquant, 2003), 179.
[15] Gasque, Art and the Christian Mind, 97.
[16] Gasque, Art and the Christian Mind, 97.
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