Interview with Udo W. Middelmann

By Matthew Barrett–

In the most recent issue of Credo Magazine, “Francis Schaeffer at 100,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Udo W. Middelmann. Udo holds degrees in Law from Freiburg University, Germany, and in Theology from Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, MO, USA. He has also worked with Dr. Schaeffer as Associate Pastor as well as a long-time Trustee, Member and Lecturer at the Swiss L’Abri. Udo has lectured widely on ethics and society in many countries on all continents and he is the President of the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation. In the following interview, Udo talks about how Schaeffer has impacted him, how Schaeffer understood the book of Romans, and why the gospel was so important.

Thinking back on your time with Francis Schaeffer, what did you appreciate about him the most?

His commitment to truth, even when he had to change his mind from earlier understandings. He had a readiness to reconsider. He really believed that “there is only one reason to be a Christian, and that is that one is convinced that it is the truth of the universe.”

You wrote the introduction to Schaeffer’s volume, The Finished Work of Christ: The Truth of Romans 1-8. How did Romans 1-8 define Schaeffer as a theologian and what is it about the work of Christ that Schaeffer saw as so essential?

He saw Romans as a completed Pauline sermon of what was interrupted in Athens (Acts 17). In contrast to Roman Catholic theology, for Schaeffer the work of Christ was finished in the sense that in Christ God provides salvation without our contribution or merit (the free gift). The work of Christ is also finished in that here is the reality of what was promised to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15. However, it is not finished in the sense that the work of redemption is not yet complete, as we wait for the return of Christ and the resurrection of the body. Only then will Christ’s work be accomplished fully. Therefore, we cry out, “How long oh Lord?” as Revelation reminds us!

What was so unique about how Schaeffer applied God’s Word to his twentieth-century cultural context?

Schaeffer believed Scripture to be the key to understanding people, social, political and ethical concerns. Rather than merely looking at the moral dimension, he also understood the intellectual dimension of man’s exposure to the real, now fractured and broken, world. He had compassion, knowing that without Scripture’s clearer light it was indeed reasonable to NOT believe God or in God. Furthermore, for Schaeffer, Scripture had been de-authorized by philosophy first, then by the church’s theologians as well as by a fundamentalist narrow outlook on culture and creation.

One of the big issues in our own day is the centrality of the “gospel.” How central was the gospel to Schaeffer’s Christian worldview and how did Schaeffer seek to teach and apply the gospel in his own day?

It was the central outlook, yet seen as starting with the first verse in the Bible. The good news is the existence of a personal God (God is a person: he thinks, feels, acts, which only persons can do). The second point of the good news is that there is an explanation for evil in the historicity of the Fall: Things are now out of order, fractured, truly damaged without it being in some form the will of God or his plan for creation. The third point is the fact that God runs after us, Adam first, and then through the prophets; He sent Christ and now maintains us through the Holy Spirit. The fourth point is that true moral guilt has been taken on by the judge, who declares us free from that guilt and sets before us a real physical life in the resurrection, giving us hope of life (1^st Thess 1:9ff).

Francis and Edith were quite the team. Tell us, what was their relationship like during those L’Abri years and in what ways would you say Edith is a model for Christian women today?

They had a normal relationship with ups and downs. They would reject being in any way a model and thought that looking for models is a mistake anyway. They were husband and wife, parents with warts and all. They depended on each other, and worked well together. Edith was a creative person, Francis the thoughtful inquirer who appreciated beauty in things and people.

If you could recommend just two books by Schaeffer, what would they be and why?

That depends on the readers: How Should We Then Live is a summary of his cultural/philosophical understanding of our history. He Is There and He Is Not Silent is an intellectual argument for the unique sufficiency of Christianity to answer basic questions. No Little People is a series of typical sermons that apply the intellectual insight to the life of believers. I would also advise reading Colin Durriez’s biography of Schaeffer, An Authentic Life.

This interview comes from the most recent issue of Credo Magazine. Read other interviews and articles today!

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The year 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984). It is difficult to think of an evangelical figure in the 20th century who so seriously engaged the philosophies and ideologies of the secular world and set them over against the Christian worldview than Francis Schaeffer.

But Schaeffer was no ordinary evangelical. The man wore knickers and knee high socks when he lectured, sporting not only long hair but a goat’s-chin beard! Most importantly, Schaeffer did not fear man, but feared God. Not only did he engage secular worldviews, but he confronted his fellow evangelicals, even rebuking them for doctrinal concession and compromise.

As many have observed, it is not an overstatement to say that the Schaeffers transformed, reshaped, and in many ways reformed American evangelicalism. Those writing in this new issue of Credo Magazine are proof, each writer bearing testimony to how Francis Schaeffer has made a monumental impact on how we understand and articulate the Christian faith and life in the world of ideas. Contributors include Bruce Little, William Edgar, Bryan Follis, and Stephen Wellum, and many others.