Edith Schaeffer

Edith Rachel Merritt Schaeffer (née Seville) (born November 3, 1914) is a Christian author and co-founder of L'Abri, a Christian organization which hosts guests.^[1] She is the widow of Francis Schaeffer and the mother of author Frank Schaeffer.

Schaeffer was born in Wenzhou, China, the fourth child of George and Jessie Seville, missionaries who were serving in China with the China Inland Mission. In addition to her English name, her parents gave her the Chinese name Mei Fuh, meaning "beautiful happiness".^[2]

Schaeffer attended Beaver College in Glenside, Pennsylvania.^[3] It was there that she met Francis Schaeffer and they were married in 1935.^[3] They had four children: Priscilla, Susan, Deborah and Frank.^[4]

They were sent in 1948 to Switzerland by the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. In 1955 they began L'Abri, a community that welcomed people who were seeking intellectually honest and culturally informed answers to questions about God and the meaning of life.^[3]

Schaeffer is a major figure in her son Frank's memoir Sex, Mom, and God. As a memorist Frank Schaeffer writes what he remembers about his mother. He thinks that she did not follow all the rules she promoted as coming from the Bible. He wrote that she did not believe that the Bible gave rules about birth control and that she accepted gay people and people who were not evangelical fundamentalist Christians.^[5]

Schaeffer's husband Francis died in 1984,^[6] but she continues to be associated with the L'Abri organisation which she and her husband founded.^[6]

Schaeffer has written numerous books, both before and after the death of her husband. Her book Affliction (1978) explores human suffering in a Christian context.^[7][8] It won a Gold Medallion Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) in 1979.^[9] Her What is a Family? (1975) compared the extended family to a mobile.^[10] Her autobiographical The Tapestry: the Life and Times of Francis and Edith Schaeffer (1981) won the ECPA award in 1982.^[11]

Schaeffer's The Hidden Art of Homemaking (1971) has been influential among women in the Christian Patriarchy movement,^[12] and has been described by Kathryn Joyce as "perhaps unintentionally, a landmark book for proponents of biblical womanhood."^[12] Like What is a Family?, it has been described by Evangelical author Becky Freeman as a "timeless classic"^[13]

Schaeffer is listed in Helen Kooiman Hosier's 100 Christian Women Who Changed the Twentieth Century.^[14]

References

Works

• Schaeffer, Edith;. 1969. L'Abri. Worthing (Sussex): Norfolk P. ISBN 978-1856840255
• Schaeffer, Edith; 1971. The Hidden Art of Homemaking: Creative Ideas for Enriching Everyday Life. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House. ISBN 978-0842314206
• Schaeffer, Francis A., and Edith; 1973. Everybody Can Know. London: Scripture Union. ISBN 978-0854214051
• Schaeffer, Edith; 1978. Affliction. Old Toppen, New Jersey: Revell Co. ISBN 978-0800709266
• Schaeffer, Edith; 1975. Christianity is Jewish. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers. ISBN 978-0842302432
• Schaeffer, Edith; 1975. What is a Family? Old Tappan, N.J.: F.H. Revell Co. ISBN 978-0801083655
• Schaeffer, Edith. 1977. A Way of Seeing. Old Tappan, N.J.: Revell. ISBN 978-0800708719
• Schaeffer, Edith. 1981. The Tapestry: the life and times of Francis and Edith Schaeffer. Waco, Tex: Word Books. ISBN 978-0849902840
• Schaeffer, Edith. 1983. Common Sense Christian Living. Nashville: Nelson. ISBN 978-0840752802
• Schaeffer, Edith. 1983. Lifelines: God's Framework for Christian Living. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books. ISBN 978-0891072287
• Schaeffer, Edith. 1986. Forever Music. Nashville: T. Nelson. ISBN 978-0801083365
• Schaeffer, Edith, and Louis Gifford Parkhurst (ed.). 1987. The Art of Life. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books. ISBN 978-0891074557
• Schaeffer, Edith. 1988. With love, Edith: the L'Abri family letters 1948-1960. San Francisco: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0060670924
• Schaeffer, Edith. 1989. Dear Family: the L'Abri family letters 1961-1986. San Francisco: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0060670962
• Schaeffer, Edith. 1992. The Life of Prayer. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. ISBN 978-1856840460
• Mohr, Franz, and Edith Schaeffer. 1992. My Life With the Great Pianists. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Book House. ISBN 978-0801062964
• Schaeffer, Edith. 1994. A Celebration of Marriage: Hopes and Realities. Grand Rapid, Mich: Baker Books. ISBN 978-0801083549
• Schaeffer, Edith. 1994. 10 Things Parents Must Teach Their Children (And Learn for Themselves) Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Books. ISBN 978-0801083730
• Schaeffer, Edith. 1998. Mei Fuh: Memories from China. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. ISBN 978-0395722909
• Schaeffer, Edith. 2000. A Celebration of Children. Grand Rapids, MI: Raven Ridge Books. ISBN 978-0801011931

External links

• Francis Schaeffer Foundation website
• Columns by Edith Schaeffer in Christianity Today