To book Frank Schaeffer to speak, please contact Lisa Darden at HUP Talent and Booking Agency (http://www.huptalentandbooking.com/frank_shaeffer.html) by email: ask4darden@aol.com or by phone: (240) 446-1554.

Watch Frank Schaeffer on Book-TV S-Span

"Sex, Mom, & God: How the Bible's Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics - and How I learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway"

About the Program

Frank Schaeffer talks about his mother, evangelical writer Edith Schaeffer, and the lasting impact that his family had on the Christian right and conservative politics. This event was hosted by St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Watch the program here.

Atheism and Christian Fundamentalism Miss the Mark on Faith

When it comes to the role of religion in the public square, there's a big argument over what's too much and what's not enough. The so-called “New Atheist” thinkers like Christopher Hitchens believe religion is more than just a policy hindrance, it’s a danger to civilization itself. Others, like Evangelical Christian leader Rick Warren, say we need more faith in the public square and thinks atheism and secularism are the world’s big dangers...

Listen to the interview here.

Frank Schaeffer at the Hammer Museum (UCLA)
Hammer Forum

Church and State: The Role of Spirituality in Politics

Click here if you're unable to see the video above.

The Gritt TV "Patience With God" Interview

Frank Schaeffer, one of the important figures in the anti-choice and religious right movements in the United States joins Laura on GRITtv for a fascinating interview about his own journey, and how people, religious or irreligious, are all looking for answers to the same questions.

Library Journal Book Review

"Novelist Schaeffer, who wrote the memoir Crazy for God and is the son of prominent evangelical theologian Francis Schaeffer, offers a hopeful vision for genuine faith in a messy, mysterious, and unexplainable world full of contradictions and paradoxes. The book effectively serves as an opening of dialog among those searching for something to hold onto, the devout but doubting members of the "Church of Hopeful Uncertainty." Along the way, Schaeffer criticizes both religious and secular fundamentalism, which turn out to have much more in common than is readily apparent. His is a humble and beautiful narrative that interweaves elements of memoir, popular theology, inspiration, and meditation. The end result is a deep and rich reflection on authentic faith in the contemporary world that focuses on how to live rather than on what to believe or not believe. Verdict Highly recommended for all general readers of religion, both believers and nonbelievers, who hunger for faith and meaning but are repelled by the polarizing exclusivity of new atheists and religious fundamentalists."

- Brian T. Sullivan, Alfred Univ. Lib., NY

Patience with God

Review by John Cornwell
Published: March 14 2011 07:05 | Last updated: March 14 2011 07:05

Patience with God: For People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism), by Frank Schaeffer, Da Capo, RRP£9.99, 256 pages

If you want to infuriate the so-called “new atheists”, taunt them with this quote from a Dostoevsky novel: “If God does not exist then everything would be permitted.” Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens vehemently denounced this sentence in their anti-God books (The God Delusion and God Is Not Great), because they resent the inference that without religion there can be no morality – and rightly so.

Frank Schaeffer is no atheist but he believes people can be good without God, and they can have “faith” without religion. Since Schaeffer doesn’t quite get around to defining what he means by religion, his point is somewhat elusive. But this beguiling ramble of essay and memoir is worth the effort: childhood in Switzerland, boarding school in Sussex, early adulthood as a born-again evangelist in America’s Bible belt, director of Hollywood B-movies.

Schaeffer eventually became a writer of novels on spiritual themes and a blogger for the Huffington Post. Now he has joined the Eastern Orthodox Church. I found this perplexing. The Orthodox Church is surely a form of organised religion; hence his real quarrel is not so much with religion per se, any more than with atheism per se. Rather he hates fundamentalism, whether religious or atheistic.

His argument becomes manifest in a discursive reflection around the public spat between Christopher Hitchens (atheist), and his brother Peter Hitchens (Christian). The brothers are, in Schaeffer’s view two peas from the same pod. Western Christianity and militant atheism, he argues, are both characterised by logic, rationality, dogma.

The Christianity of the East, which separated from Rome and western thinking a thousand years back, is marked by imagination, mystery and non-judgmental love. Eastern thinking does not seek to combat militant atheism with knock-down proofs, but rather with what Pascal calls “the reasons of the heart”.

Schaeffer insists, moreover, that the eastern church is a religion of Easter, the Resurrection, forgiveness; whereas the western churches are religions of Good Friday, sacrifice, punishment. I’m not sure that Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who links Orthodox spirituality with Anglicanism, would agree; but I sympathise broadly with Schaeffer’s point. And I liked his citation of the early eastern Christian writer St John Chrysostom on the story of the prodigal son. When the prodigal returns and gets the big feast and reconciliation, the goody-goody stay-at-home brother is seething.

“You must remember,” writes Schaeffer, “that many Christians prepare for Easter by fasting, or at least we’re supposed to ... Yet Chrysostom declares that those who have not kept the fast – in other words, people like me – are equally welcome.”

The depressing thing about Schaeffer’s gentler Christianity, sans sin and Hell, is that the liberalising impetus in all three religions of the Book tends to incite conservatives to greater extremes of fundamentalism. The fear of the Christian west, and of rigorous Islam, is that liberalism means relativism: that one religion is as good, or as bad, as any other. And there lies apostasy, the decline of religion, and its eventual oblivion. The eastern Orthodox tradition, however, has fostered extensive pluralism, mainly based on ethnicity and local culture. The Russian Orthodox church, nevertheless, survived the long persecution of Soviet atheism to flourish anew after 1989.

Schaefer’s quiet endorsement might well signal a trend towards an eastern Christianity whose God is non-judgmental towards its doubting, erring prodigal children. Be that so, Schaeffer’s title, Patience with God, does not quite fit his thesis. His drift is more in praise of a God who is patient with us, rather than the other way around.

Book Review: Patience With God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism) by Frank Schaeffer

As the son of Francis Schaeffer, Frank Schaeffer has been no stranger to the rigours of evangelical/fundamentalist Christianity. Francis believed he had the answers to the questions of the ages with his belief in fundamentalist doctrine and he was largely responsible for the rise of the Religious Right in American politics. As his son, Frank lived through and participated in the despicable intersection of religion and politics...

Read the review in its entirety here

Click Here to order from Amazon.com!

Kirkus, 9/1/09
“A meditation on the follies of religious and atheist fundamentalism… [Schaeffer’s] criticisms, buttressed by quoting his targets’ own words, are on target.”

Publishers Weekly, 10/12
“Schaeffer adopts a feisty tone in this essay about evangelical Christianity and aggressive atheism.”

Booklist, 11/15
“[Schaeffer] suffers no one who advocates a devotion so rigid as to exclude any but the stanchest. He names names but is an equal opportunity assailant, laying into fundamentalist atheists and religious zealots alike…Make no mistake, Schaeffer is not proselytizing. He knows, or at least hopes, that with this book he is singing to the choir of millions fed up with or unable to commit to full-blown atheism or stiff-necked religion of any kind.”

Internet Review of Books, October issue
“Schaeffer’s voice is one among the cacophony of voices present in religious literature today. He’s saying it’s okay if you’ve never found a church to be comfortable with, and at the same time legitimizing a time-out for the exhausted religious. I enjoyed his perspective and his gentle nudge toward Christianity. It is also evident that Frank Schaeffer has led a remarkably interesting life, so the book is an enjoyable memoir as well.”

ReligionandSpirituality.com, 10/20
“Schaeffer condemns the closed-minded intolerance of the Evangelical Christianity in which he was raised. This is something Frank does well, both as a storyteller and as a writer of non-fiction…This is religion that is more comfortable saying what it does not know than what it does know; this is a faith of humble, loving compassion that sustains the father who sends his son off to war, and that inspires even the hardest heart to give thanks for the beauty of a new day. It is faith for people who don’t always know all the answers and who are tired of pretending they do. In short, this is my kind of religion, and I’m happy it’s so well represented by as skilled and as admirable a writer as Frank Schaeffer.”

Sacremento Book Review, November 2009
“A thoughtful and compelling guide for maneuvering between the twin poles of fundamentalist religion and atheism. It is a moderate approach that many people will find fits their actions and beliefs.”

ForeWord, 11/11/09
“Even readers who struggle with their faith can find help from a new book, Patience with God.”

Blogcritics.org, 11/8/09
“Schaeffer goes well beyond the typical pat answers of specious Christians who allude to Christianity as a ‘relationship, not a religion’ and deconstructs the eager certainty, venomous literalism, and widespread insincerity that taints and has since formed the mould for the modern evangelical and fundamentalist movements. Not content to merely strike at one side of the aisle, Schaeffer also volleys a fair-sized wad of equitable critique at many of the so-called New Atheists…This book is a war on the evil concept of certainty itself…Patience With God is part ‘sermon’ and part memoir…It is, indeed, a refreshing book and incredibly easy to read. While many atheists and religious people alike will feel targeted by Schaeffer, his is an even-handed approach that does well to strip away the childish shell of fighting over who’s ‘right’ when the question can’t be answered.”

Newburyport Current MA, 11/20/09
“Schaeffer takes a hard look at the new atheists and concludes they are guilty of trafficking in the same zealous declarations of absolutes as the religious fundamentalist they so like to ridicule.”

Curled Up with A Good Book, 11/15/09
“Schaeffer indulges in some personal reflections about his own relationship with God, whose presence in his life he perceives through loving relationships with his infant granddaughter Lucy, his son and his wife. He adds some reminiscences of his boarding school days in England and of the village stonemason in the Swiss village where he grew up. These vignettes, mildly interesting in their own right, deliver neat moral lessons.”

BiblioBuffet.com, 11/15/09
“Schaefer tackles a lot of significant theological and philosophical issues…In short, he considers why we humans have such a great need for faith and such divergent views on what faith means…The real strength of Schaeffer’s perspective, however, is not that he recognizes that there is uncertainty in faith but that he acknowledges that there is uncertainty in not having faith, too.”

Captain’s Blog, 11/21/09
“Schaeffer turns his eagle-eyed gaze from his religious past and focuses on the New Atheists—Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris & Dennett…Put[s] a couple of sharp, stinging whacks across the backsides of some of today’s popular Christian leaders and their fear-based teachings that produce hate, hypocrisy and intolerance…Frank Schaeffer is a thoughtful and talented writer and I’m glad that he continues to share his journey with us.”

Starred Review, Library Journal, December 2009
“Offers a hopeful vision for genuine faith in a messy, mysterious, and unexplainable world full of contradictions and paradoxes. The book effectively serves as an opening of dialog among those searching for something to hold onto, the devout but doubting members of the ‘Church of Hopeful Uncertainty’…His is a humble and beautiful narrative that interweaves elements of memoir, popular theology, inspiration, and meditation. The end result is a deep and rich reflection on authentic faith in the contemporary world that focuses on how to live rather than on what to believe or not believe…Highly recommended for all general readers of religion, both believers and nonbelievers, who hunger for faith and meaning but are repelled by the polarizing exclusivity of new atheists and religious fundamentalists.”

The Word, December 2009
“Schaeffer’s critique, as we have come to expect, is biting, incisive, unrelenting and often humorous. He speaks as a man who has been in the belly of the beast and has lived to tell about it…Schaeffer’s recent appearances on Huffington Post and MSNBC have placed him squarely in public view as a valued and original commentator on the state of American politics and an avowed nemesis of the so-called Christian Right and its step-child, the religion-haunted GOP…His honesty is both refreshing and unnerving…Schaeffer does not mince words or pull back from engaging and exposing what he sees as the simple-minded hypocrisy and arrogance with which so many have become so comfortable…Whatever one may think this is sure: Schaeffer presents the dilemma clearly and fearlessly and should not be ignored…A contemplative and often immensely moving account…Agree or disagree, Patience with God presents an alternative that we would do well to take note of. It is an Orthodox Christian appeal for sanity, compassion, tolerance and authentic spirituality.”

Zoom Street magazine
“If you can relate to the subtitle here, this book has a lot to offer. It occupies a comfortable niche on the No Man’s Land between Rick Warren’s A Purpose Driven Life and Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great. It stands courageously between these two warring factions, yet doesn’t wave a white flag. It levels passionate rants at both sides…

Patience with God

From the best-selling and controversial author of Keeping Faith and Crazy for God, a spirited, witty, and provocative challenge to atheists and fundamentalists alike.

From Patience with God:

“Why do I write about faith, religion, and religious people in so many of my books? What’s it to me if I agree or disagree with the New Atheists and with all religious fundamentalists? First, one writes about the life one has experienced. I’ve lived religion. Second, I don’t like to be forced to choose between lousy alternatives.”

Frank Schaeffer has a problem with Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennett, and the rest of the New Atheists—the self-anointed “Brights.” He also has a problem with the Rick Warrens and Tim LaHayes of the world. The problem is that he doesn’t see much of a difference between the two camps. As Schaeffer puts it, they “often share the same fallacy: truth claims that reek of false certainties. I believe that there is an alternative that actually matches the way life is lived rather than how we usually talk about belief.”

Sparing no one and nothing, including himself and his fiery evangelical past, and invoking subtleties too easily ignored by the pontificators, Schaeffer adds much-needed nuance to the conversation. Schaeffer says: “My writing has smoked out so many individuals who, like me, seem to be thinking about the same questions. I’m assuming there are many more of us. I hope that this book will provide a meeting place for us, the scattered refugees of what I’ll call The Church of Hopeful Uncertainty.”

Frank Schaeffer is the author of the New York Times bestseller Keeping Faith and, most recently, the memoir Crazy for God, which was featured on “Fresh Air.” He and his wife, Genie, live in Massachusetts and have three children.

In bookstores everywhere in November 2009.

Click Here to order from Amazon.com!

Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times best selling author. Richard Eder in the Los Angeles Times described Frank’s writing as, “A rich brew of cross-cultural comedy.”  The British newspaper the Guardian says Frank’s work is “funny and wonderfully observed.”

Frank is a survivor of both polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood, an acclaimed writer who overcame severe dyslexia, a home-schooled and self-taught documentary movie director, a feature film director and producer of four low-budget Hollywood features he has described as “pretty terrible,” and a best-selling author of both fiction and nonfiction.  Along the way he also did a “successful” stint as his famous evangelical father’s (Francis Schaeffer) sidekick.  This was just before Frank left the evangelical world. In 1990 he joined the Greek Orthodox Church.

Frank’s three semi-biographical novels about growing up in a fundamentalist mission -- Portofino, Zermatt, and Saving Grandma -- have a worldwide following, having been translated into nine languages and receiving international critical acclaim. 

BABY JACK, a novel about service, sacrifice and the class division between who serves in the military and who does not, is Frank’s most recent novel. USA TODAY said of BABY JACK, “The reader marvels at how Schaeffer makes this concise chorus of social conviction moving and memorable.”

Frank’s latest book, a memoir, 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, has been acclaimed widely.  Jane Smiley, writing in The Nation (Oct 15, 2007) said:  “Crazy for God offers considerable insight into several issues that have bedeviled American life in the past thirty years, and... when taken in conjunction with [Frank Schaeffer's] other works (notably the Calvin Becker Trilogy, Portofino, Zermatt and Saving Grandma), it gives us not only a handle on the mess we are in but also quite a few laughs...”

Joel Brown wrote in the Boston Globe (December 18, 2007), “That Crazy for God isn't just another James Frey-style memoir of personal dysfunction becomes clear with the subtitle, it's alternately hilarious and excruciating.”

Jeff Sharlet (a contributing editor of Rolling Stone magazine) reviewed Crazy For God in The New Statesman (Oct 29, 2007).  He wrote:  “Crazy for God is a brilliant book, a portrait of fundamentalism painted in broad strokes with streaks of nuance, the twinned coming-of-age story of Frank and the Christian right.”

Frank’s nonfiction also includes the NYT bestseller, KEEPING FAITH-A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps and AWOL-The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes From Military Service and How It Hurts Our Country. Tom Brokaw wrote:  “AWOL drives home, with hope and respect for our forebears, the need to address the evaporating sense of duty and service to our nation.”  Senator John S. McCain wrote:  “Frank Schaeffer has done our country a great service with the publication of AWOL.” 

Frank is a popular blogger for the Huffington Post.  He has also written for USA Today, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun and many other publications on topics ranging from his critique of American right wing fundamentalism to his experiences as a military parent and novelist.

Frank has been a commentator on both NPR’s All Things Considered and for the NEWS HOUR with Jim Lehrer as well as a frequent guest on C-SPAN Book TV.  Frank has appeared on Oprah, 20/20, the NBC Today Show and many other TV and radio programs.

Frank lives in near Boston with his wife Genie. They have three children.

		low	low
		high	high

(Feb 26, 2008 at Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs)

Schaeffer's three semi-biographical novels about growing up in a fundamentalist mission: "Portofino," "Zermatt," "Saving Grandma" have a worldwide following and have been translated into 9 languages. "BABY JACK," a novel about the Marines, sacrifice, God, the class division between who serves and who does not, was published in October of 2006.

Schaeffer has written for USA Today, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, and many other publications on topics ranging from his critique of American right wing fundamentalism to his experiences as a military parent and novelist and is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post website. He has also been interviewed on just about every major talk radio show in the country and been a commentator on both NPR's All Things Considered and several times for the NEWS HOUR and Jim Lehrer. His nonfiction includes "Keeping Faith-A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps" and "AWOL-The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes From Military Service and How It Hurts Our Country."

Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times best selling author. The Los Angeles Times described Frank’s writing as, “A rich brew of cross-cultural comedy.”  The British newspaper the Guardian says: “funny and wonderfully observed.”
 
Frank is a survivor of both polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood, an acclaimed writer who overcame severe dyslexia, a home-schooled and self-taught documentary movie director, a feature film director and producer of four low budget Hollywood features Frank has described as “pretty terrible,” and a best selling author of both fiction and nonfiction.

Frank’s three semi-biographical novels about growing up in a fundamentalist mission: Portofino, Zermatt, Saving Grandma have  a worldwide following and have been translated into nine languages. BABY JACK, a novel about service, sacrifice and the class division between who serves and who does not, was published in October of 2006.

USA TODAY said of BABY JACK;

 
Frank’s latest book is a memoir, 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 has been acclaimed widely. Jane Smiley writing in The Nation (Oct 15, 2007) said: “Crazy for God offers considerable insight into several issues that have bedeviled American life in the past thirty years, and... when taken in conjunction with [Frank Schaeffer's] other works (notably the Calvin Becker Trilogy, Portofino, Zermatt and Saving Grandma), it gives us not only a handle on the mess we are in but also quite a few laughs...”

Joel Brown, writes in the Boston Globe (December 18, 2007) “That Crazy for God isn't just another James Frey-style memoir of personal dysfunction becomes clear with the subtitle, it's alternately hilarious and excruciating.”
 
Jeff Sharlet (a contributing editor of Rolling Stone magazine) reviewed Crazy For God in The New Statesman (Oct 29 2007). He wrote: “Crazy for God is a brilliant book, a portrait of fundamentalism painted in broad strokes with streaks of nuance, the twinned coming-of-age story of Frank and the Christian right.”

Betty Smartt Carter writing in Christianity Today International/Books & Culture magazine (January/February 2008) writes: “So now, this year, comes Crazy for God, an autobiography that's very like Portofino in its tangible beauty and humor, but with more contrition and a little less fiendish lampooning... Schaeffer describes a life that was by turns happy, difficult, idyllic, and completely nuts. Polio and dyslexia seemed like bumps on the road compared to the burden of growing up in a family that set out to save the world one intellectual at a time. If he spares anyone here, it's not himself. And we forgive him for his shortcomings, partly because he's a world-class storyteller... In other words, keep writing books, Frank. You're good at it.”
 
Frank’s nonfiction also includes the NYT bestseller, Keeping Faith-A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps and AWOL-The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes From Military Service and How It Hurts Our Country. Tom Brokaw writes: “AWOL drives home, with hope and respect for our forebears, the need to address the evaporating sense of duty and service to our nation.” Senator John S. McCain writes: “Frank Schaeffer has done our country a great service with the publication of AWOL.”

Frank has written for USA Today, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun and other publications on topics ranging from his critique of American right wing fundamentalism to his experiences as a military parent and novelist and is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post website. He has been a commentator on both NPR’s All Things Considered and for the NEWS HOUR with Jim Lehrer and a frequent guest on C-SPAN Book TV.

By

Frank Schaeffer

"Painstakingly honest and
courageous."-Andre Dubus III


"Brutally honest… offers particularly eye-opening accounts of his [Schaeffer's]  personal encounters with the likes of Pat Robertson, James Dobson et al."--Booklist

IN BOOKSTORES EVERYWHERE OCT 25, 2007

BABY JACK a novel is in stores now! Also from Amazon.com