Edith Schaeffer

Edith Rachel Merritt Schaeffer (née Seville) (November 3, 1914 – March 30, 2013) was a Christian author and co-founder of L'Abri, a Christian organization which hosts guests. She was the wife of Francis Schaeffer, and the mother of Frank Schaeffer and three other children.

Early life

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".

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

L'Abri

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.Hankins, Barry (2008),
Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America
', Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, , pp. 5–59.

Schaeffer's husband Francis died in 1984,Heller, Jennifer (2002),

," '' Journal of Religion and Popular Culture'', Vol. 2. but she continued to be associated with the L'Abri organisation which she and her husband founded.

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

Schaeffer's ''The Hidden Art of Homemaking'' (1971) has been influential among women in the Christian Patriarchy movement,Joyce, Kathryn (2009), ''Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement'', Beacon Press, , p. 42. and has been described by Kathryn Joyce as "perhaps unintentionally, a landmark book for proponents of biblical womanhood." This book, along with ''What is a Family?'', has been described by author Becky Freeman Johnson as a "timeless classic".

In 2000, Schaeffer was listed in Helen Kooiman Hosier's ''100 Christian Women Who Changed the Twentieth Century''.

Death

At the age of 98, Schaeffer died on March 30, 2013, at home in Gryon, Switzerland.

Works

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

References

External links

Francis Schaeffer Foundation websiteColumns by Edith Schaeffer
in ''Christianity Today''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schaeffer, Edith
1914 births
2013 deaths
American Christian writers
Writers from Wenzhou
Arcadia University alumni
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women writers
People from the canton of Vaud
21st-century American women