FRANK SCHAEFFER Crazy for God ****

Subtitled, "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," this book has helped me crystallise some of my thinking about my evangelical upbringing and understanding of the Bible.

Frank Schaeffer is the son of Francis and Edith Schaeffer, the American founders of L'Abri in Switzerland. In the 1960s Francis was writing books that took the evangelical student world by storm. They were all about understanding the arts and contemporary philosophy and how these areas of life should be taken on board, not shunned, by Bible-believing Christians. The protesting students, artists, poets and musicians of the 1960s were right, he said, in their damning analysis of contemporary society - the problem was they had nothing to put in its place. The answer was authentic Biblical Christianity.

For young Frank life at L'Abri was chaotic - in some respects liberating as his parents let him mix with the scores of people who came to stay and sit at the master's feet. Sometimes he was over-indulged, sometimes deprived as his parents poured all their energy into L'Abri and their books.

After a pretty rebellious period Frank came back to the fold and directed a couple of documentary series with his father which went down very well in the USA. But then Frank persuaded his father (against his better judgment) to side up with some of the televangelists. As they all jostled for influence an anti-abortion stance became the proof of evangelical orthodoxy. When the political right also took up the cause evangelicalism and right-wing politics became synonymous. Soon Frank was a famous speaker in his own right, appearing on TV regularly and writing 'Christian' books. The trouble was he was living a lie and hated half the people he was associating with.

Eventually he had the courage to cut himself free and denounce some of the crooks and charlatans he'd once worked with. His Christian faith all but evaporated, but has since taken on a new lease of life since he joined the orthodox church.

Frank Schaeffer doesn't come across as a particularly likeable person, and he seems to like to blow his own trumpet, but his portrayal of his snobbish mother, his often very angry and depressed father, and his sisters and their families rings true.

A really interesting book - especially if you've been immersed in things evangelical.