Guinness, Os 1941–

(Ian Oswald Guinness)

PERSONAL: Born September 30, 1941, in Hsiang Cheng, China; son of Henry W. (a Christian missionary) and Mary (a surgeon; maiden name, Taylor) Guinness; married Jenny Macdonald (a fashion model under the name Windsor Elliott); children: Christopher. Education: University of London, B.D. (honors), 1966; Oriel College, Oxford, D.Phil., 1981. Religion: Christian.

ADDRESSES: Home—Fairfax County, VA. Office—Trinity Forum, 7902 Westpark Dr., Ste. A, McLean, VA 22102-4202.

CAREER: Writer, c. 1973–. Williamsburg Charter Foundation, Williamsburg, VA, executive director, 1986–89. Guest scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies; guest scholar and visiting fellow, Brookings Institution, 1986–89; Trinity Forum, McLean, VA, currently senior fellow.

WRITINGS:

The Dust of Death: A Critique of the Establishment and the Counter-Culture, and the Proposal for a Third Way, Inter-Varsity Press (Downers Grove, IL), 1973, revised edition published as The Dust of Death: The Sixties Counterculture and How It Changed America Forever, Crossway (Wheaton, IL), 1994.

In Two Minds: The Dilemma of Doubt and How to Resolve It, Inter-Varsity Press (Downers Grove, IL), 1976, 3rd edition published as Doubt, Lion (Batavia, IL), 1987.

The Gravedigger File: Papers on the Subversion of the Modern Church, Inter-Varsity Press (Downers Grove, IL), 1983.

The Devil's Gauntlet: The Church and the Challenge of Society, Inter-Varsity Press (Downers Grove, IL), 1989.

(Editor, with James Davison Hunter) Articles of Faith, Articles of Peace: The Liberty Clauses and the American Public, Brookings Institution (Washington, DC), 1990.

(Editor, with John Seel) No God but God: Breaking with the Idols of Our Age, Moody (Chicago, IL), 1992.

Dining with the Devil: The Megachurch Movement Flirts with Modernity, Baker Books (Grand Rapids, MI), 1993.

The American Hour: A Time of Reckoning and the Once and Future Role of Faith, Free Press (New York, NY), 1993.

Fit Bodies, Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don't Think and What to Do about It, Hourglass Books (Grand Rapids, MI), 1994.

God in the Dark: The Assurance of Faith beyond a Shadow of Doubt, Crossway (Wheaton, IL), 1996.

The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life, Word (Nashville, TN), 1998.

(Editor, with Louise Cowan) Invitation to the Classics, Baker Books (Grand Rapids, MI), 1998.

(Editor) Character Counts: Leadership Qualities in Wilberforce, Lincoln, and Solzhenitsyn, Baker Books (Grand Rapids, MI), 1999.

(Editor) Unriddling Our Times: Reflections on the Gathering Cultural Crisis, Baker Books (Grand Rapids, MI), 1999.

Time for Truth: Living Free in a Time of Lies, Hype, and Spin, Baker Books (Grand Rapids, MI), 2000.

(Compiler) Steering through Chaos: Vice and Virtue in an Age of Moral Confusion, edited by Virginia Mooney, reader's guide by Karen Lee-Thorp, Nav-Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2000.

When No One Sees: The Importance of Character in an Age of Image, edited by Virginia Mooney, Nav-Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2000.

The Great Experiment: Faith and Freedom in America, edited by Ginger Koloszyc, reader's guide by Karen Lee-Thorp, NavPress (Colorado Springs, CO), 2001.

Long Journey Home: A Seeker's Road Map to the Quest for Meaning, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2001.

(Compiler) Entrepreneurs of Life: Faith and the Venture of Purposeful Living, edited by Ginger Koloszyc, reader's guide by Karen Lee-Thorp, NavPress (Colorado Springs, CO), 2001.

Doing Well and Doing Good: Money, Giving, and Caring in a Free Society, edited by Ginger Koloszyc, reader's guide by Karen Lee-Thorp, NavPress (Colorado Springs, CO), 2001.

(Compiler) The Journey: Our Quest for Faith and Meaning, edited by Ginger Koloszyc, reader's guide by Karen Lee-Thorp, NavPress (Colorado Springs, CO), 2001.

Rising to the Call, W Publishing Group (Nashville, TN), 2003.

Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance, Baker Books (Grand Rapids, MI), 2003.

The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life, W Publishing Group (Nashville, TN), 2003.

Unspeakable: Facing Up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Evangelical Christian scholar and social philosopher Os Guinness has written extensively about religious faith and its role in society. He has frequently criticized modern American culture, decrying its loss of moral absolutes. "America has lost the capacity to say no to evil and that is a very dangerous place to be," Guinness told Stephen Goode in an interview published in Insight on the News. However, Guinness also has criticized some trends within the evangelical movement, such as the increasing popularity of "megachurches" that rely on marketing techniques adapted from business to attract members.

In Dining with the Devil: The Megachurch Movement Flirts with Modernity, for instance, Guinness asserts that such marketing strategies "are forged from unbiblical assumptions" and are part of an ultimately dehumanizing modern culture, Haddon Robinson reported in Christianity Today. The book, according to Robinson, is "a warning to those who strive to grow a church at any cost." Robinson found the work a valuable study of the megachurch movement. In another critique of his fellow evangelicals, Fit Bodies, Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don't Think and What to Do about It, Guinness accuses them of anti-intellectualism. Thoughtful Christianity, he contends, has given way to "a mass mind and an 'idiot culture.'" He denounces some of the methods of conservative Christians, such as the use of "'rent-a-mob' propaganda tactics" and "red-meat rhetoric of alarm." Christianity Today contributor James W. Sire applauded the book, asserting that Guinness's "hot rhetoric is undergirded by a thoughtful intelligence. There is balance in his critique of the forces he says pushed us from a Christian mind to a mass mind." Sire concluded that Fit Bodies, Fat Minds "deserves a very wide reading."

Guinness takes on the larger society in such books as The American Hour: A Time of Reckoning and the Once and Future Role of Faith, and Time for Truth: Living Free in a Time of Lies, Hype, and Spin. In the former, he calls for the development of a "public philosophy" on which Americans of all religions—or none at all—can agree. He argues that such a philosophy once existed but no longer does: "Under the impact of modernity, the beliefs, ideals and traditions that have been central to Americans and to American democracy … are losing their compelling cultural power." He sees a need for Americans to rally around a system of shared values, while respecting one another's right to disagree about certain issues, including religion. Sire, writing in Christianity Today, deemed the work a "closely reasoned, well-documented cultural analysis" demonstrating the necessity of a "common bond that will allow us to live together amid our deep differences."

Time for Truth takes aim at what Guinness sees as the disdain for absolutes among modern and postmodern thinkers. He contends that in today's society, "truth is dead and knowledge is only power." He condemns moral relativism and multiculturalism, and he has especially harsh words for former President Bill Clinton, whom he dubs "the first postmodern president." To restore a respect for truth, he urges a return to the fundamental values of Christianity and Judaism. Goode explained in Insight on the News: "Against the extreme moral and cultural relativism of our time, Guinness posits the truths of the Judeo-Christian tradition: 'The biblical understanding common to both Jews and Christians is that you not only have to know the truth in your own mind, you have to walk in the truth as a daily practice.'" Some reviewers thought Guinness did not make his case particularly strongly. He "doesn't exemplify how to argue against either modern or postmodern relativism," declared Ray Olson in Booklist. A Publishers Weekly critic praised Guinness's writing style, but asserted that even those who share his beliefs "may feel that he sounds like an out-of-date grandfather arguing a case that has already been lost."

Guinness tackles one of the greatest philosophical problems there is with his 2005 title, Unspeakable: Facing Up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror. In a modern age where natural disasters and evils such as terrorism seem to be on the rise, the author seeks to explain the nature of evil and how to defeat it based on his clearly Christian perspective. Paul Wachter, writing in America, described the book as a "timely, if disingenuous, exploration of human suffering, evil and God's design," while Library Journal reviewer Thomas A. Karel characterized it as "an unpleasant but probably necessary book." Wachter found Guinness's arguments against various other religious and philosophical beliefs to be flawed, as well as his contention that more evil is committed for secular reasons than for religious ones. "Such deficiencies could have been overcome by a robust and original defense of Christianity," Wachter concluded. "But that is not to be found in Unspeakable." However, Karel held that the work is valuable as a means to "stimulate discussion and reflection."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, April 4, 2005, Paul Wachter, "Confronting a Culture of Fear," review of Unspeakable: Facing Up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror, p. 32.

Booklist, February 15, 2000, Ray Olson, review of Time for Truth: Living Free in a Time of Lies, Hype, and Spin, p. 1054.

Christianity Today, May 17, 1993, James W. Sire, review of The American Hour: A Time of Reckoning and the Once and Future Role of Faith, p. 49; March 7, 1994, Haddon Robinson, review of Dining with the Devil: The Megachurch Movement Flirts with Modernity, p. 37; March 6, 1995, James W. Sire, review of Fit Bodies, Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don't Think and What to Do about It, p. 38.

Insight on the News, April 17, 2000, Stephen Goode, "Philosopher Guinness Slams Lies and Hype," p. 36.

Library Journal, August, 1998, Kim Woodbridge, review of Invitation to the Classics, p. 90; April 1, 2005, Thomas A. Karel, review of Unspeakable, p. 112.

Publishers Weekly, February 14, 2000, review of Time for Truth, p. 194.