Rating: 
(Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Books, 2014)
189 pgs
I recently had the opportunity to speak alongside Os Guinness at a meeting in Phoenix. I had heard of him before and had read his book, The Call. But this was the first time I heard him elaborate on his thoughts. I found him fascinating. Of course, most people with British accents and Ph.D’s from Oxford sound fascinating! He spoke on the material for the book here reviewed, Renaissance. His fundamental issue was whether the church can impact the culture of the western world or, is western culture too far gone to be saved?
This is a topic Christians ought to concern themselves with. While this book is not long, it is filled with nuggets of wisdom. In speaking with him and then reading this book, I found Os to be a solid evangelical scholar who is seeking to speak to the church in the west and to inspire it to trust God to bring revival once more. Os is an eloquent speaker and writer. He is clearly brilliant and widely read. He knows many of the leading apologists of our day. He was leaving our meeting and travelling to India to speak with Ravi Zacharias. He is a good friend of John Lennox. If that weren’t enough, he met Winston Churchill when he was a boy and has his autograph! This guy is well connected and well informed! The following are some of the quotes and insights I found interesting from the book.
Guinness claims that more than all the persecutions the church has faced in 2,000 years, it is modernity that has delivered some of the most devastating blows. He asks: “Has modernity finally done what no enemy or persecutor has ever succeeded in doing and reduced the authority of scriptures to a shifting weather vane and the church to babbling impotence?” (13). He also quotes G.K. Chesterton who claimed: “”At least five times the Faith has to all appearances gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases, it was the dog that died” (14).
Guinness suggests that civilizations are extremely fragile. He notes: “. . . all civilization, whatever their momentary grandeur, have an ultimate flimsiness that is paper thin and cannot be held back from barbarism” (17). Guinness also coins the phrase; “illiberal liberalism” by which he means that modern liberals often forsake their inherent belief in freedom of speech and inquiry in an effort to silence the Christian voice (19). He challenges that today’s “progressives” have made bold claims about society that they have been unable to fulfill. He notes: “Neither secular progress nor secular progressives have brought the west where they once promised. Nor can they. They are merely parasites on the Jewish and Christian beliefs and ideals that made the West the West” (19). Interestingly, Guinness suggests that the fundamental qualities that made the West spectacularly successful came from its religious, primarily Christian roots. He argues that, therefore, the church should take heart and realize that, not only can it speak into culture, but it has done so, powerfully, for half a millennium. He argues: “That transforming power is precisely what must be understood all over again, re-examined and demonstrated once more in our time” (21).
Guinness also challenges the current clichés about leaving a legacy as well as making an impact on culture. He points out: “Like ants on the vast floor of the Grand Canyon, none of us can see far enough to truly know where we are in the surging course of history. Only God knows” (22). He also argues that: “Christian extremism is little better than secularist or Muslim extremism” (25). He argues that there is a middle road between apathy and extremism. Guinness believes the same creative brilliance Christians have demonstrated in the past must be brought to the fore once more. Yet, “We do not know the outcome, so we must act in faith through the chronic obscurity of the present” (28). He claims the world’s dominant emotion is “fear” (28). Yet this is a time for Christians to step up and speak into that fear.
While Guinness claims that Christianity is the world’s first truly global religion, he also challenges that: “The seduction and distortion of modernity are in fact the central reason for the sorry disarray of the church in the western world” (31). He claims that Judaism and Christianity both have a “global vision” in their DNA (33). That is why they have within their roots, the compulsion to set the world aright.
Guinness suggests there are three major tasks that await the church today (35). The first is to equip the Global South that has, as yet, not been thoroughly corrupted by modernity. Guinness has a scathing rebuke on the western church that has succumbed to metrics and opinion polls for its direction rather than seeking direction from its Head. He claims that the church “counts opinions rather than weighs them” (42).
Guinness defines culture as “a way of life lived in common” (58). A civilization is a “culture with sufficient extension, duration, and elevation” (62). He argues that “a critical mass of believers constantly living out the shape of a set of ideas in a culture will always have an impact on the culture” (75) Yet, he calls the west a “cut flower civilization” as it has cut itself off from the very roots that nurtured it to greatness in the first place (68).
While Guinness does not call the west a greater civilization than others, he does note that there are several unique aspects to it that come largely from its Judaic and Christian roots. These include a major emphasis on philanthropy (68). No other culture has demonstrated as much concern for the weak or sick or elderly. There have also been recurring reform movements. Historically western culture has been able to change course when it was becoming unhealthy. Revival is not unknown to the west. Third is the rise of universities. Christian culture has promoted learning. Finally is the thriving of science and technology in the west. These have combined to make western civilization great and they have all stemmed from its religious roots. He denounces the claim by the atheist Christopher Hitchens that “religion poisons everything” as all of western civilization disproves that assumption (70).
Guinness cites C. S. Lewis’ essay “Some Thoughts” where he claimed that some religions are world-denying while others are world-affirming (76). Yet Christianity is one of the only belief systems that actively does both. This, Guinness believes, is one of its secrets for success. Guinness has a number of great “one liners” including: “Contrast is the mother of clarity” (78). When he examines the fruit of other belief systems, they always fall short of the Christian worldview. He argues that, rather than embracing modernity, the church must offer a prophetic voice. He cites G.K. Chesterton who claimed: “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it” (85). Guinness argues against a mere presence if the church is going to transform society. He claims: “The key to changing the world is not simply being there, but an active, transforming engagement of a singularly robust and energetic kind” (86).
Guinness says a number of things that make the reader stop and think, such as his rebuke for assuming our generation is superior to those that preceded it. He notes: “Hindsight enables us to see where those previous generations went wrong, but we cannot see ourselves” (87). He challenges the church to resist trite clichés about changing the world, as only God can do that. Yet we can do our part. He regularly asks: “Is the church shaping the culture or is the culture shaping the church?” (88). He raises the question of whether God changes culture or we do (90). He chastises Christians for becoming enmeshed in fruitless discussions about God’s sovereignty and to simply be obedient to what God calls them to do. He concludes: “. . . the lesson of the Scriptures and Christian history is that we should rely firmly on both truths, and apply the one we most need when we most need it” (91). I enjoyed his balance in these areas. There are times when we must depend entirely upon God’s sovereignty, but then there are other times when clearly there are actions God asks us to undertake. He concludes: “There is a mystery as to how God’s sovereignty and our human significance work together, and there always will be” (92). We do not have to understand the distinction or theological nuances, but we should experience them!
Guinness makes several claims that were interesting. He argues that, “the ideas of leaders always outweigh the ideas of followers” (97). While we live in a populist society today, he argues that grassroots movements have never had the lasting impact as those initiated by leaders. “Like stormy waves breaking on a great rock, their mass movements have at times been impressive, but they have left the rock—and the culture—unmoved” (98). Yet, of leaders Guinness points out: “For God chooses messengers who are every bit as surprising as he himself” (105). “The kingdom of God is an upside-down, back-to-front, inside-out kingdom that stuns our expectations and blasts us out of our ruts and our prejudices” (106).
Guinness constantly urges humility in the task of world-changing. He has heard the numerous Christian slogans and clichés that have come and gone. He suggests: “Only God can handle the whole world. The world is not ours to manage or to save. Our task is to focus on our individual callings in engaging the world, to trust that others are following theirs too, and to leave to God the masterminding of the grand outcome” (108). To add to our humility, Guinness suggests: “. . . even the best and highest of our human endeavors usually have a single word written over them—incomplete” (110). He cites Reinhold Niebuhr who claimed: “Nothing that’s worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime” (110). I am not sure I agree with that statement, but it makes one think!
He argues that periods right after the church’s greatest “success” has often followed some of history’s greatest catastrophes. He states: “It would be idle to speculate what terrible new order today’s trendy clerics and faithless Christian activists are greasing the slipway for” (119). He cites a conversation a woman had with Theodor Mommson, when she argued that America should be excused due to its relative youth. He responded: “. . . your nation has had open before it the whole history of Europe from the beginning and without exception you have consistently copied every mistake Europe has ever made” (121). Guinness argues that “Times of the greatest success often carry the seeds of the greatest failure” (125). He goes on to say, “It is no wonder, then, that out of the great “success” of Christendom and the ‘great age of faith’ in both the Medieval and the modern ages, came not only magnificent learning, architecture, art, and music, but the worst evils ever perpetrated on the world by the Christian church” (128). He notes that in America, during the age of evangelicalism’s prominence, has also come a great moral decline, unstopped by evangelicals in their heyday (129). He notes that, “prophets themselves need prophets” (129).
Guinness cites Dean Inges who stated: “The person who marries the spirit of the age soon becomes a widower” (164). Finally, he notes that, “The politicization of faith is never a sign of strength but of weakness” (172.
Guinness was a part of the committee that developed a manifesto in 2008 of Evangelicalism. In the final pages of this book, he lists the manifesto. It is a call for evangelicals to rise up and be the change agents God has called them to be. The manifesto also acknowledges the failures and shortcomings of the past. It also takes exception to others defining evangelicalism on their behalf. Certainly in our day, the term “evangelical” has been distorted and misrepresented to the point that many no longer want to be identified by the term. This book is a helpful reminder of what an evangelical is and what they should be about.
I found this book refreshing and stimulating to my thinking. It is not a long book. Clearly he could go into more detail if he chose. He does have a sequel to this book coming out soon! But I think in light of the times in which we live and the assault evangelicals are presently under, this is a very timely, worthwhile read.
by Richard Blackaby