Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

Os Guinness

English author and social critic From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Os Guinness
Remove ads

Ian Oswald "Os" Guinness (born September 30, 1941[not verified in body]) is an English author, theologian and social critic now based in Fairfax County, Virginia; he has lived in the United States since 1984.

Quick Facts Born, Occupation ...
Remove ads

Early life and education

Ian Oswald Guinness[1][better source needed] was born in China, during World War II, as his parents served there as medical missionaries,[2] specifically, in Hsiang Cheng,[verification needed] on 30 September 1941.[citation needed] Guinness is the great-great-great grandson of Arthur Guinness, a Dublin brewer.[2] and so is of Irish descent.[3][better source needed] His parents named him after Scottish Baptist evangelist and teacher Oswald Chambers.[4][better source needed]

Guinness returned to England in 1951 for secondary school and eventual college.[5] He completed an undergraduate degree at the University of London[2] (Bachelor of Divinity with honours, 1966[citation needed]) and a social sciences/theology D.Phil. from Oriel College at Oxford University in 1982,[2][6][1] where he studied under Peter L. Berger.[citation needed][7]

Remove ads

Career

Summarize
Perspective
Thumb
Os Guinness, (left) with apologist Bill Edgar, at Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union event, St. Andrew the Great, Cambridge, England.

In the late 1960s, Guinness was a leader at the L'Abri community in Switzerland, and, after Oxford, a freelance reporter for the BBC.[when?][8] He wrote his first book, The Dust of Death, in 1973; John Frame called it "a wonderfully erudite and persuasive critique of the western culture of the late 1960s from a thoughtful, balanced Christian perspective."[9] As of September 2018, Guiness had written or edited more than 30 books;[2][needs update] in them, his stated aim has been to offer insight into current cultural, political, and social contexts.[citation needed]

From 1986 to 1989, Guinness served as Executive Director of the Williamsburg Charter Foundation, and was the leading drafter of the Williamsburg Charter, a bicentennial clarification and reaffirmation of the religious liberty clauses of the first amendment.[independent source needed] He was also a co-author of the public school curriculum, "Living With Our Deepest Differences", and continued through at least 2009 on its Drafting Committee.[10]

Guiness, along with Alonzo McDonald and perhaps other founded The Trinity Forum (in 1991),[11][verification needed] was reported as of 2018 to be a Senior Fellow there.[2] and was, as of May 2025, listed by the organisation as an Emeritus Fellow.[12]

Guiness was a primary drafter of The Global Charter of Conscience, published at the European Union Parliament in Brussels in June 2014.[citation needed] He has also been associated with the EastWest Institute in New York (as a Senior Fellow[when?]),[2] with the Woodrow Wilson Center (as a guest scholar[when?]),[2] with the Brookings Institution (as a guest scholar and visiting fellow[when?]),[2] and as of 2025 was listed as speaker associated with the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics.[13]

Remove ads

Published works

Summarize
Perspective

As of September 2018, Guinness had written or edited more than 30 books.[2][needs update] The following are a subset of those books, appearing between 1973 and 2024, in chronological order.

Authored books

  • (1973), The Dust of Death: A Critique of the Establishment and the Counter Culture and the Proposal for a Third Way, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
  • (1976), In Two Minds: The Dilemma of Doubt & How to Resolve It, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
  • (1983), The Gravedigger File, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press
  • (1992), The American Hour: A Time of Reckoning and the Once and Future Role of Faith, New York: Macmillan/Free Press.
  • (1993), Dining With the Devil: The Megachurch Movement Flirts With Modernity, Ada, MI: Baker.
  • (1994), The Dust of Death: The Sixties Counterculture and How It Changed America Forever, Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
  • (1994), Fit Bodies Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don't Think and What to Do About It, Ada, MI: Baker.
  • (1996), God in the Dark: The Assurance of Faith Beyond a Shadow of Doubt, Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
  • (1998), The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life, Nashville, TN: HarperCollins/Thomas Nelson.[2]
  • (1999), Character Counts: Leadership Qualities in Washington, Wilberforce, Lincoln, and Solzhenitsyn, Ada, MI: Baker.
  • (2000), Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype and Spin, Ada, MI: Baker.[2]
  • (2000), Steering Through Chaos: Vice and Virtue in an Age of Moral Confusion, Carol Stream, IL: Navpress.
  • (2001), The Great Experiment: Faith and Freedom in America, Carol Stream, IL: Navpress.
  • (2003), Long Journey Home: A Guide to Your Search for the Meaning of Life, Colorado Springs, CO: PRH/WaterBrook & Multnomah.
  • (2003), Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance, Ada, MI: Baker.
  • (2005), Unspeakable: Facing Up to the Challenge of Evil, San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins/HarperOne, retrieved 21 December 2016.[2]
  • (2008), The Case for Civility: And Why Our Future Depends on It, San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins/HarperOne.
  • (2010), The Last Christian on Earth: Uncover the Enemy's Plot to Undermine the Church, Ada, MI: Baker/Regal.
  • (2012), A Free People's Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, archived from the original on 22 December 2016, retrieved 18 December 2013.[2]
  • (2013), The Global Public Square: Religious Freedom and the Making of a World Safe for Diversity, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, archived from the original on 10 February 2017, retrieved 18 December 2013.[2]
  • (2014), Renaissance: The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, archived from the original on 22 December 2016, retrieved 14 August 2014.
  • (2015), Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
  • (2016), Impossible People, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
  • (2018), Last Call for Liberty: How America's Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
  • (2019), Carpe Diem Redeemed: Seizing the Day, Discerning the Times, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
  • (2021), The Magna Carta of Humanity: Sinai's Revolutionary Faith and the Future of Freedom, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
  • (2024), Our Civilizational Moment: The Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds, Kildare.

Edited works

  • , ed. (1990), Articles of Faith, Articles of Peace, Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
  • , ed. (1992), No God but God, Chicago: Moody Press.
  • , ed. (1998), Invitation to the Classics, Ada, MI: Baker.
  • , ed. (1999), Unriddling our Times, Ada, MI: Baker.
  • , ed. (2000), When No One Sees: Character in an Age of Image, Carol Stream, IL: NavPress
  • , ed. (2001), Doing Well and Doing Good, Carol Stream, IL: NavPress.
  • , ed. (2001), Entrepreneurs of Life, Carol Stream, IL: NavPress.
  • , ed. (2001), The Journey, Carol Stream, IL: NavPress.
Remove ads

Personal life

As of 2018, it had been reported that Guinness moved his residence to the Washington, D.C. (in 1984).[2] He and his wife Jenny have one son, and as of this date,[when?] they live in McLean, Virginia.[citation needed]

An Anglican, he attended the Episcopal Church, but left, finding it too theologically liberal, in 2006.[14] He currently attends The Falls Church, in the Anglican Church in North America. He was one of the speakers at the Anglican Church in North America Assembly in June 2014.[15]

Remove ads

References

Further reading

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads