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Renaissance: The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times Paperback – July 1, 2014

by Os Guinness (Author)

4.5 144 ratings

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Logos Bookstores' Best Book in Christianity and Culture

Honorable Mention, Best Book of the Year from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore

We live in dark times. Christians wonder: Are the best days of the Christian faith behind us? Has modernity made Christian thought irrelevant and impotent? Is society beyond all hope of redemption and renewal?

In Renaissance, Os Guinness declares no. Throughout history, the Christian faith has transformed entire cultures and civilizations, building cathedrals and universities, proclaiming God's goodness, beauty and truth through art and literature, science and medicine. The Christian faith may similarly change the world again today. The church can be revived to become a renewing power in our society―if we answer the call to a new Christian renaissance that challenges darkness with the hope of Christian faith.

In this hopeful appeal for cultural transformation, Guinness shares opportunities for Christians, on both local and global levels, to win back the West and to contribute constructively to the human future. Hearkening back to similar pivotal points in history, Guinness encourages Christians in the quest for societal change. Each chapter closes with thought-provoking discussion questions and a brief, heart-felt prayer that challenges and motivates us to take action in our lives today.

Print length

192 pages
Language

English
Publisher

IVP
Publication date

July 1, 2014
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.6 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

0830836713
ISBN-13

978-0830836710
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Other books by Os Guinness are shown below


	Zero Hour America	The Great Quest	The Magna Carta of Humanity	The Dust of Death	Carpe Diem Redeemed	Fool's Talk

Customer Reviews	28	78	160	52	134	479
Price	$16.99	$11.42	$16.49	$19.45	$13.99	$15.94
Description	History's Ultimatum over Freedom and the Answer We Must Give	Invitation to an Examined Life and a Sure Path to Meaning	Sinai's Revolutionary Faith and the Future of Freedom	The Sixties Counterculture and How It Changed America Forever	Seizing the Day, Discerning the Time	Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion
Ebook available?	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓


	Last Call for Liberty	Impossible People	Renaissance	The Global Public Square	A Free People's Suicide

Customer Reviews	169	157	144	28	218
Price	$11.08	$15.00	$8.00	$9.71	$14.49
Description	How America's Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat	Christian Courage and the Struggle for the Soul of Civilization	The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times	Religious Freedom and the Making of a World Safe for Diversity	Sustainable Freedom and the American Future
Ebook available?	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Renaissance balances realism about our precarious cultural situation with a hope grounded in the continuing sovereignty of God and his promises." -- Christianity Today, October 2014

"How we see the world shapes what we do in the world. Unfortunately many in the West have lost the ability to see our culture through the lenses of history and Christian faith, and God's people oscillate between cultural captivity or fearful activism. Thankfully Christ has given us church leaders like Os Guinness to restore our sight. Drawing from history, Scripture and his own experience of global Christianity, Os helps us see our present circumstances in the right light. He illuminates why the catastrophizing done by many Christians amid cultural change is unwarranted, but also soberly addresses the genuine challenges we face with new clarity and gravity. Most helpful of all, Os directs our sight back to Christ, the author and completer of our faith, in whom we find both the courage and the resources to be his people in our time. You will not regret a single minute invested in this book." -- Skye Jethani, executive editor of Leadership Journal and author of Futureville

"Guinness is a profound thinker, weaving historical analysis, biblical insights, psycho-social understanding, and cultural awareness into deeply insightful conclusions. Recommend to pastors and ministry leaders." -- David Mundt, CBA Retailers + Resources, August 2014

"This is a profound, realistic and hopeful book that reminds us that even in the darkest times the power of the gospel can change the world. Guinness issues a clarion call to the Christian West to take up the battle against secularization by refusing to be conformed to the spirit of the age. We do not isolate ourselves from culture. Rather, Guinness calls for renewal: in our confidence in God, in the power of the gospel and in the great truths of Scripture, even as we engage with the world around us. No other writer I know offers such a rich background of astute cultural analysis combined with a deep understanding of history. I finished this book feeling a deep sense of hope, which was fortified by his powerful prayers at the end of each chapter. If we heed the wisdom in this marvelous book, we could well become effective agents for Christ for such a time as this." -- Rebecca Manley Pippert, speaker and author of Hope Has Its Reasons

"Os Guinness has written another terrific book, at once a zinging indictment of cultural idolatry in the Christian West and a clarion call to renewal on the model of Christ in the Gospels and the witness of the apostles. This is a highly readable, big-picture book, eminently suitable for discussion in groups, not least because it calls for a collective examination of conscience. His incisive eloquence and lucid prose, his witty, trenchant turn of phrase and zest for critical and theological realism mark this little volume as vintage Guinness; his call to a renaissance of authentic evangelical Christianity will renew in many their will to hope in a dark time, spero in Deo." -- David Lyle Jeffrey, Distinguished Professor of Literature and the Humanities, Honors College, Baylor University

"Drawing on his years of perceptive cultural analysis and his wide understanding of history, Os Guinness issues a penetrating call to the Christian church to take up the battle against the deep inroads of secularization by refusing to be conformed to the spirit of the age. This book encourages us to learn from the past and avoid repeating its mistakes, to be aware of the oft-forgotten influence of Christianity on Western culture and to engage more deeply with the truths of Scripture. It rightly argues for a return to God, not to an era, and sees our only hope in a return to the confidence in God and his power that characterized the early Christians, whose lives were defined by their fundamental credo: 'Jesus Christ is Lord.'" -- J. C. Lennox, professor of mathematics, University of Oxford, fellow in mathematics and philosophy of science, Green Templeton College

"For decades Os Guinness has been one of the most nuanced, realistic, yet hopeful voices calling Christians to engagement with culture. This latest volume from him should not be missed by anyone. Os summarizes some of the most helpful recent discussions, updates many of his own lifelong challenges to the church and provides many fresh insights. Highly recommended." -- Tim Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City

"[A] well-constructed, fun to read, challenging, and hopeful book. I highly recommend it." -- Robert E. Cranston, Ethics Medicine 31, no. 2, Summer 2015

"Guinness has written an eminently readable book with nuanced criticism and observations on the times that we are living in and how we as a church can best work as a body in living out our Christian mandate of being salt of the earth and light of the world." -- Ian A. Whytock, Haddington House Journal, 2015

"This marvelous book represents a summation of the years of study, reflection, and engagement that Os Guinness has lived. I would urge everyone concerned about the trends in the world, in the church, and in their souls, to read it and find themselves galvanized by Christian hope." -- William Edgar, Ordained Servant Online, January 2015

Review

"For decades Os Guinness has been one of the most nuanced, realistic, yet hopeful voices calling Christians to engagement with culture. This latest volume from him should not be missed by anyone. Os summarizes some of the most helpful recent discussions, updates many of his own lifelong challenges to the church and provides many fresh insights. Highly recommended."

-- Tim Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ IVP (July 1, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0830836713
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0830836710
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #371,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #210 in Sociology & Religion
- #1,226 in Christian Social Issues (Books)
- #8,524 in Christian Spiritual Growth (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 144 ratings

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Os Guinness

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Os Guinness is an author and social critic. Great-great-great grandson of Arthur Guinness, the Dublin brewer, he was born in China in World War Two where his parents were medical missionaries. A witness to the climax of the Chinese revolution in 1949, he was expelled with many other foreigners in 1951 and returned to Europe where he was educated in England. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of London and his D.Phil in the social sciences from Oriel College, Oxford.

Os has written or edited more than thirty books, including The Call, Time for Truth, Unspeakable, A Free People’s Suicide, and The Global Public Square. His latest book, Last Call for Liberty: How America’s Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat, was published in 2018.

Since moving to the United States in 1984, Os has been a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies, a Guest Scholar and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum and the EastWest Institute in New York. He was the lead drafter of the Williamsburg Charter in 1988, a celebration of the bicentennial of the US Constitution, and later of “The Global Charter of Conscience,” which was published at the European Union Parliament in 2012. Os has spoken at many of the world’s major universities, and spoken widely to political and business conferences across the world. He lives with his wife Jenny in the Washington DC area.

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WoodstockGirl

Excellent Presentation And Handling of Complex and Difficult Subject

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2015

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My heart is often weighed down by the "darkness" of our time. I read Renaissance hoping that by it my faith would be strengthened, and that I would gain a deeper understanding and perspective about the clashes and battles that rage in our world today - culturally (primarily), politically, internationally, etc. - from a biblical truth and reasoning point of view. This book certainly met my hopes. Renaissance not only sets forth a carefully constructed examination of relevant truths we can know and hold on to, but it is also done in a lucid, organized and readable " a - b - c ", " 1 - 2 - 3" fashion. The reader always knows exactly what point is being discussed, and what its significance is to the topic at hand. The author never rambles or strays off course from his focus and purpose. Mr Guinness draws from the sweep of history, the Bible, and the writings of others to present a very accessible and understandable examination of a complex, heavy and challenging topic. The points of discussion are more centered on what we need to know and understand, rather than on what we can "do" on a practical level of outward actions. Some may see this as a weakness in the book, but I believe it's the ideas and truths that reside in our hearts and minds that gives shape to our outward actions; one following the other. I believe Mr. Guiness builds a solid foundation of knowledge from which the reader can draw insight for applying and living out gospel centered truth in the world, at this time.

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Mtnuglet

this book by Guinness is one of the better ones. He is not unique in raising alarm ...

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2016

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Of all the books that have hit the shelves lately concerning the growth of the church, this book by Guinness is one of the better ones. He is not unique in raising alarm at the condition of the church in the modern world in relation to the times in which we live. At the same time, he does not belabor the point, instead Guinness insists that now is the time for reflection as well as action. Part of the problem in the last few decades has been too much action, without much reflection which has exhausted much of the church in America and the West. Guinness says in one section that "faithfulness and orthodoxy need never be frantic." Wise words indeed. Especially in light of the developing narrative in the press that seems to attempt to group all orthodox believers, Christian, Muslim, or any other, into one fanatical group that needs to be watched carefully.

Guinness isn't all caution and warnings. He brings to the table of a plan in three parts. 1. Prepare the Global South - He points out most of the true growth in the Kingdom is occurring in third world premodern regions, and one thing the churches in the West can do is help these churches prepare for the onslaughts of modernity. 2. Win back the West - Guinness means what he says. He points out that this is one of the jobs of the Church. We can't simply abandon what appears to be a thoroughly secular Europe, but instead a concentrated effort to bring a "third mission" to the west needs to be launched. 3. Contributing to the Human Future - Long has been the struggle in Europe and America between what it means to be in the world but not of it. Guinness points out that the effects of modernity are too severe for the Church to continue with such back biting arguments. An effort needs to be undertaken that will put the Church back into its God given job of caretaking the world and the inhabitants.

Another great book from one of the top thinkers and writers in the Church today. Well worth the time to read.

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M. Duran

A Grim, but Hopeful Outlook

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2014

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Subtitled “The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times,” the prolific author, speaker, and social critic Os Guinness pulls no punches about the bleakness of the times we live in. In his latest book entitled Renaissance, writes that

“…all civilizations, whatever their momentary grandeur, have an ultimate flimsiness that is paper thin and cannot hold back the barbarism.”

The “barbarism” Guinness refers to is not just the temptation to raw power or animalistic lust, but the underlying “spirit of the age” and our susceptibility to its whisper. And indeed, it’s the moral “barbarism” of our age, our constant drift from True North that, Guinness asserts, has led to the decline of the Western Church.

“…at this juncture, the West has cut itself off from its own Jewish and Christian roots — the faith, the ideas, the ethics and the way of life that made it the West. It now stands deeply divided, uncertain of its post-Christian identity, and with its dominance waning in the global era.”

While some dismiss the importance of Western civilization’s tether to its “Jewish and Christian roots,” Guinness sees the connection (or lack thereof) as central to the diagnosis of our spiritual plight. In fact, it is our disregard for God and desecration of Western tradition that has led to “decadence,” “desecration,” and “social chaos.”

“Western cultural elites have disregarded God for more than two centuries, but for a while the effects were mostly confined to their own circles. At first, they disregarded God. Then they deliberately desecrated Western tradition and lived in ways that would have spelled disaster if they had been followed more closely. But now in the early twenty-first century, their movement from disregard to desecration to decadence is going mainstream, and the United States is only the lead society among those close to the tipping point.

Soon, as the legalization and then normalization of polyamory, polygamy, pedophilia and incest follow the same logic as that of abortion and homosexuality, the socially destructive consequences of these trends will reverberate throughout society until social chaos is beyond recovery. We can only pray there will be a return to God and sanity before the terrible sentence is pronounced: “God has given them over’ to the consequences of their own settled choices.”

A grim outlook indeed!

So while “the Western church was the single strongest source of ideas that shaped the rise of the modern world,” it has now become “culturally captive to the world to which it gave rise.”

While Guinness clearly writes from an Evangelical perspective, both wings of the Western church — the Left and Right — come under equal scrutiny in his assessment. In both cases, however, it is a move away from the plain, simple teachings of Jesus and an embrace of the “spirit of the age” which makes both the Evangelical and the Progressive contributors in our descent into “advanced modernity.”

“A striking symptom of the church’s problems in the West today is that fact that in a country such as the United States, Christians are still the overwhelming majority of citizens, but the American way of life has moved far away from the life of Jesus — which means simply that the Christians who are the majority are living a way of life closer to the world than to the way of Jesus. In a word, they are worldly and therefore incapable of shaping their culture.”

Ultimately, though Guinness’s assessment is bleak, he seeks to summon hope in the reader, concluding that the Western Church needs nothing short of a new Reformation, one that breaks from the allure of secularism and the Church’s enticement with the spirit of the age. It is less about labels than it is a return to orthodoxy.

“There are many traditions among the followers of Jesus — the Orthodox, Catholic, Evangelical, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Anabaptist and Pentecostal being only the main ones in the West. But an important fact has grown clear over the last generation. Those who are faithful and orthodox in each tradition are closer to the faithful and orthodox in other traditions than to the liberal revisionists in their own tradition. In other words, the closer we are to Jesus,k the less significant the labels that once divided us.” (emphasis mine)

This is a relatively small book (170-some pages) but extremely dense. Each chapter ends with a prayer, reminding the reader that real, long-term change begins with the individual. It is as I move closer to Jesus and further from the enticements of “the world, the flesh, and the devil,” that hope arises, both in me and the world I inhabit. In this sense, Guinness’s central theme is simple, straightforward and hopeful:

“Let there be no wavering in our answer. Such is the truth and power of the gospel that the church can be revived, reformed and restored to be a renewing power in the world again. There is no question that the good news of Jesus has effected powerful personal and cultural change in the past. There is no question too that it is still doing so in many parts of the world today. By God’s grace it will do so again even here in the heart of the advanced modern world where the Christian church is presently in sorry disarray.”

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Hanniel

Das Evangelium hat die Kraft für eine Erneuerung!

Reviewed in Germany on November 4, 2015

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Die Fragestellung

Hat der christliche Glaube überhaupt eine Zukunft, und wenn ja, welche? Die Antwort folgt vorab mit einem kräftigen Ja. Das Evangelium verfügt über die Kraft zu erneuern!

Der Autor
Os Guinness (* 1941), unter Peter Berger promovierter Religionssoziologe, versteht sich als Brückenbauer zwischen akademischer Sphäre und Alltagswelt. Er verfügt über eine globale Perspektive, denn er kennt China ebenso wie die USA und Europa. Dieser

Die Absicht

Dieses kurze Buch stellt eine Art Kulturkritik dar, besser gesagt, es beschreibt die Grundlinien zum Leben einer christlichen Gegenkultur. In Guinness‘ eigenen Worten wird die Vision einer realistischen, dringend nötigen christlichen Renaissance entworfen.

Die Agenda

Welcher inhaltlichen Agenda folgt Guinness? In einem nachdenklichen und gleichzeitig eloquenten Stil durchschreitet er ein weit abgestecktes Gelände. Die erste Zone: Welche globalen Aufgaben stehen für die Gemeinde, deren „DNS“ ja eine globale Vision enthält, bevor? Im einem zweiten Teil beschäftigt er sich mit dem Argumentationsmuster „Jesus + Nothing“, einer Charakterisierung „Christus gegen die Kultur“ und befindet diese als unzulänglich. Im dritten Abschnitt stellt er die Frage, wie christliche Treue und Gehorsam der Wahrheit gegenüber die Welt verändern könne. Damit eng verbunden ist viertens die Dynamik des Königsreichs, insbesondere das Nebeneinander-stehen von göttlich souveränem Wirken und dem Wahrnehmen menschlicher Verantwortung. Der Schlussstein wird mit der Botschaft „das goldene Zeitalter steht noch bevor“ gesetzt.

Die Antworten

Welche konkreten Antworten bietet Guinness auf seine eingangs gestellte Frage?

1. Es gilt die Vision vom Königreich Gottes im Auge zu behalten. Guinness orientiert sich an der augustinischen Zwei-Reiche-Lehre. Unser finales Ziel ist Gottes Reich, nicht das dieser Welt. Wir werden uns in die Reihe der Glaubensvorbilder einreihen, die ihr Leben in der noch nicht realisierten Hoffnung verbracht haben (Hebr 11).

2. Guinness ist (meines Erachtens zu Recht) zurückhaltend, eine zu pessimistische Optik einzunehmen. So rühmt er den Lauf der westlichen Geschichte als Sieg des Lammes über alle bestimmenden Mächte dieser Erde. Er bezieht dies beispielsweise auf den Siegeszug des Evangeliums in heidnischen Europa nach dem Zusammenbruch des Römischen Reichs.

3. Ebenso verliert der Autor die gegenwärtige erstaunliche globale Entwicklung der Gemeinde nicht aus dem Blick. Welche Aufbrüche hat Gott in Afrika, Asien und Südamerika geschenkt! Allerdings fügt er sogleich warnend hinzu: Manche Entwicklungen der Moderne sind in diesen Gebieten der Erde noch nicht richtig angekommen bzw. beginnen erst jetzt Fuss zu fassen.

4. Manche Stellen sind erfrischend einfach, aber nicht simplifiziert. So definiert Guinness etwa die Kultur als „ein Weg gemeinsam gelebten Lebens“ („a way of life lived in common“, 753). Wer sich schon tiefer im Thema Kulturkritik vergraben hat, ist dankbar um solch bündige Definitionen und Antworten.

5. Guinness versäumt es nicht, zwei Seiten der christlichen Anthropologie gleichermassen herauszustellen: Die Würde des Menschen durch die Erschaffung im Ebenbild Gottes und seine Fähigkeit zur Kulturentwicklung ebenso wie die Perversion und Entstellung dieser Entwicklung durch die Sünde. Mit Bezug auf C. S. Lewis beschreib er Christen als Welt verneinend („world denying“) und gleichzeitig Welt bejahend („world affiriming“) Dieses Spannungsfeld darf und kann nicht aufgelöst werden.

6. Besonders tröstlich empfand ich die Erinnerung, dass der christliche Glaube eine einzigartige Chance zur Erneuerung und Besinnung beinhaltet. Im Gegensatz zu Ideologien wie beispielweise dem Marxismus sind Christen in der Lage, eigenes Versagen als Sünde zu bekennen. Dies bildete in ihrer Geschichte immer wieder den Beginn von neuen Aufbrüchen.

7. Das Warnschild, das über dem ganzen Buch aufleuchtet, lässt sich so beschreiben: Unsere Therapeuten und Consultants dürfen niemals unser Vertrauen in Gottes mächtiges Handeln ersetzen. Leider leben wir weitgehend so, wie wenn wir unseres Schöpfers gar nicht mehr bedürfen würden. Das täuscht uns über unseren wahren Zustand hinweg.

Fazit

Das Buch ist nüchtern und gleichzeitig hoffnungsvoll gehalten. Guinness sieht das Buch in gewisser Weise als „Begleitschreiben“ des „Evangelical Manifest“ (2008), an dem er mitgewirkt hatte und das im Wortlaut im Anhang wiedergegeben ist. Etwas vom faszinierendsten sind die kraftvollen Gebete am Ende jedes Kapitels.

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