Book Review: Unspeakable - Facing Up to the Challenge of Evil

Book Review: "Unspeakable - Facing Up to the Challenge of Evil," Os Guinness, New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005. 242 pages.

I have had Os Guinness' books on my bookshelves before, but I had never taken the time to read them. Then I had opportunity to hear him speak at the RZIM Summer Institute in 2012 and realized I needed to start reading his work. He is a man with a brilliant mind and a great grasp of history. In "Unspeakable," Guinness takes on one of the most challenging issues we face as human beings, that of evil: it's source, its substance, its remedy. A daunting task to be sure.

It's difficult to know where to begin with this review - I can't imagine how challenging it would have been to write the book. To each of us, this subject is uniquely personal. We all have, or will, experience or witness evil and suffering in our own lives. As Guinness says: "One of the effects of globalization today is that our eyes vastly outreach our hands and our pockets. We always see more evil and suffering than we can possibly respond to."

Os builds his book around seven questions:

1. Where on earth does evil come from?
2. What's so right about a world so wrong? (Or "why me?" or "where's God?)
3. Are we really worse or just modern?
4. Do the differences make a difference?
5. Isn't there something we can do?
6. Why can't I know what I need to know?
7. Isn't there any good in all this bad?

Throughout the book Guinness explores these questions through the lens of different worldviews, taking pains to respectfully share each point of view. He makes three arguments throughout the book: "that there are important differences between the various answers to evil; that these differences make a difference; and that the differences make a difference not only for individuals but for societies." 

His thoughtful and reasonable approach provides a great deal of insight into an issue which has long been discussed, but not understood. He destroys the modern myth that most evil is perpetrated by people of faith. In fact, the twentieth century was the bloodiest in the history of the world, largely due to the atheistic regimes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and the like. But the biggest question arising out of the discussion is number 5: "Isn't there something we can do?"

 Guinness provides three features to a biblical response to evil and suffering:

1. There is an acknowledgement that evil resides in each of our hearts.
2. There is a commitment to forgive the evildoer appropriately, though without condoning the evil deed. (Witness the success of this approach in post-apartheid South Africa.)
3. The commitment to take a practical stand against evil and injustice.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The bottom line to all of this is that each of us are challenged to take a stand against evil - that begins in our own hearts. This book shares many brilliant examples of brave men and women who have dared to stand and who made a difference against evil. Let me conclude with a quote from one of the giants of the twentieth century, Alexander Solzhenitsyn. "Let us not forget that violence does not and cannot flourish by itself; it is inevitably intertwined with lying. Between them there is the closest, the most profound and natural bond: nothing screens violence except lies, and the only way lies can hold out is by violence. Whoever has once announced violence as his method must inevitably choose lies as his principle... The simple act of an ordinary courageous man is not to take part, not to support lies! Let the lie come into the world, even dominate the world, but not through me." (Nobel address, 1970)

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Top 5 New Blog Posts for July 2012

Here are the top 5 blog posts for the month of July by views, beginning with number 5:

5. If I Had It To Do Over Again
This blog was written during a week when I was conducting two funerals and giving a lot of thought to how I wanted to be remembered. It's based on a book by Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse who spent several years working in palliative care, caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. She wrote a book on the biggest regrets of the dying. The findings of her study were the inspiration for this blog.

 
4. Book Review: The Last Christian On Earth
This book was written by Os Guinness, a British author who had the privilege of hearing this summer. This book was originally published in 1983 under the title "The Gravedigger File: Papers on the Subversion of the Modern Church." It has been updated and re-released. Guinness is an accomplished author with a DPhil from Oxford University who has written or edited over 30 books.

3. A Picnic - Or A Pilgrimage?
Inspired by a quote I read on a friend's Facebook page, this piece deals with the church, and its tendency to preach and condemn rather than lovingly demonstrate a better way by their lifestyle. All too often I deal with people who have been turned off of even the idea of Christianity because of Christians behaving badly. How well do you represent Christ?  

 
2. When It Rains On Your Parade 
How do you respond when life lets you down? This is actually more of an article for leaders on how to manage unexpected challenges. It was written after our town's Heritage Committee was forced to cancel our 140th anniversary celebration due to inclement weather. There are lessons to be learned from everything - even a rainy day.



1. The Mark of a True Man - Heroes of Aurora
Not surprisingly, the blog post on the shooting in Aurora, Colorado garnered the most viewers. There were four young men in the theater that night who laid down their lives for their girlfriends. They will be forever be remembered for their bravery and for modeling what true love looks like. 




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Book Review: The Last Christian On Earth

Book review: "The Last Christian on Earth - Uncover the Enemy's Plot to Undermine the Church," Ventura, CA: Gospel Light, 2010. 254 pages.

Os Guinness earned a DPhil from Oxford University , has been a freelance reporter for BBC, and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution  and a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies.

I had the opportunity to hear Os Guinness teach a short time ago at the RZIM Summer Institute. I was impressed by his ability to communicate and his obvious understanding of history and contemporary culture. His grasp on the forces shaping our culture is obvious after reading "The Last Christian on Earth."

This book was originally published in 1983 under the title "The Gravedigger File: Papers on the Subversion of the Modern Church." It has been updated and re-released. The gravedigger thesis, the theme around which the story is written is this: "The Christian faith contributed decisively to the rise of the modern world, but it has been undermined decisively by the modern world it helped to create. The Christian faith has become its own gravedigger."

Os Guinness

Born in China, educated in Europe and living and working in the U.S. has given Os Guinness a unique perspective from which to analyze the church. In the style of John le Carré, and reminiscent of Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters," Guinness has used the literary device of writing memoranda from one spy to another about how to undermine the church. It is a thought-provoking work that should be read by Christian leaders and influencers.

It certainly gives much food for thought on where the church has gone wrong and how to correct those errors. It speaks of the different reactions to modern culture and where they have failed: from the trap of isolationism to the compromise of liberalism and points in between. The question he asks is pertinent for every Christian leader: "Can we regain the full integrity of faith in Christ while fully and properly engaged in the advanced modern world?"

The answer is, obviously, "yes," but the questions remain. "How will we?" and "will we?" Guinness recommends that "the old three-step approach of 'discern, assess, and engage' is still the better way." So this book is an invitation to take a serious look at the culture in light of the Gospel - and this can only begin with a renewed commitment to the core truths of the Gospel. Thus, Guinness ends the book with a printing of "An Evangelical Manifesto," written in 2008 by a number of Evangelical scholars including Charles Colson. It is a call to do exactly what Guinness' book calls us to do. I recommend this book for any serious Christian concerned about how best to engage the culture.     

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