Ordained Servant: The Orthodox Presbyterian Church

The astonishing breadth of Os Guinness’s knowledge of history, trends, and biblical truth is only exceeded by the boldness, indeed the urgency, of his proposal: “These bones can live” (Ezek. 37:5–6). Why would an appeal to God’s resurrection power be bold or urgent? Because of what Guinness describes in the pages of the book. The first chapter appeals to us to recognize our “Augustinian Moment.” Just as Augustine was active during the collapse of the Roman Empire, so are we alive at a time of transition, living as we do “in the twilight of five hundred years of Western dominance of the world” (22). Guinness argues that the West has become post-Christian. It is characterized by “advanced modernity.” Despite the unquestioned advantages of science, globalization, and technology that advanced modernity brings to us, these very advances, with their Christian underpinnings gone, have been powerful instruments for the secularization of the church. The salt and light that the church once brought to civilization have been removed. What about the Global South? Whereas there is extraordinary growth of the Christian presence in the Global South, for which we may be very grateful, the liability there is that the impact of the Christian faith is often “a mile wide and an inch deep” (36). And because modernity will inevitably steamroll its way into the Global South, the church there may be ill-prepared to face its distorting power.

Guinness has described the wet-blanket of modernity in a number of his previous books. Here he underscores the fatal temptation of evaluating things with “measurable outcomes.” He quotes former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as saying, “In God we trust; all others bring metrics” (39). As a seminary professor, I am particularly sensitive to this critique, because in the years since I began my career I have seen various institutions whose putative call is to train ministers increasingly subject themselves to trends, measurable goals, large administrative staffs, strategic plans, and ever-improving computer technology. Guinness never suggests these are bad in themselves. But he states the obvious: you can measure the enormous tonnage of sheep and oxen sacrificed in Solomon’s temple, but not what made God say he was sick of them (43).

How can all this change? The simple answer is the gospel, God’s power unto salvation. The historical verification of this is what Guinness calls the two great missions to the West. They were completely unlikely, even impossible to human eyes. But they happened. The first was the conversion of the Roman Empire, followed by the taming of European barbarians by the cross of Christ. At the “Augustinian Moment” the Christian faith was moving from becoming merely legal (under Constantine) to becoming predominant (in the early Middle Ages). The second was when the “Irish saved civilization,” in the language of Thomas Cahill. St. Columbanus and many others who loved the Bible rekindled the nearly extinguished light of culture to the European Continent. Eventually followed the Reformation, the Awakenings, and the reforms against slavery, poor health care, and racism, led by believers such as William Wilberforce, Florence Nightingale, and Martin Luther King Jr. (49–50).

Guinness challenges us to engage in a third mission to the West. Such a mission would address issues such as secularization, pollution, civil disharmony, consumerism, Islam, and so many more. In short, Guinness calls us to look for a renaissance. He carefully explains that he is not inviting us to a return to the Renaissance which began at the quattrocento, which, though glorious, was only partly Christian. He likes this term because it literally means rebirth. If we so chose we could use other equivalents, such as renewal, reformation, restoration, revival (29). One of the great virtues of this book is that at no point does the author give us a method on producing a Christian culture. In fact, the kingdom of God most often leads to cultural benefits as a by-product rather than from a direct program (107). This reviewer would have been interested to know if Os Guinness has ever spent time seriously interacting with Abraham Kuyper, Klaas Schilder, or other so-called neo-Calvinists. While some of his emphases strongly resemble them, his language is less directly theological, and certainly less philosophical than theirs, which is not to say it is less learned.

Perhaps the greatest strength of the book is its balance between a devastating critique of modern cultural trends and a humble dependence on the Lord. He constantly warns against triumphalism, or trying to achieve results by strategies and five-year plans. He points out that the gospel came to Europe not by missions tactics, but by special supernatural intervention. “When that unknown rabbi (Paul) crossed unheralded from Troas to Philippi at the orders of the Spirit of God, it made more impact on world history than even the great sea battle of Actium a few miles away, the battle that settled the fate of the Roman Empire after the assassination of Julius Caesar” (102). This is not to say we do nothing, or “let go and let God.” Rather, what we do is to live faithfully before God, to respond against injustice, to create beautiful music, lift up the family, fight for life, etc.

Os Guinness proclaims hope throughout this text. God will not forget his purposes. The darkest hour is just before dawn. If we look first to be living-out the priorities of God’s kingdom, we can then wait for God to move. How and when he will do it are not easy to say, nor should we expend a great deal of energy doing so. But he will. The last chapter in the book is An Evangelical Manifesto. The brief document is a call to Evangelicals (in this case, particularly American Evangelicals) to reassert their proper biblical identity in the light of the various confusions and corruptions which plague them. The document is a robust appeal to be truly faithful to Christ as he is presented in the Scriptures. He asks that we be neither privatized nor politicized (171). He asks that the public square be civil, not “naked” (173). He asks that we follow the way of Jesus, not of Constantine, particularly in the light of the two great threats of coercive secularism on the one side and religious extremism on the other (174).

One added bonus in the book is that each chapter ends with a powerful prayer, and then with discussion questions. A good use of it thus could be in small groups, which could read a chapter, pray over the issues, and apply the contents to their lives using the discussion questions. 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 is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America serving as Professor of Apologetics and Ethics at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ordained Servant Online, January 2015.