Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype & Spin (Hourglass Books) [Hardcover]

Os Guinness (Author)

Book Description

Series: Hourglass Books | Publication Date: February 2000

One word of truth outweighs the entire world. So said Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the former Soviet Unions one-man dissident movement whose courageous stand for truth helped topple his countrys machinery of propaganda, deception, and terror.

But in the West today it appears that truth in any objective form is dead. At best it is relative and at worst it is created. Where does this leave us?

In Time for Truth Os Guinness argues that truth is far from deadnot only is it alive and well, but it is undeniable and far from inconsequential. Truth matters supremely, he says, because without truth there is no freedom. In fact, truth is freedom, and the only way to live a free life is to become a person of truth.

Guinness examines the crisis of truth and explores the personal, practical, and public considerations of becoming people of truth. Living in truth has consequences on many areas of life, including politics, scholarship, and business. But it begins and ends with the personalwith each of us as who we really are.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beloved Christian writer Guinness here bemoans current-day relativism and pleads with his readers to recognize the value of truth. We live in a new order, Guinness writes, in which "truth is dead and knowledge is only power." But this new creed will not bring about the utopia its postmodern boosters imagine. To the contrary, he contends, postmodernity, along with its cousin multiculturalism, may be the worst tragedy in all American history: if unchecked, it will end America's leadership of the West. (Clinton, "the first postmodern president," comes in for special opprobrium.) Guinness, however, is no fan of modernity, which, he says, relies too much on human reason. In place of either modernity or postmodernity, he encourages embracing the traditional religious worldview provided by Judaism and Christianity. Guinness is a lucid writer, and he presents his ideas without too much bombast (although his defense of faith is marred by a certain pro-American chauvinism). The ideas themselves are old news--which is precisely what Guinness likes about them. Unfortunately, he does not have the masterful gifts for apology of, say, G. K. Chesterton or Cornelius Van Til. In the end, even the reader who agrees with Guinness may feel that he sounds like an out-of-date grandfather arguing a case that has already been lost, with interlocutors who have already moved on to another conversation. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Like Philip Yancey, another prolific and popular evangelical Christian writer, Guinness writes well, with plenty of appropriate citations of literary sources beyond the Bible. Intentionally producing a short book on a topic that could occupy volumes, he dissects the modern and postmodern presumptions about truth that have eventuated in such problematic outcomes of justice as the acquittals of O. J. Simpson and President Clinton. The modern presumption is that truth is historically, culturally, and even personally contingent, and the postmodern presumption is that truth is a function of power. He is not as successful in selling the Jewish and Christian view that truth is permanent and absolute. Seemingly assuming that he is addressing the already convinced and forensically adept, he explains but doesn't exemplify how to argue against either modern or postmodern relativism. For such modeling, religiously unconvinced readers piqued by Guinness' effort should turn to Peter Kreeft's excellent and entertaining Refutation of Moral Relativism. Ray Olson

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Baker Pub Group (February 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801011957
• ISBN-13: 978-0801011955
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,051,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

OS GUINNESS (DPhil, Oxford University) was born in China, raised and educated in England, and moved to the United States in 1984. He directs the Trinity Forum and is a former fellow at the East-West Institute in New York. His books include The American Hour, No God But God, and The Dust of Death.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth Is True: Even if No One Believes It., May 4, 2000

By 

K. Potts (Omaha, Nebraska USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype & Spin (Hourglass Books) (Hardcover)

The title of this review is a direct quote from this book (p. 80). Os Guinness exposes falsehood in society at large and in the United States in particular. Guiness throughout this book takes on the stance of "relativism" in the modern world, and then shows from history the result of that belief system and its consequences. He quotes Nietzche who said, "It is our preference that decides against Christianity, not arguments (p. 114)." Guinness lays out that those who believe in no absolutes, like Nietzche, have false beliefs that will betray them in the end. Guinness draws out an argumentation that says truth, which is reality, will always have the final say. Guiness pulls no punches when he attacks governmental leaders as well. He quotes Tacitus, who was a Roman poet who said, "The more corrupt the state, the more laws (p. 86)." Then Guinness takes the argument for truth and living by the truth, straight back to God who requires true living. Guinnes shows how false beliefs affect not just the individual who has those beliefs, but how when this belief system becomes the common way of thinking, it affects the society as a whole. Guinness does give the answer for a return to a truthful society and the great consequences on one's life and the society's as well. I have read some of Guinness' other works which I highly recommend. But if I had to pick one of this author's book to recommend to anyone, it is this book by far. And, that's the truth.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth is True: Even if No One Believes it., March 14, 2002

By 

K. Potts (Omaha, Nebraska USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype, and Spin (Paperback)

The title of this review is a direct quote from this book (p. 80 hardcover edition). Os Guinness exposes falsehood in society at large and in the United States in particular. Guinness throughout this book takes on the stance of "relativism" in the modern world, and then shows from history the result of that belief system and its consequences. He quotes Nietzche who said, "It is our preference that decides against Christianity, not arguments (p. 114)." Guinness lays out that those who believe in no absolutes, like Nietzche, have false beliefs that will betray them in the end. Guinness draws out an argumentation that says truth, which is reality, will always have the final say. Guinness pulls no punches when he attacks governmental leaders as well. He quotes Tacitus, who was a Roman poet who said, "The more corrupt the state, the more laws (p. 86)." Then Guinness takes the argument for truth and living by the truth, straight back to God who requires true living. Guinness shows how false beliefs affects not just the individual who has those beliefs, but how when this belief system becomes the common way of thinking, it affects the society as a whole. Guinness does give the answer for a return to a truthful society and the great consequences on one's life and the society's as well. I have read some of Guinness' other works which I highly recommend. But if I had to pick one of this author's books to recommend to anyone, it is this book by far. And, that's the truth.

(Review is from hardcover edition).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Call to Arms for Truth in American Culture, July 12, 2002

By 

John DePoe (Iowa City, Iowa USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype, and Spin (Paperback)

Os Guiness, a top quality sociologist, is uniquely gifted at explaining difficult cultural factors in a manner that the general public can grasp. This book is not a comprehensive refutation of postmodern and modern epistemological systems. Rather, it is a critique of our cultural values and practices as a result of the modern and (especially) the postmodern theories of truth. Many of the examples he uses are easy to remember and embody the point he is trying to make (I will never look at Jay Leno the same - you will know what I mean if you read the book). It is not a difficult read, and the case is plainly made for Truth.