May 23, 2021
Os Guinness on Liberty versus Oligarchy
I recently had a discussion with English author and critic Os Guinness over the new addition to his first major work, The Dust of Death, as well as his new book, The Magna Carta of Humanity. As a decades-long reader of Os Guinness, I knew I had to discuss his work, both new and old, through the lens of our current political and cultural crises.
With his new addition of The Dust of Death, Guinness discovers the origins of America’s ruling class in the turbulent countercultural radicalism of the 1960s. Between the revolutionary ideas, riots, and political purges, the parallels are undeniable, and Guinness’ timeless book could not be any more pertinent. The solution to this political chaos, he concludes, is a Christian “third way” materializing in true leadership – “We need a Lincoln.”
But we don’t have a Lincoln. How can “our side” return to the biblical roots of America’s founding and rediscover the intellectual heritage of the Reformation? That’s exactly what…