Unspeakable: Facing Up to the Challenge of Evil

The reviews of this book reveal that Mr. Guinness is "dinged" for one consistent reason only: his Christian faith. There is no criticism of his thinking (he is exceptionally lucid and insightful) or his delivery (always candid and respectful). Mr. Guinness is Christian, and as such, he does not receive the level playing field of the naturalist or secular humanist. This bothers me. I am especially concerned because the book is about evil and the devaluation Mr. Guinness receives simply because of his faith is nothing if it is not evil and bigotry.This is not limited to the individual reviews. Look at the Publishers Weekly review above: "Guinness, one of evangelical Christianity's few public intellectuals...." Why is it okay to do this with Christians? Could we be so accepting if it were blacks? Muslims? Atheists? Chinese? Hindus? Publishers Weekly continues: "His Christian convictions are evident, but he engages respectfully with those who do not share them." It is very interesting that other reviewers also emphasize that Mr. Guinness is a Christian, but doesn't write offensively. Have we lost even the concept that those whose convictions differ from our own cannot extend to us respect and courtesy? Is respect only to be expected from those who have NO convictions (or perhaps no Christian convictions)? Is it possible for anyone to be without some absolute convictions? I think not. I guess we are all doomed to be offensive to each other, instead of grateful for the freedom to think and express ourselves, to the end we might be iron sharpening iron.Reading this book is like taking in calories - it is nourishing even though it is not a comfortable read. Mr. Guinness has a rare gift of very deep thought and the ability to write in precise language. His arguments are, at least to my mind, unassailable.Those who discredit Mr. Guinness for his faith should re-read pp. 231 and 232 of this book, which I will quote here: "One of the main lessons is to reconsider the significance of evil for our understanding of public and international life, though this topic would require a book in itself. I would simply argue here that living with our deepest differences is one of the world's critical problems and that one of the overlooked keys to solving it is to give religious liberty its due place in public life. People of different faiths--including secularism--might then relate to public life constructively and to each other civilly."At the very least, we must shed Enlightenment prejudices about religion and consider the facts more objectively. We must reject the hoary myth that 'religion is the problem,' as well as the fallacious idea that the answer is a public square denuded of all religion....The quality and tone of the public discussion would improve immeasurably if secularists were to acknowledge that their faith is one faith among others and talk openly of their own failures--on the one hand, directly inspiring utopian evil, and on the other, failing to provide humanistic values strong enough to resist modern evil."As the global public square emerges, there are two particular errors we cannot afford. One is to replace the religious establishments of the past with a secularist establishment or semi-establishment. The other is to create a two-tier global public square in which the cosmopolitan liberal secularists form the top tier of the global elites and all religious believers are relegated to the second rank. In a truly diverse world, neither of these options for the public square is just and neither is workable."I find it frightening that Mr. Guinness's words appear to be coming true. The bottom tier, the back of the bus, is to be occupied by Christians and others who embrace religious world views, while the top tier would never include them simply because they are people of faith.

In the author’s typical eloquent and well thought out manner, he here attacks one of the most difficult issues for a theist, evil and suffering. He and his family have history with such and so he has standing to make his case.He organizes it around the ugly history of evil and the major worldview answers to the seven questions evil presents, grouped around the eastern religions, the biblical religions and the secularist religions.Poignant and gripping are the stories of evil and suffering that he presents, worth the read for this.He summarizes: our challenge today is not to resort to faith as a crutch because reason has stumbled, but rather to it knowledge that reason, and it’s long, arduous search, has come up short and that where it has stopped just pointed beyond itself to answers that only faith can fulfill.Would also suggest the interested check out: The Problem of Suffering: A Father’s Hope by Gregory Schulz

Os Guinness pulls no punches regarding the pervasiveness and awfulness of evil, particularly moral evil, which he discusses in detail. He doesn't come up with pat answers for unanswerable aspects and in fact cautions against demanding ultimate answers. But he tactfully compares how three general categories of belief address evil...— Eastern families of faith— Secular families of faith (the word 'faith' is appropriate here, as Os illustrates)— Biblical families of faith....and effectively argues that only the Judeo-Christian perspective faces the reality of evil meaningfully.

Great book! Very insightful! Highly recommend!

Using this as a primary textbook for a class I am teaching on Theodicy -- I really like the format, with the 7 questions as the 'section headings' and then the short, easily readable chapters.

Os Guinness does us all a tremendous service by parsing out bedrock elements regarding the presence of evil in our world and our potential response to it...primarily fight or flight. The call is clearly to step up to our responsibility to address the evil done, both to us and by us, and to overcome evil with good...like Jesus did.

Brilliant Os Guinness has done it again; great read, and very enlightening. A big help in this age of 'there is no truth, there is no reason, and there is no such thing as evil".

I'VE READ 4 OF MR. GUINNESS' BOOKS AND LIKED EVERY ONE OF THEM.

This is an excellent book! Should be read!

Dies ist Teil meines Projekts „3 Stunden für ein Buch“; in dieser Zeit suche ich das Wichtigste aus einem Buch heraus zu filtern.Wer schreibt?Der in China geborene, seinen Namen auf die Bierbrauer-Dynastie zurückführende, beim Religionssoziologen Peter Berger promovierte, Gelehrte und Verteidiger des christlichen Glaubens Os Guinness (* 1941).Wie ist der Schreibstil?Guinness versteht sich als Brückenbauer zwischen akademischer Sphäre und Alltagswelt. Er schreibt nicht als christlicher Insider, sondern als weltgereister Mann, der die Sprache des säkularen Menschen versteht und seine Anliegen in dieser Terminologie adressieren kann.Was ist das Anliegen des Buches?Guinness geht der Frage am Christentum schlechthin und besonders der (Spät-)Moderne nach – der Frage nach dem menschlichen Leid. Diese erhielt zusätzliche Brisanz durch den 11. September 2001. Just in jenen Tagen hielt der Autor einen Vortrag zum Thema LEID.Was ist die Handlungsempfehlung, die aus dem Buch resultiert?Guinness bezeichnet sich als Nachfolger von Jesus. Er greift Ereignisse aus Literatur und Geschichte ganz unterschiedlicher Kulturen auf. Das Christentum, davon ist er überzeugt, muss sich vor keinem Aspekt und keiner Anfrage der Wirklichkeit fürchten.Es geht weniger darum, eine rationale und in sich schlüssige Erklärung für das Leid zu liefern, als vielmehr eine Generation aufzufordern, leidenschaftlich Gerechtigkeit zu suchen und den Mut aufzubringen, dafür einzustehen (so schreibt er in seiner Widmung).In welchen Schritten wird das Thema erarbeitet?Guinness legt dem Buch sieben Fragestellungen zugrunde. Es sind allesamt weit gefasste Fragen. Woher kommt das Böse? Wie begegnen wir der instinktiv auftauchenden Fragekette: Warum ich, wo ist Gott, wie stehe ich das durch? Was ist Folge der neuen Kräfte und Möglichkeiten der modernen Welt? Wie beantworten die Sprecher verschiedener Traditionen und Kulturen die Frage nach Schmerz und Leid? Was können wir dagegen tun, gibt es überhaupt etwas zu tun? Warum kann ich gerade das nicht ergründen, was ich am liebsten verstehen würde? Gibt es Gutes, das aus dem Bösen hervorgeht?Wer sollte das Buch lesen?Der Leser muss bereit sein, sich auf eine denkerische Reise zu begeben. Es warten keine schnellen Antworten auf ihn, sondern ein sich durch manche Argumente, Vergleiche und Vorkommnisse schlängelndes Nachdenken. Guinness kommt zum Schluss, dass das jüdisch-christliche Erbe zwar nicht alle Antworten, aber einen gangbaren Weg für den Fragenden und Suchenden bereithält. Die auf den letzten vier Seiten bereitgestellte Liste von Büchern enthält manchen Titel von Denkern und Zeitzeugen aus dem hinter uns liegenden 20. Jahrhundert.

My problem with this order, which came through the UK PaperBack Shop was that the book that I was sent had been extremely badly produced by the publisher. It wasn't the content of the book that I disliked. It was the production of this particular copy. The headlines on the pages were nearly off the top of the page, the print looked terrible and was sometimes crooked on the page - it looked like a totally amateur product. It thus reduced the value of the book (the words) itself and made it look like some kind of a joke. Whereas in fact this book by Os Guinness is one of the best that I have read about the problem of evil. I couldn't possibly have given that copy to a friend (which I had intended to do). So I sent it back and have ordered another copy from Blackwells Bookshop in the hopes that they will be rather more particular about the quality of the production of the book they are selling than UKPaperBackShop were.

good but a bit heavy in places

Interesting read