Impossible People: Christian Courage and the Struggle for the Soul of Civilization

Written by Os Guinness

Narrated by Derek Perkins

The church in the West is at a critical moment. While the gospel is exploding throughout the global south, Western civilization faces militant assaults from aggressive secularism and radical Islam. Will the church resist the seductive shaping power of advanced modernity? More than ever, Christians must resist the negative cultural forces of our day with fortitude and winsomeness. What is needed is followers of Christ who are willing to face reality without flinching and respond with a faithfulness that is unwavering. Os Guinness describes these Christians as "impossible people," those who have "hearts that can melt with compassion, but with faces like flint and backbones of steel who are unmanipulable, unbribable, undeterrable and unclubbable, without ever losing the gentleness, the mercy, the grace and the compassion of our Lord." Few accounts of the challenge of today are more realistic, and few calls to Christian courage are more timely, resolute?and hopeful. Guinness argues that we must engage secularism and atheism in new ways, confronting competing ideas with discernment and fresh articulation of the faith. Christians are called to be impossible people, serving an Impossible God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ChristianAudio.com
• Release date: Jul 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781683660446

Os Guinness

Os Guinness is an author and speaker living in the Washington, D.C., area. Born in China during World War II, Guinness left in 1951, after the Chinese Revolution. A graduate of the University of London and Oxford, Guinness is a former visiting fellow of the Brookings Institution. He has written or edited more than twenty books, including The Call, Invitation to the Classics, and Long Journey Home. A frequent speaker and seminar leader at political and business conferences in the United States, Europe, and Asia, Guinness has lectured at many universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Stanford, and has often spoken on Capitol Hill.

Reviews for Impossible People

[Alan Gilman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well thought out and presented. Audio version read well. Worth reading

[wilsonknut · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

ReviewImpossible People by Os Guinness argues that we are at a critical moment in history. It's not just a critical moment for the Christian church, but for civilization as a whole. In fact, he subtitles the book "Christian Courage and the Struggle for the Soul of Civilization." Hyperbole, you say? Guinness makes a strong case.Guinness believes we are at a singular critical moment similar to several moments in the early church. Pagan Rome threatened the church with secularism. Later, the Ottoman Empire threatened the church with Islam. However, at those times the West was moving towards Christianity. Today, it seems the threats are moving the world away from Christianity.Impossible People discusses multiple threats, but they seem to stem from or support the main threat: progressive secularism. As western societies try to denounce and turn away from Christian influence; the changes in technology, generationalism, sexual relativism, and terrorism leave us rootless. Guinness writes in response to Nietzsche, "In losing God, the Western world had lost its soul and its center. It had become weightless..." Guinness moves through these challenges logically, point by point.The title comes from the Jewish people, who never lost their identity through many challenges. It also comes from a label given Peter Damian in the eleventh-century. Damian refused to waver in his faithfulness to truth and the gospel when facing corruption in the church. He won the reputation for being "unmanipulable, unbribable, undeterrable, and in George Orwell's later term of approval, unclubbable." Guinness argues that believers today must be courageous, engage society, and have a fearless confidence in the gospel.Some will certainly see Impossible People as alarmist. It's important to remember that Christ says, "In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." The book is not an easy read, but I think it is well-thought out and insightful. Impossible People is a follow-up book to Renaissance. You can find both books at Amazon and other booksellers.