Product Description

In our postmodern society, truth no longer exists in any objective or absolute sense. At best, truth is considered relative; at worst, a matter of human convention. But as Os Guinness points out in this important book, truth is a vital requirement for freedom and a good life. Time for Truth will challenge you to seek the truth, speak the truth, and live the truth. It will show you that becoming a free and truthful person is the deepest secret of integrity and the highest form of taking responsibility for yourself and for your life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12807 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

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 In the end, even the reader who agrees with Guinness may feel that he sounds like an out-of-date grandfather arguing a case that has already been lost, with interlocutors who have already moved on to another conversation.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

Review
A much needed call for men and women who believe in objective, transcendent truth and seek to live by it. May this call be heard and heeded -- U.S. Representative Frank Wolf

An exceptional analysis of the Westernand especially the Americanmoral and political crisis. This lucid and compelling book is startlingly brief because Guinness writes with economy and force. Using stories, examples, pungent quotations, and sheer logical argument, Guinness details the rise of radical postmodern skepticism in place of the belief in objective truth (and true virtue) upon which our social and political institutions were based. This call for a robust and courageous defense of the use of reason in search of ultimate truths is a welcome gift for the millennium year -- Elliott Abrams, Ethics and Public Policy Center

Os Guinness has done it once again, this time with a much needed meditation on truth. The idea of truth has been undermined in our generation, yet no idea is as crucial to liberty. The distinctions Guinness makes are indispensable in defending it. This book is timely and important -- Michael Novak, American Enterprise Institute

Os Guinness is surely our most penetrating critic of modern culture. And in Time for Truth he cuts to the heart of a problem that threatens America and the West more than any armed enemythe decline of truth as a guiding principle in our lives -- Fred Barnes, The Weekly Standard

Customer Reviews

Truth Is True: Even if No One Believes It.
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.

Truth is True: Even if No One Believes it.
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).

Call to Arms for Truth in American Culture
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.