Jim’s Book Shelf
A Free People’s Suicide, Sustainable Freedom and the American Future and Carpe Diem Redeemed
These two books by Os Guinness are incredibly insightful for discerning the times we live in and the issues we as believers in Jesus Christ face. Guinness shaped my view of the Christian Faith while I was in college and he has had a lasting influence on my life in analyzing our cultural and political challenges as Christians. Guinness, born to missionary parents in China, earned his D.Phil. at Oxford and has authored and edited over 25 books.
These two recent books enable readers to see the underlining ideas that are influencing the social, cultural and political movements in our nation. Guinness helps to bring clarity to the events we see unfolding and to untangle the confusion that we feel watching the news and observing in the social media.
In A Free People’s Suicide Guinness argues that our popular culture’s view of freed are unsustainable because they undermine the moral values needed to preserve true freedom. The ultimate threat to our freedom does not from outside forces but more critically from within by our culture’s moral and spiritual decline.
In Carpe Diem Redeemed Guinness calls for the Judeo-Christian view of time and history that brings meaning and true purpose to our lives in contrast to the secular and Eastern religious views. He sees the vital need for believers to seek God’s purpose for our challenging time that threatens our liberty and pray fervently, “Come, Lord Jesus, Come.