Name: Os Guinness
Why you should know him: Dr. Guinness is arespected cultural critic and the founder of The Trinity Forum, a "Christian Aspen Institute” which provides seminar-style forums for senior executives and political leaders that engages the leading ideas of our day in the context of faith.
Position: Founder and trustee of The Trinity Forum (Guinness left the staff in July in order to dedicate more time to his writing.)
Previous: Freelance reporter with the BBC; Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies; Guest Scholar and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution; Executive Director of the Williamsburg Charter Foundation and one of the drafters of the Williamsburg Charter.
Education:
A.B., University of London
D.Phil in Social Sciences, Oxford University
Area of expertise/interest: Sociology, Politics, Culture
Books: More than twenty books, including Prophetic Untimeliness (2003); Time for Truth (2002); The Call (2003); Invitation to the Classics (1998); and The Gravedigger File (1983).
Assessment: In much the same way that his mentor Francis Schaeffer traveled to Europe in order to become a “missionary to the intellectuals”, Guinness, an Englishman born in China, attempts to reach American culture from the perspective of the detached outsider. A member of the Guinness beer-making family, the erudite speaker and scholar has used the proceeds of his family’s fortune to found the Trinity Forum. Since the publication of the Dust of Death in 1973, Guinness has been an influential Christian author and thinker within the evangelical community.
(This post is #17 in the "Know Your Evangelicals" series. Coming next: Francis Schaeffer)
1
I KNEW he had something to do with Francis Schaeffer. He's got Schaeffer's fingerprints all over him.
posted on 09.14.2004 5:38 AM2
As an aside, it was another beer Guinness, Howard, who brought Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship to Canada (and subsequently North America) in 1928.
At my alma mater's IVCF chapter, I understand that my predecessor as editor of our newsletter, whose name was also Guinness, was a fairly close relative of Howard (like a grand-nephew or something along those lines).
posted on 09.14.2004 9:13 AM4
Sorry for the tangent, but someone should do a "separated at birth" layout with Os Guinness and Chris Matthews.
posted on 09.14.2004 2:10 PM
5
One of the few intellectuals writing for the evangelical believer. Highly recommended.
posted on 09.18.2004 3:20 PM