Impossible People: Christian Courage and the Struggle for the Soul of Civilization
Overview
ECPA 2017 Christian Book Award Finalist
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, full of courage and mercy in challenging times.
Key Features
- Encourages Christians to engage secularism and atheism in new ways
- Explores ways Christians can resist negative cultural forces with fortitude and winsomeness
- Addresses the current state of Western evangelicalism
Contents
- New World, Old Challenge
- The Greatest Challenge Ever
- The War of Spirits
- Exploring the Heart of Darkness
- Life with No Amen
- Yesterday, Today, Forever
- Give Us the Tools
Top Highlights
“Christians with 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.” (Page 32)
Praise for the Print Edition
In his trademark fashion, Os Guinness takes on the biggest themes of the modern world, turns them on the church and its gospel, and challenges the church to be faithful, courageous and unflinching.
—Scot McKnight, 14th Annual Outreach Resources of the Year, March/April 2017
With his unique blend of incisive clarity and prophetic vision, Os Guinness has written a book that will challenge, encourage, and awaken us to live wholeheartedly for Christ in this ‘grand clarifying moment.’ I recommend Impossible People as a book for such a time as this.
—Amy Orr-Ewing, director, The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics
Product Details
- Title: Impossible People: Christian Courage and the Struggle for the Soul of Civilization
- Author: Os Guinness
- Publisher: IVP
- Publication Date: 2016
- Pages: 239
- Resource Type: Monographs
- Topic: Christianity and Culture