Os Guinness On The Left’s Long March From Counterculture To Oligarchy

I recently had a discussion with British author and critic Os Guinness over the new addition to his first major work, The Dust of Death, as well as his new book, The Magna Carta of Humanity. As a decades-long reader of Os Guinness, I knew I had to discuss his work, both new and old, through the lens of our current political and cultural crises.

With his new addition of The Dust of Death, Guinness discovers the origins of America’s ruling class in the turbulent countercultural radicalism of the 1960s. Between the revolutionary ideas, riots, and political purges, the parallels are undeniable, and Guinness’ timeless book could not be any more pertinent. The solution to this political chaos, he concludes, is a distinctly Christian alternative materializing in true leadership: “We need a Lincoln.”

But we don’t have a Lincoln. How can “our side” return to the biblical roots of America’s founding and rediscover the intellectual heritage of the reformation? That’s exactly what Os Guinness’ new book, The Magna Carta of Humanity, offers, applying the revolutionary faith found in the book of Exodus to our own history. From Sinai, through the American founding, to our modern political trials, Guinness outlines the Christian alternative to the progressive mob.

Click here to watch the conversation I had with Os Guinness. Below a timestamped outline of our chat.

00:45 - Introducing the Magna Carta of Humanity

01:05 - The Dust of Death and the "third way"

02:37 - How the '60s created on oligarchy

08:42 - We need a Lincoln

10:26 - We need Reformation. Why don't Christians have influence?

12:35 - On the work of Rene Girard

15:58 - The Madness of Crowds

17:30 - Putting the Protestant intellectual heritage to use

20:00 - Cultural Marxism affecting Christianity

25:33 - The "populist instinctive revolt" against the elite

28:16 - Is there a danger from the right as well as the left?

32:14 - Cultural climate change

33:24 - Who can lead us?

35:25 - Conservatism of blood and soil versus the conservatism of ideas

38:42 - Patriotism versus Nationalism

41:20 - "Generationalism"

42:58 - Returning to Hebraic roots

47:10 - "A little less Plato, and a little more Moses." Helenic philosophy in Christianity.

49:00 - Covenental societies - How the Covenent sparked the Constitution

51:09 - Christianity and social justice. Why we can't give up on Evangelicalism.

56:10 - Christianity is both conservative and progressive

58:33 - It's no longer morning in America - Christians need to wake up