Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion

By Os Guinness

Book Overview

2016 Christianity Today Book of the Year in Apologetics/EvangelismOne of Desiring God's Top 15 Books of 2015Hearts & Minds Bookstore's Best Books of 2015, Social Criticism and Cultural EngagementIn our post-Christian context, public life has become markedly more secular and private life infinitely more diverse. Yet many Christians still rely on cookie-cutter approaches to evangelism and apologetics. Most of these methods assume that people are open, interested and needy for spiritual insight when increasingly most people are not. Our urgent need, then, is the capacity to persuade--to make a convincing case for the gospel to people who are not interested in it.In his magnum opus, Os Guinness offers a comprehensive presentation of the art and power of creative persuasion. Christians have often relied on proclaiming and preaching, protesting and picketing. But we are strikingly weak in persuasion--the ability to talk to people who are closed to what we are saying. Actual persuasion requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach. Guinness notes, "Jesus never spoke to two people the same way, and neither should we."Following the tradition of Erasmus, Pascal, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, Malcolm Muggeridge and Peter Berger, Guinness demonstrates how apologetic persuasion requires both the rational and the imaginative. Persuasion is subversive, turning the tables on listeners' assumptions to surprise them with signals of transcendence and the credibility of the gospel.This book is the fruit of forty years of thinking, honed in countless talks and discussions at many of the leading universities and intellectual centers of the world. Discover afresh the persuasive power of Christian witness from one of the leading apologists and thinkers of our era.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830836993
• ISBN13: 9780830836994
• Release Date: July 2015
• Publisher: IVP Books
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.2" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The Educated Fool

I struggled to find a title for this wonderful read because the true meaning of The Fool has been lost on us historically since Shakespearean days. Fortunately , we have an excellent model today in JP Sears who not only portrays the fool superbly himself, but who understands the need for this role in our world’s perilous predicament of the ruling elite stripping away our, the “commoner’s,” basic rights. Os Guinness masterfully reveals the character of the Fool and how playing this role allows one not only to be able to gain entrance into places normally guarded or unattainable , but to hopefully usher insight to those in positions of authority who wield decision making power over us. The Fool was needed by the King as a mirror. It was the only way the tyrannical ruler could potentially see himself for who he really was... as a selfish despot. As one presently involved on a local level politically where this tyranny is being played out, I have found this book especially valuable because Os’ premise is that we are now in a post-Christian Era—where common sense, logic, reasoning, civility, and morality are no longer givens. In order to speak into society, we need new tools. Os succinctly , and with his well known apologist style, hands us these tools with a grin, and maybe even a King David madman’s dribble so that we can understand how to gain access into the darkest places, “ for such a time as this.”