Today, the notion of truth has almost completely disappeared from American culture. In Time for Truth, Os Guinness profiles this phenomenon that he calls "America's 'Nietzschean Moment.'" Following in the German philosopher's wake, the radical onslaught of postmodernity with its "assault on truth" amounts to "a profound crisis of cultural authority in the West-a crisis in beliefs, traditions, and ideals that have been decisive for Western civilization to this point." Guinness gives sober warning that the fashionable skepticism of today is sounding "the death knell of Western civilization."
Time for Truth accurately reveals the depths of America's crisis of truth by examining the "telltale fingerprints" of postmodernity on the many practical and public-and "not simply theoretical and analytical"-concerns confronting us. Truth, Guinness tells us, is anything but inconsequential; it matters supremely "because in the end, without truth there is no freedom"; indeed, truth "is freedom." With great economy of words, Guinness addresses the difficulty of living free in our world today, placing this discussion within the context of our culture's companion crises concerning ethics and character.
The strength of Guinness's assessment lies in his understanding the dangers of both modern and postmodern misconceptions of truth. He repeatedly underscores that he is "not arguing against the postmodern view of truth on behalf of the modern view," since "the postmodern [view is] the direct descendent of the modern and the mirror image of its deficiencies." Because conforming to the postmodern view or retreating to modernity can offer no solution, he instead outlines the rich Judeo-Christian conception of truth.
This biblical view of truth "gives a proper place to the importance of presuppositions in thought, the importance of tradition in handing down thinking, and the necessity of a transcendent reference in human knowledge." Truth, Guinness argues, is "not finally the matter of philosophy but of theology," grounded in "God's infinite knowing" and ultimately "in the trustworthiness of God himself." Truth, then, is "alive and well, and in an important sense, undeniable."
The challenges of modernity and postmodernity are confronting America with a crisis of epic proportions. As part of Baker Books' "Hourglass Books" imprint, Time for Truth is intended, the publisher states, "for all who long for reformation and revival within the evangelical community." It, as other books under this imprint, is meant to be a tract for the times that confronts a major issue of our day in a way that is more practical than academic, more "a first word than the last." For those who desire to understand the present cultural landscape and how the robust Christian view of truth can enable free living in our "world of lies, hype and spin," it is a must read.
