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Fool's Talk

by Os Guinness, IVP Books, © 2015,
270 pages, $22.00 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0830836994

Os Guinness is an Oxford-trained philosopher, well known by leading apologists. Ravi Zacharias calls the book “a must read for anyone interested in engaging the skeptic or seeker.” The book claims to tell us how to “recover the art of Christian persuasion.” This is not a book designed to prove the existence of God or the validity of the Christian faith, but rather an instruction manual on how people wishing to share Christ with others should carry their message to those who are not Christians.

Os Guinness has been involved for a very long time in dealing with people who are not Christians. He is extremely well educated, has a vast knowledge of the subject of apologetics and answering atheist, agnostic, and skeptic challenges to the Christian faith from a philosophical and theological background.

The book is divided into 13 chapters. These chapters do not deal with arguments for faith, but rather with how defenders of Christianity have failed to understand why unbelief happens, and why those who defend Christianity have failed in the past. The book is not negative about what has been done, but offers some suggestions for how we can better approach people who have faith issues. The reasons for disbelief are presented with good documentation, and a variety of ways to better communicate the evidence are presented.

We would recommend this book to people working with college students, to professionals dealing with colleagues who resist the Christian faith, and to philosophy and theology majors who have not seen the need for Christian apologetics. It would not be useful to people seeking arguments for the existence of God or for defenses of Christianity. It is for people concerned about how to approach people who do not share our faith in the message of Christ.