Book Notice: Fool’s Talk

Os Guinness

Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion
Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2015.
Available at Amazon.com

By Kara Martin.

Os Guinness is one of the most persuasive Christians I have heard, and his work amongst non-believers (for example through the Trinity Forum), means that I am confident he can practice what he preaches in his latest book, that is, Fool’s Talk: Recovering the art of Christian persuasion.

He contends that we are all apologists now, with modern communications making it increasingly possible to present, explain, defend and share thoughts, motivations, beliefs and arguments. However, the danger is that we overemphasise apologetics, without presenting the Gospel as a positive force. Guinness argues there has been a split between apologetics, evangelism and even discipleship, a failure to present a deeper picture of belief.

His solution is to recover the lost art of creative persuasion. Unfortunately he chooses as his prime example a situation where the renowned misogynist Norman Mailer silenced a group of feminists (uncomfortable reading for me as a woman).

Much better chosen are the biblical examples including Nathan confronting David with the shame of his multiple transgressions against Bathsheba and Uriah (2 Samuel 11-12): “David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.’  Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’”

These examples demonstrate that persuasion involves not just reason, but also impacts on our emotions. Furthermore, we must trust that the decisive power to persuade is actually the work of God, and especially the Spirit of truth, doing the convincing and convicting.

Guinness argues that our defence of our faith is “a lover’s defence, a matter of speaking out and standing up when God is framed unjustly and attacked wrongly. It is therefore anything but dry and far from sterile.” What is more, it is a task for all believers.

We start from the basis that the Christian faith is true even if no one believes it.

In the eyes of the world this makes us appear as fools. However, Guinness quotes Psalm 14:1: “The fool says in his heart ‘There is no God’.”

Perhaps Jesus is seen as the archetypal “fool” in the eyes of the world for the claims he made; and in fact we read of him being mocked by soldiers, the high priest and Pilate. For the followers of Jesus, discipleship means travelling a similar road, risking scorn and disdain while knowing that God has vindicated Jesus, and he will shame and subvert the world’s wisdom. We too follow the folly and weakness of the cross.

Guinness outlines some wonderful quotes to demonstrate the world’s refusal to see wisdom:

In Max Weber’s famous description they are “tone deaf to realities that are unseen”; in Albert Einstein’s view they are people who “cannot hear the music of the spheres”; and in Peter Berger’s apt picture, they live in “a world without windows”.

This anti-wisdom is characterised by Aldous Huxley’s description: “We objected to morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.” Thus unbelief is a wilful abuse of the truth.

The chapter on “Anatomy of Unbelief” is a pertinent description of how truth is twisted to serve human ends with the result that we become what we worship and we reap what we sow.

How do we turn the tables on unbelief? The first step is to show people the fruit of their logic and the consequences for their lives. The second step is to ask questions, a particularly effective strategy used by Jesus. Thirdly, we should quote back to people their own prophets. This is a technique that apologist John Lennox uses very effectively, modelling what Paul does in Acts 17, quoting the Torah in the synagogue, and then pagan poets to the Greek philosophers.

Guinness then points to some of the signals that can be triggered to get people thinking. The first is an awareness of the transcendent, which the Bible refers to as “eternity in our hearts” and Wordsworth calls “intimations of immortality”. The second signal is that “truth is still truth”: the Fall leaves us with longings we cannot satisfy and history reveals a sense of loss that is never stilled. The third signal is joy, in CS Lewis’ famous phrase: “the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have not yet visited.” The final signal is the power of life, the sense there is something in faith that stretches people beyond the ordinary.

To be able to persuade we must be able to understand where people are at, and then help them to reframe. Guinness uses the example that most unbelievers disbelieve in a god we don’t believe in either! They have a distorted view of God, the Bible, and what it means to have faith. We need to help people reframe God. Another strategy is to use story, parable and drama, as Jesus did, as the prophets before him did, and as the book of Revelation demonstrates.

In all of this, we must ensure that we use Peter’s advice of giving an answer that is marked by “gentleness and respect”. We do well to learn from the great rhetoricians of the past:

First, the reminder that truth and virtue are more powerful than falsehood and vice; second, the reminder that a speaker should be a person of character and virtue; and third, the reminder that the speaker should always address the public good and not only his or her own interest.

Guinness challenges us to test whether we have loved enough to listen? Are we arguing for Christ, or so we will be seen as right? Are we communicating an assurance of faith or trying to convince ourselves? Are our motives pure, or do we argue for the sake of our own esteem or ego? Are we demonstrating humility and vulnerability?

If we get this right, then we will dodge the “boomerang” of hypocrisy.

The book ends with two images of persuasion: the closed fist of using the strengths of human reason in defending truth; and the open hand using the strengths of our creativity, including eloquence, imagination and humour, to win people over and open up hearts.

Where Guinness’ last book, Renaissance, felt like familiar ground, Fool’s Talk is innovative: a helpful diagnostic of the forces opposed to faith, providing some great strategies for proactively engaging them, while reminding us that it is God who is the ultimate defender of himself.

KARA MARTIN is the Associate Dean of the Marketplace Institute, Ridley College, Melbourne, and is an avid reader and book group attendee. Kara does book reviews for Eternity Magazine.