The Global Public Square by Os Guinness Reviewed by Robert Hunt Os Guinness’ latest works begins with a promise to address the triple imperative of belief in the measureless worth of every human being, discovering a way to live with deep differences, and finding a way to settle deliberations and debates in public life through reasoned persuasion. But having laid out this ambitious agenda for world-wide freedom of religion Guinness almost immediately retreats into a series of parochially Western and... Read more

Much of the western, Christian world lives in a bizarre fantasy land concerning religious freedom. Catholic World News reports on June 22nd that a court in England has refused asylum status to a woman and her child. She claimed that her husband in Malaysia planned to convert to Islam and forcibly convert their baptized child. And in fact he did convert and announced his intentions to register his child as a Muslim. However, the English judge said, “C [the boy]... Read more

In the last blog I suggested that a Christian discourse located entirely within an immanent frame, while preserving Christianity from colonializing discourse and eschewing concepts like evangelism and mission, limited the Christian imagination and inadvertently placed the Christian Gospel in a global religious free market. In that market this fully immanent Christianity cannot complete, or at least not well. By its own self-understanding it brings nothing of unique value except a dubious historical past, a certain kind of social effectiveness, style... Read more

At a recent conference I heard a group of theologians express surprise, and indeed disdain, that I had been appointed director of a Center for Evangelism and Missional Church Studies. How, they wondered, could such a thing exist in the 21st century? And how could it co-exist with a commitment to inter-religious dialogue? I was tempted to dismiss these comments, but to do so would miss an important point. Their objection is to the form of discourse within which the... Read more

The central claims of Interfaith are in conflict with the claims of other religions, as the claims of these religions are in conflict with one another. At a recent meeting to work on programs for an interfaith chapel. It immediately became clear to me that a deep conceptual confusion was likely to thwart the intentions of the participants. Here’s why – let me know if I’m wrong. Several individuals present introduced themselves as “ordained interfaith ministers.” Soon it became clear... Read more