Long Journey Home : A Guide to Your Search for the Meaning of Life

by Os Guinness

A sensitive and encouraging guide for seekers who are exploring the meaning of life.

Genres: Christian, Theology, Nonfiction, Christian Living, Philosophy, Christianity

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Os Guinness (D.Phil., Oxford) is the author or editor of more than twenty-five books, including The American Hour, Time for Truth and The Case for Civility. A frequent speaker and prominent social critic, he was the founder of the Trinity Forum and has been a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies. He lives near Washington, D.C.

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like Warren, Eldredge and others, Guinness recognizes many people, including Christians, are seeking more from life. This book is actually a guide toward becoming a Christian.

A follow-on text is Guinness's The Call.

[Sean Sheeran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always benefited from reading an Os Guiness book and this was no exception. I appreciated the way he coalesced the seeking of so many in history and literature, and I could anticipate the book resonating with many. There were several people I could think of handing this book to. Though Guiness clearly puts his cards on the table of the perspective he comes from as a follower of Jesus, he is charitable and respectful of those he represents, and as a result, the seeking reader. I did end the book looking for more, but as the last chapter indicates, it is a prelude to a his subsequent book, The Call. I would have happily seen them combined into one volume and will plan to read this next book also.

[Jan Staveley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly thought provoking book, always a good author, who helps bring to life things that have been rattling around in my head. A book full of those 'moments' where you go 'oh yes, of course'! Love this thought "although we start out searching for something, it is us that ends up being discovered - the Hound of Heaven - has tracked us down. Highly recommend for anyone searching for life's deeper meaning.

[Wayne Presnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for the intellectual pursuer of God. He makes solid arguments and fairly looks at opposing world views. Wrote: The unexamined life is not worth living; the untransformed life is not worthy of finding.

[Jason Kanz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long Journey Home: A Guide to Your Search for the Meaning of Life (2001) by Os Guinness is a commendable book on understanding worldview. In this book, Guinness patiently crafts an argument for understanding worldview and following them to their logical conclusions in the tradition of his mentor, Francis Schaeffer.

Guinness is encouraged by seekers after truth. Too many in modern society have set aside the pursuit of truth in "an unexamined age," distracted by things of little consequence. But throughout the ages, there are seekers after truth. He provides examples of how people have sought after meaning throughout the ages, but particularly during modernity and post-modernity. For example, he touches upon the stories of those like Foucault, Huxley, and Bertrand Russell. He carefully works to demonstrate how their worldviews essentially come to places of now satisfactory answers. He continues by showing that seekers cannot be satisfied just with seeking, but with eventually coming to the knowledge of the truth, based in evidence, which leads to commitment.

I would gladly put this book into the hands of any believer or nonbeliever. It is well-written, well-conceptualized, and non-coercively leads the reader to examine their own pursuit of meaning to its logical end (what Schaeffer called taking the roof off). If you suspect that ideas have consequences, this is the book for you.

[Paul Dubuc · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a very fine distillation of wisdom applied to the "big questions" of life's meaning and purpose. Os Guinness takes the reader on a tour of how the world's major religions and some of its greatest thinkers have wrestled with questions of ultimate significance. How does death and human suffering affect our sense of hope and longing for purpose and meaning for our lives? What is the place of gratitude for life's goodness? What principles are worth living and dying for? There are no prepackaged answers to these questions, of course. But whether or not we are to believe there is an answer and what road we take to lead us there are crucial steps in the journey upon which we are all embarked. Whether we conscious of it or not, life is taking us somewhere. When we get to the end, will we look back on our journey with satisfaction and fulfillment or with a sense of shame and loss? For those who feel that an unexamined life is not worth living, this book is provides much to consider. Philosophy and Religion are not an intellectual game we can play with detachment and control over the outcome. The questions are bigger than we are and the Answer must be bigger still. The implications of the search for your life's meaning, if you follow it honestly enough, will end up handling you rather than you handling them. Are you ready? Then read on...

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I consider this a classic in the truest sense of word. Guinness is incredible, if you get a chance, go hear him in person. This book touches on many social subjects from a Christian perspective. Guinness' analyses & insights are poignant & accurate.

[William Dicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book in discussing not just the meaning of life, but how that relates to the Christian faith.

[Zineb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a 'Guide' to your search for the meaning of Life, it's a 'Biography.'