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Our Civilizational Moment: The Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds
Where do you find the great civilizations of the world?
In ruins, in museums, and in history books. Each one in its time rose, flourished, and then declined and fell. Is the West facing its own civilizational moment today?
A civilizational moment is a critical transition phase in the rise, course, and decline of a civilization when a civilization loses its decisive connection with the dynamic that inspired it. Such a moment must then issue in one of three broad a renewal of the dynamic that inspired the civilization in the first place, a successful replacement of the original dynamic by another, or the decline of the civilization. In sum, the issue for a civilization in a civilizational moment is its vision of ultimate Is the civilization in living touch with the ideas, ideals, and inspiration that created it in the first place and that it needs to continue to flourish? Or, with its roots severed, is it destined to decline and die?
Guinness’s analysis is wide-ranging and hard-hitting, but he ends with hope. This book is for all who care about the state of the world, who strive for a human-friendly future, and who are ready to make a stand for what matters.
In ruins, in museums, and in history books. Each one in its time rose, flourished, and then declined and fell. Is the West facing its own civilizational moment today?
A civilizational moment is a critical transition phase in the rise, course, and decline of a civilization when a civilization loses its decisive connection with the dynamic that inspired it. Such a moment must then issue in one of three broad a renewal of the dynamic that inspired the civilization in the first place, a successful replacement of the original dynamic by another, or the decline of the civilization. In sum, the issue for a civilization in a civilizational moment is its vision of ultimate Is the civilization in living touch with the ideas, ideals, and inspiration that created it in the first place and that it needs to continue to flourish? Or, with its roots severed, is it destined to decline and die?
Guinness’s analysis is wide-ranging and hard-hitting, but he ends with hope. This book is for all who care about the state of the world, who strive for a human-friendly future, and who are ready to make a stand for what matters.
226 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 25, 2024
38 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Os Guinness
87 books351 followersOs 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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 1, 2025
The Threat from Within
Os Guinness is at his best as a sentinel of the state of Western civilization in “Our Civilizational Moment”, arguing convincingly that we are at a critical transitional juncture in history where the values and mores derived from our Judeo-Christian heritage are threatened by four waves of ideological danger. Radical Marxism and its dialectic of the oppressor vs the oppressed has morphed from an economic into a cultural ideology (still with grave economic implications, of course). The sexual revolution has reached a culmination where neither gender nor morals have any basis in reality, now completely upending once enduring traditional truths. Radical Islamism, which Guinness shows as having roots in alliances with Hitler, threatens both Jews and a foundational element of Western civilization. And finally, he denounces the hypocritical self-interest and duplicity of the West’s own elite class for failing to use their positions of influence to preserve and protect the very traditions and institutions that have benefited them so extraordinarily. The Left has advanced patiently in a Long March through the institutions that is now reaching culmination. Our traditions and strength in the West are threatened from within. While Guinness sees the weaknesses of the Obama-Biden era as key to accelerating the critical situation, he is no apologist for Trump policies, and takes his stand with the founders who based their vision on the truth of Judeo-Christian teaching and tradition. “Our Civilizational Moment” is an outstanding and thought provoking analysis of our crucial predicament that is developing at an accelerating rate.
Os Guinness is at his best as a sentinel of the state of Western civilization in “Our Civilizational Moment”, arguing convincingly that we are at a critical transitional juncture in history where the values and mores derived from our Judeo-Christian heritage are threatened by four waves of ideological danger. Radical Marxism and its dialectic of the oppressor vs the oppressed has morphed from an economic into a cultural ideology (still with grave economic implications, of course). The sexual revolution has reached a culmination where neither gender nor morals have any basis in reality, now completely upending once enduring traditional truths. Radical Islamism, which Guinness shows as having roots in alliances with Hitler, threatens both Jews and a foundational element of Western civilization. And finally, he denounces the hypocritical self-interest and duplicity of the West’s own elite class for failing to use their positions of influence to preserve and protect the very traditions and institutions that have benefited them so extraordinarily. The Left has advanced patiently in a Long March through the institutions that is now reaching culmination. Our traditions and strength in the West are threatened from within. While Guinness sees the weaknesses of the Obama-Biden era as key to accelerating the critical situation, he is no apologist for Trump policies, and takes his stand with the founders who based their vision on the truth of Judeo-Christian teaching and tradition. “Our Civilizational Moment” is an outstanding and thought provoking analysis of our crucial predicament that is developing at an accelerating rate.
February 21, 2025
Os understands the moment we live in and how to solve it. His recent speech at ARC is worth watching in full as a summary of this book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1hI2...
December 11, 2024
Some helpful insights, but it felt more like somewhat random musings on our current cultural climate rather than a sustained argument for anything in particular.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews