Os Guinness

Ian Oswald Guinness^{[1][better source needed]} was born in China on 30 September 1941,^[2] during World War II, as his parents served there as medical missionaries,^[3] specifically, in Hsiang Cheng.^{[verification needed]} Guinness is the great-great-great-grandson of Arthur Guinness, a Dublin brewer.^[3] and so is of Irish descent.^{[4][better source needed]} His parents named him after Scottish Baptist evangelist and teacher Oswald Chambers.^{[5][better source needed]}

Guinness returned to England in 1951 for secondary school and eventual college.^[6] He completed an undergraduate degree at the University of London^[3] (Bachelor of Divinity with honours, 1966^{[citation needed]}) and a social sciences/theology D.Phil. from Oriel College at Oxford University in 1982,^[3][7][1] where he studied under Peter L. Berger.^{[citation needed][8]}

In the late 1960s, Guinness was a leader at the L'Abri community in Switzerland, and, after Oxford, a freelance reporter for the BBC.^[when?][9] He wrote his first book, The Dust of Death, in 1973; John Frame called it "a wonderfully erudite and persuasive critique of the western culture of the late 1960s from a thoughtful, balanced Christian perspective."^[10] As of September 2018, Guinness had written or edited more than 30 books;^{[3][needs update]} in them, his stated aim has been to offer insight into current cultural, political, and social contexts.^{[citation needed]}

From 1986 to 1989, Guinness served as executive director of the Williamsburg Charter Foundation, and was the leading drafter of the Williamsburg Charter, a bicentennial clarification and reaffirmation of the religious liberty clauses of the first amendment.^{[independent source needed]} He was also a co-author of the public school curriculum, "Living With Our Deepest Differences", and continued through at least 2009 on its Drafting Committee.^[11]

Guinness, along with Alonzo McDonald and perhaps other founded The Trinity Forum (in 1991),^{[12][verification needed]} was reported as of 2018 to be a Senior Fellow there.^[3] and was, as of May 2025, listed by the organisation as an emeritus Fellow.^[13]

Guinness was a primary drafter of The Global Charter of Conscience, published at the European Union Parliament in Brussels in June 2014.^{[citation needed]} He has also been associated with the EastWest Institute in New York (as a Senior Fellow^[when?]),^[3] with the Woodrow Wilson Center (as a guest scholar^[when?]),^[3] with the Brookings Institution (as a guest scholar and visiting fellow^[when?]),^[3] and as of 2025 was listed as speaker associated with the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics.^[14]

As of September 2018, Guinness had written or edited more than 30 books.^{[3][needs update]} The following are a subset of those books, appearing between 1973 and 2024, in chronological order.

As of 2018, it had been reported that Guinness moved his residence to the Washington, D.C. (in 1984).^[3] He and his wife Jenny have one son, and as of this date,^[when?] they live in McLean, Virginia.^{[citation needed]}

An Anglican, he attended the Episcopal Church, but left, finding it too theologically liberal, in 2006.^[15] He currently attends The Falls Church, in the Anglican Church in North America. He was one of the speakers at the Anglican Church in North America Assembly in June 2014.^[16]