UNSPEAKABLE: Facing Up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror

Guinness, one of evangelical Christianity's few public intellectuals, matches his usual seriousness of purpose with exceptionally lucid prose as he explores the nature of evil—a topic he was scheduled to address at a dinner in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. That was not Guinness's first brush with suffering on a geopolitical scale: he was born in China to missionary parents, and while he and they barely escaped with their lives during the 1949 revolution, Guinness's two brothers did not. This personal dimension authenticates, but never dominates, the book, which focuses on seven questions that evil raises for those seeking to live "an examined life." The scope is ambitious, from the ancient "trilemma" of how an all-powerful, benevolent God can permit evil to the technology that makes us all witnesses to far more suffering than we can respond to. Guinness's answers are rarely predictable. He argues strenuously against the contemporary reticence to call evil by name, yet he also warns against the hypocrisy that sees evil only in others—singling out America's torture of prisoners in Iraq. His Christian convictions are evident, but he engages respectfully with those who do not share them. This book makes a compelling case for faith, and courage, in the face of evil's dark reality. (Feb.)