Summary of Research Paper

Author and social critic Os Guinness believes that we are at a ‘civilisational moment’: a defining turning point which will determine our future.

He observes that every great civilisation has a dynamism and a source of inspiration. But there comes a point where a civilisation loses touch with what made it great.

From here, there are three broad options: you renew the inspiration, you replace the inspiration, or you decline.

From the Parthenon in Athens to the Colosseum in Rome, you see that great civilisations have seen decline.  

We are at a watershed moment like this in the West. We have rejected the faith story and ideological foundations which provided for dynamism and inspiration. The attempt to replace it with Enlightenment secularism and reason has proven inadequate. And today we watch as critical theorists unpick the institutions that bind us together.  

Can we return to confidence in our identities and renew a belief in human dignity, truth, conscience and freedom? Os argues we can relay the roots of our civilisation.

The West is at a turning point. It is time to turn the page to a better story.