Os Guinness delivered a thought-provoking clarion call regarding the decline of the West at the ARC Conference London, February 17-19, 2025. He argued that the West is at a “civilizational moment”—and that there is “a better story” than the alternatives being proposed.

Guinness is in a unique position to deliver this message. He quipped at ARC that “he might be the oldest person in the room at 83!” He spent his early years in China due to his missionary parents, grew up in England and graduated from Oxford, and has lived in Washington, DC, for many years. He has been an insightful writer for a five-decade span. 

The substance of his ARC presentation is based on his recent book Our Civilizational Moment: The Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds (Kildare, 2024). By civilization, he means “a society and its way of life that rises high enough, spreads far enough, and lasts long enough to merit the term civilization” [22].

Given the faith perspective of Guinness, he notes that, “This book is written primarily for citizens of the West, especially for those who appreciate the role of faith, including those who appreciate the role of faith even if they do not share it” [39].The contents of the book outline the basic argument:

1. Our Civilizational Moment;
2. Essentially Christendom;
3. The Enlightenment’s Pyrrhic Victory;
4. The Red Wave of Radical Marxism;
5. The Rainbow Wave of the Sexual Revolution;
6. The Black Wave of Radical Islamism; and
7. The Gold Waive of Corrupt Elitism.

Guinness’ prognosis of the maladies of the West is foundational. “The West has lost faith and confidence in itself. It is no longer sure of its own identity” [12]. The role of the US is at the core of the dynamic: “Most critically of all, the United States, the lead society of the West, is failing to lead the West” [12]. Why? First, it “is now consumed by a self-inflicted conflict of tragic proportions [due to polarization]” and “an equally immense institutional chasm has opened between the American elites and ordinary Americans” [12].

Guinness does see a ray of hope: “The Western horizon is dark, though I will argue that there is light and there is a better story. But the immediate question is, what does this civilizational moment mean for the human future? [13] Guinness asks, “What is actually happening? What is the story in which we find ourselves now and in which we are playing our part, whether most people are aware of it or not?” [13] The geopolitical adversaries of the West are not the main problem. “The most vehement and radical enemies are assaulting the West from within” [14].

Guinness’s key point regarding the decision America faces is as follows: “They will choose to (a) experience a genuine and profound renewal of their ideas and ideals, (b) replace them with different but equally powerful ideas and ideals, or (c) they will decline beyond hope of recovery and take their place as the latest entrant in the select circle of history’s former civilizations” [14].

“Far from a eulogy, then, this is an assessment of the factors that once made the West, the factors that will be critical to the outcome of the West, and that could even be critical to the renewal of the West" [15].

What is the role of faith? As any casual observer in today’s woke environment knows, “the critical role of faith is often the shunned factor” [32]. Guinness explains why this is not helpful: “In sum, faith is not likely to receive the attention it deserves and requires, yet, without understanding faith, for better or worse, any Western understanding of the crisis of the West will be faulty and inadequate for its absence” [33].

For Guinness, the role of faith must be included in the discussion of the present state of the West and its civilization: “Weak or powerful, absent or present, faith is the decisive issue for the West today” [34]. “The West is now largely opposed to the faith that made it, and the intelligentsia in its lead society America are increasingly opposed to both the faith that made the West and to the revolution that made America” [35].

Since present readers may not have historical context, Guinness offers the reminder that “whatever its present standing, the Christian faith is the single, strongest force that made the West as we know it today” [43]. Without faith, the West is a “cut-flower civilization” [47].

Guinness sees three challenges that now confront the Christian faith in the West and reinforce the strength of secularism: a crisis of credibility, a crisis of plausibility, and a crisis of reality. [50] In light of these challenges, “what will be decisive for the outcome is the question of what the West shows that it trusts in both theory and practice as it presses forward—in other words, what will prove to be the ultimate allegiance of the citizens of the West to what they believe is the ultimate reality in the universe” [170].

Guinness concludes: “It is now time for the West, and indeed the entire world, to choose, to choose life, to choose human worth, to choose freedom, to choose justice, to choose peace, and to choose the faith that alone can stand across the slide down to authoritarianism and make life, dignity, freedom, justice, and peace both real and achievable for humanity yet again” [177].

Guinness’s presentation was delivered to a receptive audience at the ARC Conference London 2025—the impact beyond is yet to be witnessed. Is he crying in the wilderness to an uninterested audience regarding, what he calls, a civilization moment, or will there be an ongoing waning of the West?