Os Guinness

Ian Oswald "Os" Guinness (born September 30, 1941) is an English author now based in Fairfax County, Virginia; he has lived in the United States since 1984.

Early life and education Ian Oswald Guinness was born in China on 30 September 1941, during World War II, as his parents served there as medical missionaries. He completed an undergraduate degree at the University of London where he studied under Peter L. Berger.

Career Os Guinness, (left) with apologist Bill Edgar, at Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union event, St. Andrew the Great, Cambridge, England.

In the late 1960s, Guinness was a leader at the L'Abri community in Switzerland, and, after Oxford, a freelance reporter for the BBC. 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."

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. 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.

Guinness, along with Alonzo McDonald, co-founded The Trinity Forum (in 1991). As of May 2025, he was listed by the organisation as an emeritus Fellow.

Guinness was a primary drafter of The Global Charter of Conscience, published at the European Union Parliament in Brussels in June 2012.

Published works As of September 2018, Guinness had written or edited more than 30 books;

Following is a subset of those books, appearing between 1973 and 2024, in chronological order.

Authored books

. . . . . .

. 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.