Truth rising and a call to renewal

World Journalism Institute founder Bob Case’s study in his home near Seattle was more than just a workspace. Books lined the walls—an endless horizon of theology, history, literature, and politics. On the south wall hung a handwritten note from Os Guinness, a photo of the two young friends at L’Abri in Switzerland, and a typewritten letter from Francis Schaeffer, who influenced both men’s calling to cultural engagement. I visited the study for the first time in the hours after Bob’s funeral. His widow, Kathy, led us upstairs before dinner. The room felt still in use, as if Bob had only stepped out for a moment.

That evening’s images stayed with me as I later previewed a new documentary narrated by Guinness, alongside John Stonestreet. Debuting Sept. 5, Truth Rising, from Focus on the Family and the Colson Center, poses Schaeffer’s 50-year-old question: “How should we then live?” In an email, Focus President Jim Daly told me the film is “built around the undeniable historical truth that our civilization was built on Judeo-Christian principles [and] how those principles, exercised in the public sphere, are critical to the thriving of the civilization and all of us who live in it.” It aims to rally Christians to live them out again.

The craftsmanship in Truth Rising caught my eye—sweeping visuals of ancient ruins and modern cities, beautifully shot interviews, crisp audio, and a narrative voice from Guinness, now in his 80s, yet still strong. Alongside him, Stonestreet—my weekly “Culture Friday” conversation partner for over 10 years—added a steady cadence. It felt like a 4K compression of those conversations.

My only quibble is that the film opens at a too-slow academic pace, unfurling ideas too high on the ladder of abstraction—though for those familiar, it does work. It sets out the history and philosophy that deepen the personal stories of men and women whose convictions put them at odds with prevailing powers. Daly said in his email that the Church must pair orthodoxy with orthopraxy, equipping people “to stand boldly in an increasingly hostile public square for the truth,” as a young activist in the film puts it: “It’s not your truth or my truth … Jesus Christ is THE truth.”

The production feels cinematic: multi-camera interviews, overhead tracking shots alongside buses and trains, and Guinness’ talent for guiding viewers through complex material like a tour guide. We see him listening to his guests. His voice-over blends seamlessly with his on-camera remarks; the audio matching is finely crafted when the recording source shifts. The result is an unbroken conversation, with the camera simply moving from scene to scene.

The documentary switches between Guinness’ personal story—his upbringing in China during the Communist revolution, his years at L’Abri—and his analysis of the West’s cultural and moral crises. This gives the ideas grounding in a life lived across cultures.

Midway through Truth Rising, the focus shifts from Europe to the U.S., and the film speeds up. The connection between continents is Stonestreet, seen rolling through American backroads in a weathered mid-’60s Chevy pickup, which works as a metaphor that suggests durability and authenticity—a piece of American machinery that has served faithfully for decades, still functional. It works well with Stonestreet’s commentary, driving through rural landscapes while talking about deep fractures in American culture, reinforcing the idea that repairing them may require the same patient restoration an old truck demands.

Guinness has laid out three paths—renewal, replacement, or decline—and in an email interview with me, insists that “from the perspective of the Jewish and Christian faiths, renewal is fully possible,” pointing to moments in history when God restored a people against all odds. His European conversations about civilizational memory and cultural inheritance give way to distinctly American settings and stories. Here, the film features U.S.-based thinkers and activists embodying the themes Guinness traced. The editing is tight, weaving these domestic stories into the larger argument that the West can also be renewed.

As the film concludes, it becomes reflective again. Guinness reappears to voice the words of a letter he’d written to Stonestreet, symbolically passing the torch: “I’m expecting great things,” he says. In our interview, Guinness reminded, “The Lord is greater than all. He can be trusted in all situations. Have faith in God,” recalling his father’s counsel during those childhood years under the Chinese revolution. The ending feels more an invitation than a conclusion: Viewers are left with questions to wrestle with rather than neatly tied-up answers.