Christian Author Stephen Mansfield Discusses God and Guinness Beer

According to legend, Guinness Stout was inspired by God.

The story goes that Arthur Guinness, inventor of the famed brew, was praying one day, asking God to do something about alcohol abuse in his hometown of Dublin, Ireland. As he prayed, God spoke to Guinness: "Make a drink that men will drink that will be good for them." So Guinness began brewing his famed Stout, which 250 years later remains one of the world's most popular beers.

It's a great story.

Unfortunately, it's not true, says Stephen Mansfield, author of The Search for God and Guinness: A Biography of the Beer that Changed the World. The real story, says Mansfield, is much better. Guinness was a Christian who thought that by brewing beer he was doing God's work. But no divine intervention was needed at the beer's creation.

Instead, Guinness believed in working hard, in creating a great product, in treating his employees well, and in Christian charity. Those simple things proved the secret to his success, Mansfield said.

"You don't have to have angels appearing to have God work," he said.

The Search for God and Guinness is the latest book from Mansfield, a Nashville author and former pastor of Belmont Church, known for his best-sellers on religion and politics. Mansfield said he was looking for a way to talk about the dangers of corporate greed when he stumbled on the Guinness story.

"While the corporate world was imploding over the last couple of years, I was looking for a way to speak to it but not directly preach at it," he said.

He found the perfect example in the Irish brewer. The Guinness family, especially in the company's early days, was known for the Christian faith, which had been shaped by John Wesley, founder of Methodism. Wesley encouraged his followers to work hard and to give as much money away as possible.

The Guinness family took that challenge seriously, Mansfield said. They paid their workers more than other brewers. Their company offered generous benefits -- often sending employees' children to private schools, and having doctors, dentists and a masseuse on staff.

"Guinness never put Scriptures on their cans of beer or bottles; they never preached through their product. They just did what they did well," Mansfield said. "They took care of their people, and they put millions of dollars into pulling people out of poverty."