How Now Shall We Live Member Book - Softcover

Colson, C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 076733177X ISBN 13: 9780767331777

Publisher: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001

Synopsis

This important book explores a wide range of ethical and cultural issues. Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey show how the truth of Christianity can change the world. Internationally known author Charles Colson believes this to be the most significant book of his career. It carries a profound message needed by the church today and by individual Christians. The central theme is that faith in Jesus Christ is more than a private relationship with God; it's a way of seeing, understanding, and changing the world. Christian faith brings with it basic ideas and beliefs that are the answers and counters to the world's philosophies. Christians often feel a loss of confidence in the face of secular philosophy as expressed in the culture of our age. The claims of scientists, New Age beliefs, shifting morality and so on can confuse. The authors provide the tools to interpret and confront the false, bankrupt ideas of the world and to use the truth of Christianity to make a difference for good. They help their readers to evaluate their own lives and values. Colson and Pearcey offer the challenge -- How Now Shall We Live This is a message for the church in the new millennium. Change in the world and in culture will not be achieved chiefly through political or social means, but by individual Christians knowing their faith and daring to be agents of God's grace.

About this title

Review

Charles Colson became famous back in the 1970s as President Nixon's hatchet man, who then "got religion" of the evangelical Christian kind. In How Now Shall We Live Colson with his co-author Pearcey lays his hatchet to the roots of modern Western culture. Colson believes there is a great battle to be fought between opposing world views, and this book is his attack on secular atheistic materialism.

The first section establishes the conflict between Christianity and all forms of godless materialism. Section two traces the problem back to Darwinism. Section three pinpoints the root problem as original sin, while sections four and five call for the redemption and restoration of a truly Christian culture. The historical analysis and intellectual content are mixed with inspirational stories of Christian victory, and the whole package is delivered in a readable and cogent style. Plenty of notes, reading lists and a hefty index give the enterprise a smooth academic veneer.

Most conservative Christians will agree with Colson's questions and most of his answers, while those of other beliefs may be intrigued to find the case for traditional Christianity so confidently argued. However, many will come away disappointed with an apologetic that is big on Christian triumphalism, while not asking the hard questions as to why Christianity is losing the culture wars. Colson nods in the direction of world Christianity, but never looks much further than American evangelicalism. The book is thus limited by Colson's particular brand of home-grown Christianity. He argues for a Christian world view, but only offers a Billy Graham form of religion. As a result he has produced a big book limited by a narrow vision. --Dwight Longenecker

Review

""How Now Shall We Life? is truly inspiring for those who want to restore to our culture the values that made America great."

Edition details

• Publisher: Broadman & Holman Publishers
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 076733177X
• ISBN 13: 9780767331777
• Binding: Paperback