How Now Shall We Live?

by Charles W. Colson

Book Overview

In the How Now Shall We Live? Devotional, readers will find further encouragement to become counterculture Christians. Through inspiring true stories and compelling teaching, the 365 devotions,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0842354093
• ISBN13: 9780842354097
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
• Length: 752 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Good Source for Christian Living

Colson does a good job of conducting a rather exhaustive examination of various worldviews that run contrary to Christianity that have gained acceptance through the media, schools, and assorted literature. He then describes ways that Christians can lovingly project the Christian worldview in society in an effort to regain some footing in the marketplace of ideas.His major emphasis is on naturalism, which includes a significant portion of the book devoted to examining evolution. I felt that this examination of naturalism was very good and fairly exhaustive. Naturalism is a complex belief system with various facets emanating from a core belief that there is no God. Colson didn't intend for this book to be purely an academic study of naturalism, and that's not what the reader will find when reading the book. Colson's emphasis is on explaining this belief understandably in order to show how pervasive it has become in the everyday messages that are being sent by the culture in terms of how people should live and what their perspective should be. In this way, Colson does a very good job.I didn't totally agree with everything written in the last section where he describes how we as Christians should counteract naturalism and set the record straight. But I did agree with much of what he said here, and even though I didn't agree with certain things, the whole section was nonetheless well written and well thought out. I respect what Colson had to say here, even though I didn't totally agree with everything he said.I consider this to be a very good book and a "must have" for parents in particular who are concerned about the messages their children may be receiving in schools and on television and the internet. This book clearly demonstrates that the culture is not on the side of the Christian worldview at present, and that it is a mistake for Christians, especially Christian parents, to assume that the culture is merely neutral towards the Christian faith. In fact, much of the culture's "gospel" is actively hostile to Christian ideas and ideals and while regretable, we must be diligent to correct the undercutting of Christianity in our society and lovingly stand up to this particularly where our children are concerned. I think this book provides many solids tools and facts to give Christians a formidable strategy for combatting many of the ideas held sacred by many in the culture.

Colson's best yet!

Typically if you like Chuck Colson's stuff, you like all of his stuff. This is no exception; however, if you have found Colson a bit dry and analytical in the past don't assume that is true for this book. Having Nancy Pearcy as a co-writer has improved the readability of this book markedly over previous volumes. As far as content, this book is a winner. Colson looks at how Christians must relate Christ to a world that no longer shares a similar worldview. He structures this in a classic Reformed pattern of Creation, Fall, & Redemption. Some of the material covered in this book is expanded from Colson's previous book *Kingdoms in Conflict* but this book is far more readable, passionate, and practical. This is one of the best books I have read in three years. A must read for every Christian wanting to intelligently deal with the issues of our day.

Made it Ma! Top of the world!

At the end of the 1949 film noir classic, White Heat, James Cagney's character Cody Jarett, trapped and surrounded by cops, stands atop a huge tank of flammable liquid. "It's a stack of dynamite," a horror stricken officer mutters. Bullet-ridden Cagney insanely fires into the tank and cries heavenward, "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" before plummeting into the white-hot inferno below. The dying words of this criminally demented character remind us to remain on top of our world or risk being swept up in its madness.Now Charles Colson can be added to the list of intellectual prophets (like Francis Scheffer, Os Guinness, Malcolm Muggeridge, and James Sire) who dare to remind us that there's a dangerous world of false ideas and true ideas that need to be sorted through if we are to remain on top of our world. The world of ideas requires a critical understanding to keep from tumbling into an inferno of deceit and falsehood.When James Sire developed his world view catalog, _The Universe Next Door_, he spurred a great number of Christians to consider the deeper issues behind human thought. He wrote: "I am now convinced that for a person to be fully conscious intellectually he should not only be able to detect the world views of others but be aware of his own--why it is his and why in the light of so many options he thinks it is true." Sires list of basic questions to consider in discerning one's worldview included: 1. What is the prime reality? 2. Who is man? 3. What happens to man at death? 4. What is the basis for morality? 5. And what is the meaning of human history? In his new book, Charles Colson also pares the essential questions down to four, but with a new twist: "How Now Shall We Live." 1. Where did we come from and who are we? 2. What has gone wrong with the world? 3. What can we do to fix it? 4. How now shall we live?Colson's discussion of these important questions takes us through the biblical view of linear history progressing through the Creation, the Fall, God's Redemption of mankind, and God's Restoration of His intended order for all creation.The biblical view of Creation lets us know who we are and where we came from. The discussion of origins and human nature is critical to understanding the Christian worldview and being able to contrast it with opposing worldviews.Everyone believes there are some things wrong with this world but many worldviews do not know how to answer this question. Colson pulls no punches in illustrating how sin has infected the world. An understanding of the historic human fall--the doctrine of original sin--is essential to understanding human nature and evil that is so pervasive in our world.But he does not neglect the Christian message of hope: Redemption. Having years of experience in his Breakpoint radio ministry to weave storied essays providing this message of hope, Colson with the masterful help of his Breakpoint editor, Nancy Pearcy, p

Presenting the Christian Worldview

This book does an excellent job in serving two primary purposes. The first is in making the intellectual case for Christ. The second is presenting Biblical Christianity, not as something that involves only spiritual side, but as an entire worldview that involves every aspect of our lives. For those of us who have a difficult time making the case for Christ except in spiritual terms, this book can be a big help (beginning with such fundamentals as the case for the existence of God). And, perhaps more importantly, it helps us better understand our role as Christians in the world at large. I heartily recommend it. And a final note. As much as I admire Chuck Colson, and whereas he provided the anecdotes, I suspect that Nancy Pearcey did most of the heavy lifting in writing this book.

Essential Reading on the New Christian Renaissance

For over a century the secular world has stolen, distorted, and then discarded the culture that Christians spent 1500 years creating. Its time we return our lives to the Christian culture and turned our backs on the distorted worldview Satan has crafted in its place. For someone who grew up in a fundamentalist church this is a major, but welcome, break in my thinking. How shall we live? We shall live, in every aspect of life, in the way God has placed in nature. Families need to learn again how to function God's way, businesses need to learn again *truly* compassionate capitalism, medicine needs to learn again from God right and wrong instead of ethics and legalities, and the church needs to support more than the winning of souls but the reclaiming of Western culture as Christian intead of Western.Colson starts with the ways our views of creation and fall shape us and builds to a crescendo showing us how those ideas should cause us to build a culture that can restore the world as God would have it.Along with Richard Foster and Dallas Willard, Chuck Colson is one of the most important thinkers and writers in this newly emerging, but very necessary, Christian Renaissance