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At the end of part 4 ("Redemption: What can we do to fix it?"), the authors review the historical statements of the New Testament and the reliability of the documents as they have been handed down, and especially the historicity of the Resurrection.

Finally, in "Restoration: How now shall we live?" Colson and Pearcey tell readers how to deal with the complex decisions that have to be made every day. Topics range from sexual ethics to living in a capitalist economy to educating one's children. For example, they write about the issue of vocation: "Even in the harshest of circumstances, work is still a gift of God that imparts a sense of personal fulfillment and useful service.

"Throughout the book, Colson and Pearcey stand clearly in the tradition of Schaeffer, who was the first evangelical this century to undertake a massive, hopeful, and effective defense of the Christian worldview against the host of enemies assailing the faith. This is perhaps the greatest compliment that can be paid to their work.

Naturally, just as critics attacked Schaeffer, so they will attack this book, calling it superficial and simplistic, objecting to "hit-and-run" tactics, and so on. In a number of cases, these criticisms are justified. For example, the authors use Andy Warhol's images of Campbell's soup cans as examples of "art that attacks all standards" and "ends up destroying itself," but they fail to appreciate the complexity of Warhol's art (some of which was designed to assail the values of modern artists who irritate the authors). Then again, in a book that tries to equip the Christian soldier for philosophical world war, it is impossible to cover all points with the precision of a series of scholarly monographs.

Perhaps one ought to say of their "oversimplifications" what Hans BÃrki said of Schaeffer's: they are like the best editorial cartoons. They are not detailed depictions of the subject. Nevertheless, they tell us something a photograph would not, something true and important, something we ought to know.

Harold O. J. Brown is a professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina, and editor of Religion and Society Report.

How Now Shall We Live can be purchased at christianbook.com, among other online book retailers. Charles Colson is a columnist for Christianity Today. His columns include:

• Scout's Dishonor, November 15, 1999
• What Are We Doing Here?, October 4, 1999
• How Evil Became Cool, August 9, 1999
• Does Kosovo Pass the Just-War Test?, May 24, 1999
• Why We Should Be Hopeful, April 26, 1999
• Moral Education After Monica, March 1, 1999
• The Sky Isn't Falling, January 11, 1999
• Poster Boy for Postmodernism, November 16, 1998
• Evangelicals Are Not an Interest Group, October 5, 1998
• The Devil in the DNA, August 10, 1998
• The Oxford Prophet, June 15, 1998
• Why Fidelity Matters, April 27, 1998
• Do We Love Coke More Than Justice?, March 2, 1998
• Madison Avenue's Spiritual Chic, January 12, 1998
• Colson Archives

Colson's daily radio program, Breakpoint, is also available online, and has more on How Now Shall We Live?January 10, 2000, Vol. 44, No. 1, Page 81

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January 10 2000, Vol. 44, No. 1