The Good Life

A big house, a fancy car, an expensive vacation---that's happiness! Or is it? Exploring the ways we seek pleasure and contentment, Colson shares real-life stories about people who define themselves by their positions and possessions vs. those who define themselves by their faith in God. You'll find new purpose and meaning for your own life. 280 pages, hardcover from Tyndale.

Sharing from his own life, as well as the stories of others, Chuck Colson exposes the counterfeits of the good life and leads readers to the only true source of meaning and purpose, Jesus Christ. But he does that in an unusual way, allowing powerful stories to illustrate how people have lived out their beliefs in ways that either satisfy or leave them empty. Colson addresses seekers--people looking for the truth. He shows through stories that the truth is knowable and that the truly good life is one that lives within the truth. Through the book, readers get to understand their own stories and find answers to their own search for meaning, purpose, and truth.

Colson-bestselling author, political figure and ministry leader-wrote this book to help readers answer "deep questions... that [determine] how we will live and how we will die and whether our lives will count for something." It is part memoir, as Colson reflects on his own rights and wrongs. For Colson, how people live comes down to their worldview - how their core beliefs about life shape their actions. He covers key paradoxes (i.e., "Out of suffering and defeat often comes victory") and spends a large section of the book establishing the existence of "capital-T truth," a concept Colson argues provides hope and "makes life a breathtaking challenge." He addresses a number of social and political issues, including evolution, euthanasia and homosexuality. Stories are central to this exploration, and Colson incorporates many different kinds: his own Watergate experience, popular films, stories of war and oppression, and front-page business scandals. While he attempts to conduct his search "without relying on any prior assumptions or sectarian convictions," his Christian faith is ever present, and some who start from an opposing position may find his arguments weak. However, Colson's deep humility is striking, and many will welcome this well-researched book, built on his lifetime of learning and extraordinary experience. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Average Rating:

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Reviewed by Donna Howard (Wash DC), May 12, 2009

ONE of the best books I have ever read - full of simple nuggets of truth, and harder questions (answered). This book is intended for those who want to think for theirselves and not believe everything they hear/read/see. Everyone should get something from this book, although it is intended to be a "path" towards God and HIS SON Jesus.

Reviewed by Nicholas Vafiades (Colorado Springs, CO), February 21, 2009

THE GOOD LIFE is classic Colson! With co-author Harold Fickett, Charles Colson delivers a well-reasoned and compelling argument for the viability of the theocentric, i.e. Christian, worldview amidst a world full of systems of belief -- as well of groups of non-beliefs. Colson uses the stories of seekers after truth, and events that have taken place in the last 100 years (like the largely bloodless fall of communism in the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe) to show how the unique worldview of biblical Christianity has literally changed history and pointed seekers to the truths taught in the Bible and exemplified in the teachings and ministry of Jesus Christ. This is a book that will challenge all intellectually honest seekers and nominal believers, and will provide emotionally moving models for Christians of what the "good life" that Jesus talked about really is and how it can be lived out.

Reviewed by MICHAEL ANTONOVICH (LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA), April 23, 2008

Excellent book. Fast reading which covers united states historical, foreign, and domestic events from an eyewitness. Have recommended to friends.

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