From Publishers Weekly
In 1992, Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship International, penned The Body, an important work on how Christians have emphasized individualism to the detriment of the church, or the body. More than a decade later, Colson is back with Being the Body, a revised and updated edition of his award-winning book. It opens with the gripping personal accounts of several September 11 survivors, then states that in the immediate days following the World Trade Center attacks, the church was at last doing what it is supposed to do: it was being the body. As time went on, Christians' purpose veered off course, and the sense of community that was forged by the tragedy faded into memory. The book draws upon politics, philosophy and religion, demonstrating Colson's trademark breadth in its quest to foster Christian community. While some nonevangelical readers will likely be offended by aspects of the book (such as its broad generalizations about Islam), it will certainly be as influential and provocative as its predecessor.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Responding to the clash of worldviews intensified by 9/11, Charles Colson (of the Nixon Administration) and a co-author call for unity through organized religion. Churches are the last hope, they say, for directing us away from the certain doom of personal agendas and petty competition. Though the authors believe women should have limited roles in church and marriage, their views are less predictable on corporate immorality, punitive evangelism, gay marriage, abortion, creationism, class injustice, and vulgarity in the media. The listening is slow at first--the writing is distant and stiff--but the program picks up in the second half as its ideas connect more aggressively with what's happening in the world. T.W. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ten years ago Charles Colson￯﾿ﾽs The Body issued a wake-up call to the Church. Now, Charles revisits the tough issues he addressed in that watershed work to determine how far the Church has come in the last decade.

Charles Colson has been called, ￯﾿ﾽone of the most important social reformers in a generation.￯﾿ﾽ Ten years ago in The Body, Colson turned his prophetic attention to the church and how it might break out of its cultural captivity and reassert its biblical identity.

Today the book's classic truths have not changed. But the world we live in has. Christians in America have had their complacency shattered and their beliefs challenged. Around the world, the clash of world views has never been more strident. Before all of us, daily, are the realities of life and death, terror and hope, light and darkness, brokeness and healing. We cannot withdraw to the comfort of our santuaries...we must engage. For, if ever there was a time for Christians to be the Body of Christ in the world, it is now.

In this new, revised and expanded edition of The Body, Charles Colson revisits the question, "What is the church and what is its relevance to contemporary culture at large?" Provocative and insightful, Being the Body inspires us to rise above a stunted "Jesus and me" faith to a nobler view of something bigger and grander than ourselves --the glorious, holy vision for which God created the church.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly