Forget about gambling whether a body shot with a handgun will even impress a bear. A dead hunter had once been found next to a dead bear with 4 rounds from a .416 in him. Bear had still enough life in him to kill the hunter. With a handgun, especially, only a headshot is a sure thing - get something that is light (otherwise you'll leave it at home) and gets that job done without excessive recoil:

A 10mm AUTO ! best handgun caliber ever ...

A Glock is not the only option for 10mm, by the way. Mine is an SVI Infinity. If you are not familiar with these guns, check out this website and browse a bit, those guns are very, very cool:

http://www.sviguns.com/

http://www.svi-flass.de/

That's the model I got in 10 mm AUTO:

http://www.svi-flass.de/black%20beauty.jpg