Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices

Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices | Frank Viola, George Barna | A must-have for every 'organic' Christian

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Pagan Christianity...

	Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices Frank Viola, George Barna BarnaBooks, 2008 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 141 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Have you ever wondered why we Christians do what we do for church every Sunday morning? Why do we "dress up" for church? Why does the pastor preach a sermon each week? Why do we have pews, steeples, choirs, and seminaries? This volume reveals the startling truth: most of what Christians do in present-day churches is not rooted in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles. Coauthors Frank Viola and George Barna support their thesis with compelling historical evidence in the first-ever book to document the full story of modern Christian church practices.

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Reviewing the Reviewers

As of today (6/20/08), 138 others have already written a review of Pagan Christianity. I read all of them - carefully - before venturing to add the 139th. Admittedly, there is little helpful analysis that I can add, since just about everything that can be said about this excellent and challenging book has already been provided for you in the reviews that precede mine. In fact, if you simply take the time to carefully read the reviews by David Flowers, William Dahl, John White, Jon Zens, Jill Scales, N Demaray, Clark Wade and James Miller, I can only add one word. Amen!

What I would like to offer, therefore, is less of a review of the book than a review of the reviewers. Clearly, if this were some kind of an election, the "pro" side would be landslide winners. That fact by itself, of course, does not prove that Pagan Christianiy is a paradigm of insight and truth. There are many books on the market today that are awash with rave reviews that I wouldn't waste either my money to purchase or my time to read or the space on my bookshelves to display. But I did invest in a copy of Pagan Christianty, I have taken the time to carefully read it - more than once - and I will definitely assign it a prominent place on my bookshelves with other esteemed writings that I consult frequently. By the way, as a writer myself, and as a copy editor for a Christian magazine, I must add that from a style perspective alone, Pagan Christianity is a literary masterpiece. About the only criticism I can offer is that the tiny font size chosen for the footnotes is a challenge for my 73 year old eyes.

Now, what about the other reviews? I've already betrayed my favorable bias toward Pagan Christianity, so other than recommending that you read the reviewers I've listed above, I can do little more than to endorse their analyses. But I do have some reactions to those who have commented unfavorably about the book. Some allege, for example, that the research is flawed. As one who majored in Church History, however, I would observe that few authors today have consulted so wide a wealth of original resources or so accurately summarized their findings. "The rub," to quote Shakespeare, does not lie in the historical data unearthed by Viola/Barna, but rather in the widespread contemporary revisionistic interpretations of that data by defenders of church status quo.

Another recurring criticism of Pagan Christianity is the allegation that its call to return to early church values and practices fails to allow for natural progress and infringes on NT freedom. That the NT does not dictate precise forms for body life, but allows for considerable freedom is certainly true. But it does provide many inviolable principles that must govern and shape whatever practices and forms we may adopt to facilitate that body life. The point of Pagan Christianity is not to interfere with the liberty for local assemblies to be creative in how they facilitate body life, but to point to Pagan practices and forms that have subtly intruded into church life over the centuries at the expense of some of those very inviolable principles. Just one case in point: the CEO "Pastor." Perhaps we have the liberty to recognize one individual in the assembly as particularly gifted in leadership and training. Perhaps we have the liberty to give that one person the title, "Pastor" (even though there is virtually no NT justification for doing so). But when that one person becomes the focal point of all gatherings; the only one authorized to exegete God's Word; the final authority on all matters of doctrine and practice; the only one "ordained" to "minister," etc., etc., liberty to choose forms and practices has crossed the line and transgressed the inviolable principles of "one another" ministry so clearly set forth in at least 58 distinct NT passages.

I must confess that I was surprised to find several reviewers who seemed to say, "So what" to the main premise of the book - the Pagan roots for so many of the trappings and practices of today's institutional church. I would certainly agree that the mere fact that the origin of some church practice or tradition can be traced to Pagan roots does not - by itself - make that practice or tradition evil. Believers often benefit from the scientific and cultural advances of the unbelieving world in which they live. But that is not what the authors of Pagan Christianity are decrying. In every case where they trace a contemporary church practice to Pagan roots, they also provide clear evidence to show that adopting that specific Pagan practice creates a situation that runs totally counter to everything the NT teaches about body life. In every one of the many imported church practices and traditions examined by the authors, having Pagan roots does matter!

This is a great book - a few negative reviews notwithstanding. Read it carefully. Then read it again. Then read the entire NT afresh to determine "whether these things are so."

Cliff Bjork, Associate Editor, Searching Together Magazine

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A must-have for every 'organic' Christian

Never has such a bold work been publicized by Christians regarding the current status and dark past of the Christian church. This book is absolutely a MUST READ for any Believer who is concerned about the commercialism and paganistic ways of the rising churches in America....or world wide for that matter. Frank Viola and George Barna will go down in literary history for what is sure to be known as a valid, riveting and well documented case of pagan Christianity.

This book will rock your world

Pagan Christianity is a re-write of a book Frank Viola wrote a number of years ago. He's now teamed up with George Barna and has published a new revised version and I believe the teaming has been successful. Never having read the original, I can't say what changes have been made. In my opinion, however, this version is very well written with lots of documentation. Frank Viola, who did the research, has done a very thorough job investigating this topic. Since I enjoy reading history, I found the data that was presented to be very fascinating. Also, I believe that if we don't understand the past, more than likely we'll repeat the same errors and suffer the same consequences.

I was aware that many of the practices of the modern church system were introduced after the deaths of the original apostles but I wasn't aware of the magnitude of the corruption. I believe it's critical that we understand the sources of these extra-biblical practices. Although I don't agree with all of the conclusions drawn by the authors, I believe this is a book that every serious believer needs to read. I believe the facts presented will rock your world and cause you to re-evaluate much that you've accepted and perhaps challenge you to make changes in how you live out you life as a follower of Christ.

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Great but some ideas need to be tweaked...

Kudos to Frank Viola for writing such an eye-opening tome.

He alerts us to the problems in the modern church while demonstrating that the practices that we have been following aren't the way things were done in the New Testament; but rather, were added from pagan sources well after the close of the New Testament period.

Viola spends ten chapters covering major "fixtures" in the church and how they came to be. Whether it's the "office" of Pastor, the Worship team, the order of worship, or just the pulpit itself, he gives us insight into how and when they entered the church and from whence they came. Again, many of the sources for our modern worship are of pagan ancestry.

A big area of concern is Viola's idea related to church government.

In his quest to whittle the pastoral role down to size he seems to want to dispense with it altogether--stating that we are all kings and priests to God. Though the word "pastor" only occurs once in the New Testament in the English translation, the Greek form of the word (poimen) occurs several places in the New Testament. So this argument based upon the existence of just one English word was incomplete and consisted of weak argumentation to me.

The New Testament church did not just meet and sit there without any leadership at all. Yes, we are equal in Christ, but Viola, I feel, goes too far by removing any leadership whatsoever.

The Holy Spirit is the leader of the Church but there is still leadership within the New Testament context. Viola fails to recognize few--if any--leadership roles as it relates to the daily life of the house churches, preferring instead to regard everyone as equal with nobody assuming the leadership role.

Other than this, a good read and highly recommended.

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