Book review: Pagan Christianity

[Guest]

Three books by Frank Viola have had a profound influence on me and on how I understand the church: Rethinking the Wineskin, Pagan Christianity and Who's Your Covering? In these books, Viola pulls no punches and gets right to the point of examining why we "do" church the way we do. I first read them a few years ago as an associate pastor wrestling with the question: What is church supposed to be like? Viola's books gave me encouragement, comfort, insight, useful information and much food for thought.

It used to be that you had to search out Viola's books by going to his website, http://www.ptmin.org. His books were self-published and not available in bookstores. It seemed as if no Christian publisher or retailer would touch his books due to their incendiary content.

Recently however, George Barna (founder of The Barna Group, a highly respected Christian research firm - http://www.barna.org) teamed up with Viola to revise and re-release Pagan Christianity. This time around, it is being published and distributed by Tyndale House (brave souls they must be).

Pagan Christianity traces the roots of our most commonly accepted church elements--from church buildings to choirs to sermons to worship leaders to clergy to tithing--and finds that they were not a part of the New Testament church but were later imported into Christendom from the surrounding cultures. That in itself doesn't make such things bad, but it does make them not inherently Christian and not necessary for a church to exist and function.

Viola and Barna go further to show how some of these practices actually are detrimental to the proper functioning of the Body of Christ. For example, church buildings are oftentimes a drain on resources and, considering the ratio of time that they are in use versus their cost, bad stewardship of God's money. Another example: The emphasis on ministry being performed by professional clergy actually thwarts the growth of Christians into mature followers of Jesus by turning them into a passive audience.

I picked up a copy of the revised Pagan Christianity last week and have thoroughly enjoyed reading through it again. I can't recommend this book highly enough. If I were a rich man, I would purchase millions of copies, delivering them free of charge (and in plain brown wrappers) to church pastors everywhere and hiring volunteers to hand out free copies in church parking lots. I guess it's a good thing I'm not a rich man.

You can find out more about Pagan Christianity, and read a sample chapter, at the following website:
http://www.paganchristianity.org/

[Guest]

Thanks for pointing this book out. I might just have to get it.

[Guest]

After examining the website and reading a free chapter offered, I did actually order the book.

[Guest]

So, I read the chapter online and I ordered it as well. It looks really interesting.

[Guest]

Hi,

This is my second post ever... Been trying to register for a year or two but something always went wrong with the registration process. Anyway, I'm glad to be able to finally comment on things I see on this wonderful forum.

I have just recently finished reading Pagan Christianity. I thought Frank Viola nailed it. It is a great book.

The only criticism I have is that he seems to have a small agenda of positioning the House Church movement as the valid alternative. I'm not so sure I agree with him on that point, and I think the book would have been better just stating the facts and leaving out his opinions on House Churches. I just think if people read this book and then relied on the Spirit to show them what to do about it, it would have been more fruitful. Now we may just get those people that this book touches, to go to, or start up, a house church as a knee jerk reaction to the current church system. It may supplant the work of the Holy Spirit in ones life in this matter.

I still highly recommend this book, even with the minor musings of house church.

Shel

[Guest]

Hi Shel, Welcome!

You all got me curious so I ordered the book as well.

[Guest]

Thanks for recommending this book. It looks interesting. I think I'll order a copy as well.

It's nice to know that others are interested in true christanity (in how it's supposed to function I guess I should say).

Zoe

[_Rick_C]

I read the free chapter and wasn't really that impressed. Some of what they say sounds good but I don't know about their ecclesiology. (Sounds like standard "anti-established church" stuff). Another critique would be: I don' t know if there's evidence that people didn't wear their best clothes to church in the early centuries. But be that as it may.

I googled "house-synagogues" as I knew some Jewish homes in the first century were converted into them. That is, one room was either remodeled and/or rearranged to be a place for worship. The Essenes did this, and probably the early church also. In fact, the upper room, was quite possibly a house-synagogue that was rented from an Essene (there's a chapter on this in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls edited by James Charlesworth), a really great read!

Anyway, I just found a free chapter from:
House Church and Mission: The Importance of Household Structures in Early Christianity
by Roger W. Gehring
If you don't have a PDF reader, here's the HTML version I found in google cache.

In this one chapter, there's a lot of information that I have the suspicion isn't dealt with in Pagan Christianity. But I haven't read the book so I really can't say for sure.

Gehring surveys scholarly studies on this topic over the last 100 years or so. Many in the "anti-established church movement" seem to think church buildings are somehow wrong, not knowing how Christians met (in larger homes of the well to do, etc.). They may have a point as far as after Constantine goes. That is, when everyone was forced to become "Christian" (except many probably weren't really Christians, and now where do we put everyone?),

Some NT house churches were in the homes of the more well to do. They modified and/or remodeled their homes to accommodate their [own] family (the father of the household would also be an "elder"), their servants and freedmen, and their friends. As time went on Christians probably built "halls" while others still met in [modified] homes of the more well to do, while others yet continued to meet in smaller [unmodified] homes.

In Ephesus Paul taught for two years in a rented pagan philosopher's hall:
Acts 19:8Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord (NIV). Interestingly, nothing is said about their meeting in homes in Ephesus; neither in Acts nor Ephesians. But they almost certainly did. This philosopher's hall would have been somewhat like modern churches, long and rectangular in arrangement, with tiered seating for the hearers. There was a podium for readings, but the teacher usually sat.

The church as a "body" (as seen in Paul) was based on the model of Greco-Roman trade guilds. This wasn't a "pagan" thing for Paul to do, to model the church like this. I'd call it a "contemporary concept" but not pagan (as in, "bad"). But that's slightly off-topic.

Anyway, read the chapter, good stuff. It traces the historical development, etc.
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edited in later

Emerging church spokesguy Dan Kimball reviews "Pagan Christianity" and talked with Frank Viola.

Btw, Dan Kimball was interviewed on Converse With Scholars last nite on the emerging church (thread topic related).

[Guest]

Looks interesting ... just ordered my copy.

peace,

dane

[Guest]

Those of you who have ordered the book; please consider coming back to this thread and posting your impressions as you read it. Might make for some interesting discussion...