Pagan Christianity?
Pagan Christianity, a new book by Frank Viola and George Barna claims that much of what we experience as church-goers these days has little to do with Christianity and lot to do with pagan practices. Here’s the quick Amazon editorial review:
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.
Certainly, the modern American church is not without flaws. I’m certain we could improve on the way we do a lot of things. I might say that I have not yet read the book (although I’ve ordered it) so I cannot myself review or comment on anything which the book teaches. I will direct you to a review by New Testament expert, Ben Witherington. He has a five part review of the book, plus, an additional, related post yesterday on whether Christians should meet on Sunday and who should do the teaching. His insights and knowledge are helpful when considering the topic of this book.
A couple of excerpts from the first of his lengthy multi-part review:
Of course the big bad guy in Pagan Christianity is not going to be sin, suffering, the Devil, or any of those things. The big bad guy is going to be what is loosely called the Institutional Church and that other famous whipping boy—‘church tradition’ and oh yes— Greek philosophy. The particular animus is against the Roman Catholic Church for paganizing Christianity. Dan Brown would have liked this book.
One of the worst things that can happen to persons who are anti-institutionalists, and anti-sacramentalists, is that so angry are they about the excesses and bad theology that has sometimes come out of the ‘institutional church’ that they throw the baby right out with the sacramental baptismal waters. I understand this, but it is a colossal over-reaction. Desacralizing worship, the Lord’s Supper, and even persons is not something devout Christians should be about. The last thing the church needs is a more casual, less reverential approach to all these things which removes altogether the recognition that one is entering into the presence of the Holy One when one comes to worship, the One in whose presence we too become sanctified, something that happens through encountering God through prayers, praise, songs, sacraments, and of course the preaching as well.