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Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices | 
 enlarge | Authors: Frank Viola, George Barna
Publisher: BarnaBooks
Category: Book
List Price: $17.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  201 reviews
Sales Rank: 1134
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.6 x 1.2
ISBN: 141431485X
Dewey Decimal Number: 262.0017
EAN: 9781414314853
ASIN: 141431485X
Publication Date: January 2008
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 196 more reviews...
 The History of Christianity made plain October 4, 2008
I have been a Christian all my life, but have had doubts about some of its methods. Sure enough, Pagan Christianity, cleared up some of those doubts but I still believe that "Jesus died for my sins." What I read is what is going on today in ministry and music, the culture of the world has invaded the 21st century Church. What I could say in another way is, "the Church has looked across at the Jones' house, and thought that the grass looked greener over there. So, here we go again. We must be like them. I enjoyed the book. The person that suggested that I read it said that it made him mad. Not me, even though some of the eye-openers for me, or confirmations are not an issue if they are done in the right spirit.
Thought provoking with historical references galore... September 29, 2008
Other reviewers have mentioned things like "just because a tradition's basis is not found in the Bible doesn't make it wrong". Viola and Barna seem to disagree with this notion entirely - as do I. They also support their case with examples replete with historical evidence. Highly recommended!
Fantastic Book, but the Sequel is Even Better September 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a fantastic book, but as the reviews show, it is controversial. Pastors who don't wish to see the church change and committed Roman Catholics will hate the book because it challenges their traditions. People who are interested to know where our traditions came from will love the book as well as people who feel we need big changes in the church. I thought it was fascinating to learn all the history behind what we do. Going to church will never be the same for me now. While I think this is a great book, the sequel is even better. "Reimagining Church" helped me to understand what church can really be like and how it is related to God's nature and desire for community.
 Sad to Read September 26, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book argues for a move to a charismatic, non-hierarchical house church model for Christianity and condemns institutional churches for being 'pathological', illegitimate, and destructive to the faith. The authors examine areas of traditional Christianity and find them all rooted in pagan beliefs and practices, rather than the Bible (or rather, the New Testament).
Since I have some knowledge of preaching, I can evaluate best the book's chapter on sermons, which the authors charge with a double sin: 1) the practice of preaching, they say, has no biblical support but developed wholly out of pagan rhetoric; and 2) the sermon shuts down participatory communication in a congregation since one person is the designated speaker and the rest are passive listeners.
To #1, I'd say that since Aristotle invented the study of rhetoric, it is natural that there would be pre-Christian influences in the practice of preaching. But the authors grossly undervalue the place of scripture in the genesis and growth of preaching in the church. It appears the authors assume the church fathers never actually read the Bible. On the contrary, the fathers were steeped in scripture. And current day preachers will find plenty of models for preaching in scripture -- Moses, Ezra, Jesus, and Paul come to mind.
To #2, the authors give no evidence of knowing contemporary theories of homiletics that see a sermon as a small slice of the many conversations going on in a congregation -- between pastor and parishioners, between parishioners, and between the congregation and God. Viewed in this way, preaching is something that helps focus and facilitate these larger conversations in the church, rather than shutting them down.
The book, of course, covers more topics than sermons -- it attempts to deconstruct church buildings, ordination and education, among other targets. But it was instructive for me that in the one area where I have some expertise, in preaching, I could clearly see how limited their arguments are. Since I know less about the other areas, I won't comment on them, beyond saying that the book seems definitely anti-Catholic, and to a lesser extent anti-Jewish (with Judaism and paganism often lumped together).
As a pastor in a traditional mainline church, I'm actually curious about the house church movement and would love to learn more about it. There is a rich variety of ways of being a Christian community in today's world. I found this book jarring, though, since the authors are so critical of traditional ways of being a Christian community. It was sad to read.
Good on history NOT SO GOOD on application and conclusions September 22, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a fascinating book if you simply look at it as the history of the church and practices in the church. It does a great job of pulling in resources from all areas to summarize why we do what we do.
This book is basic trash when it comes to the conclusions. It seems that Viola and Barna have a bone to pick and throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is no allowance for continuing revelation, according to them if it was not done in the Bible then it must be wrong. There is no allowance for a common grace, according to the authors if it came from the "pagan" world it must be wrong. God shows throughout scripture that he takes the things of this world and USES THEM to teach, train, and enhance HIS kingdom. You simply go to Exodus and see how God used what the Israelites were used to (Pagan Egypt) and turned it into worship of him. Everything from the form of the tabernacle, priestly garb, tools of worship and EVEN THE ARK OF THE COVENANT was modeled after Egyptian worship.
If you stick to the interesting history and throw away the rest of the book you will enjoy and learn from Pagan Christianity.
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