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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
Buy New: $11.10
You Save: $6.89 (38%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  165 reviews
Sales Rank: 1219
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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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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 160 more reviews...
 pagan christinanty July 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
very good, lots of research , put together very well. a must read for all who would follow Christ in truth and spirit.
 Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of our Church Practices July 21, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book's theme is that today's church government, forms of worship and practice have been taken from the pagan world rather than from the church as it is portrayed in the New Testament. When New Nestament Christians worshipped in the informal setting of a house and without professional clergy each person had an opportunity to use his or her spiritual gifts. The book has left me dissatisfied with current church practice, but I am wondering how today's church can recapture the New Testament church.
The Pieces FINALLY Fit July 20, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I recently read this book. I grew up in a Christian church and was taught the whole ball of wax. (Go to church three or more times per week, tithe 10%, etc., etc.) As I grew older, matured, studied more about Chrisianity and our role in God's kingdom, things just didn't seem to "fit". It seemed like the church's teaching didn't fit exactly with what the Bible teaches. Your book FINALLY put the pieces together. What a burden of guilt has been lifted from my shoulders! I can now see the big picture! We WERE on the right track! The verse: "the Truth shall set you free" has so much meaning now. WE are the church!
Thank you so much for writing a book that needed to be written. Our purpose (as Christians) is so much clearer now.
Amazing Journey July 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Upon the advice of a friend, who knew the desire in my heart to find like-hearted worship with others, I got this book and inhaled it! I couldn't stop reading . . .
You see, I grew up SDA. Surrounded and soaked in the traditions of the church and the institutions and thoughts thereof. Though I knew God on the heart level and lived outside of the box as much as I could --- I knew little life outside of those traditions and theories. I wasn't a back row sitter in the SDA church. I was raised going to church every Sabbath at 9 am. I was schooled my whole life in church school - through college. I worked at the church's summer camp throughout my 20's, I went to VBS, I was counselor at Bible Outdoor School, I taught and directed the local kids Sabbath School for years, I did oversee missions and local missions, I was a worship-leader, I even spoke from the pulpit many times. I put together programs and implemented them. I went to the wall for defense of the 'church.' Until . . . . God called me out.
At 35 my marriage was on the rocks. The Spirit lead my husband to a Wild at Heart Boot Camp put on by the Ransomed Heart Ministry team in CO and was awakened and transformed. After 35 years in the 'church' we'd never seen transformation like that. I was so blown away by his transformation and the non-existant permanent transformation of people inside the church that we were forced to take a large step bacd. We stopped going to church because when we did go -- we couldn't stomach it. It all seemed so wrong. We saw the foolishness of the traditions, the half-truths that were being preached, the posing and posturing of people during that 2 hours, and the stage-like performance of the pastor vs audience. I wanted to scream. I did and then we left. Originally we stopped going out of the shock of realizing that we'd been apart of something that claimed to change peoples lives -- but didn't. Then, it turned into more . . . .
During the next 4 years God walked us into throwing out everything we once knew. We saw the bigger picture of what the modern 'church' was doing to people and telling people and the half-truths that exist there -- we were convinced that the way they were worshiping and what they were preaching was so very misleading! Of course, we knew that God may still work within the brokenness of the institutionalized church, but we wanted more of the original. Yet, had no way of finding it. We thought we were all alone. We continued to walk with God -- journeying as a family into amazing truths re-discovered and re-claimed as He brought them back to us.
We were moved to write books, create online redemptive communities, host like-hearts at our home, put on Freedom Events at the local grange hall, in the mountains, at coffee shops -- we tried many things to find others searching for what we were searching for. Hungry for what we were hungry for. Walking with God lead me to buy many books on Amazon from authors like Greg Boyd, John Eldredge, CS Lewis and then I would see your book. I tried to order the older version of "Pagan Christianity." But it was never available when I went there. It was either not the right time, or something was set against me getting it.
God continued to journey us.
Then, my like-hearted warrior friend called me from the East Coast and said, "You've got to read this book, "Pagan Christianity." I did. I inhaled it. I cried. This book confirmed for me, with logics and statistics and history, what my heart already knew. God was already walking us away from the legalized, systematized, institutionalized and programitized way of worshiping. Away from the counterfeit. And all I wanted was to find the Church. The Church that Barna and Viola speak of in their book. All of a sudden, though we didn't have a local fellowship, I felt like I wasn't alone. Someone put into writing what I knew to be true and the why's! And now when I tell my 'church' friends about my walk and mention this book -- all I have to do is mention the authors and my friends actually take notice for they've heard of Barna from the pulpit!
After reading the book and after journeying through the concept of spiritual alliances, I decided to severe my spiritual alliance with the SDA church (that took 6 months -- they didn't want to let go!). I was convinced, after reading this book, that I wanted to be aligned with the True Church. The Bride who is gathering in the First Century tradition. People who walk with God in the New Testament Tradition -- the dream of Jesus. I am done aligning myself with a man-made institution. An angel stands at the entrance to those places and warns, "Jesus has left the building!" to all those who have eyes to see.
Now, I look forward to finding the Church to fellowship with in New Testament, early Celtic Christian style-- living in community organically, worshiping in that dynamic flow that Viola and Barna talk about. I have met a few like-hearts and have networked with them across the country but am needing to find worship where I live. That, my friend, Frank Viola, is harder than it seems for many of us. I appreciate your effort to connect us, but so far nothing for North Idaho. I know that there are not many. The path is narrow. There are few that find it. There are few with eyes to see. But I thank you my friend, for having the guts and the walk with God that cumulated in a book that helps us mystics out with the history and proof that help us jump away from the fire into the arms of God and His Bride. God has and will continue to use your book and your heart to call people out to the 'real.'
Your walk is confirmed by my walk prior to ever reading your book. The Spirit is moving. The Trinity is moving. Aslan is on the move. We are at the End of the Age. I do crave fellowship with the Church---I pray it happens more constantly for this little family in Idaho.
www.landofiona.com
Worth mulling over for those willing to be changed July 17, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
If the title or contents of Pagan Christianity? provoked or offended you, than it's purpose was half accomplished. While far from inflammatory, it's writing style can come off as melodramatic and over-the-top. This is deliberate. Frank Viola and George Barna have concerns over many modern and traditional church practices, and they want you to take the concerns seriously as they discuss the benefits and hindrances of everything from church buildings and paid staff, to sermons and tithing, to methods of worship, baptism and communion. Steeped as we are, however, in the traditions as given us, a firm shake may be needed for us to realize the questions actually need answering.
This book goes to great lengths to show that each aspect of the Christian religion covered is without sound Scriptural basis, at least in it's most common forms found today. The intent is not to utterly these elements and practices from present Christianity, but rather for individual Christians to read the book, and come to terms whether, for example, the sermon as it has come to us adds or detracts from the faith, without conflating it with a perceived spiritual mandate.
A valid concern is that this book is too focused on the early church (first century or two after Christ) and on house churches that retain the open and egalitarian nature of the early church. Again, while this is definitely looked toward with preference against much of the accumulated traditions that have arisen since, there is also the understanding that we are not to merely mimic the early church.
"Therefore, adhering to the principles of the New Testament does not mean reenacting the events of of the first-century church."
Finally, a call is made for discernment. Even today we bring our own culture's perspective, assumptions and worldview to the faith.
"But in the light of tradition we need to sort out those cultural influences that contribute to the integrity of Christian worship from those that detract from it."
The intent of the book is to pose the questions, to knock the reader upside the head firmly enough that they have to consider where and how to balance themselves.
In addition, the book is brief in many of it's historical explorations, but the research has been done. For those interested in a deeper read, the footnotes in the back of the book can launch a broad and deep journey into the bowels of church history.
Full review & discussion at the Jesus Manifesto webzine.
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