Pagan Christianity

By: Frank Viola

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

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. Many Christians take for granted that their churchs practices are rooted in Scripture. Yet those practices look very different from those of the first-century church. The New Testament is not silent on how the early church freely expressed the reality of Christs indwelling in ways that rocked the first-century world.Times have changed.

Pagan Christianity leads us on a fascinating tour through church history, revealing this startling and unsettling truth: Many cherished church traditions embraced today originated not out of the New Testament, but out of pagan practices. One of the most troubling outcomes has been the effect on average believers: turning them from living expressions of Christs glory and power to passive observers. If you want to see that trend reversed, turn to Pagan Christianity...a book that examines and challenges every aspect of our contemporary church experience.

©2008 Frank Viola and George Barna (P)2008 christianaudio.com

Outstanding Research

I have a couple of Frank Viola books that are outstanding and therefore are part of my library. He introduced this book by stating it would be shocking; that was a true statement. Upon listening to research after research of the historical church and the historical leaders, I was amazed, angry, and didappointed at seeing how man can manipulate his agenda to his benefit for obvious gain.

True Christians should read this book and take action to revisit current traditions and prayerfully consider getting back to basics.

Stay the course

I enjoyed reading the book and I could not help laughing at myself for so many of the things mentioned and as they totally beamed a light to my belief and way of doing certain things. Truly I am grateful that the author wrote this book with all the citations so that one could go back and verify. In response to what has been discussed I am glad that the many things we as body of Christ have struggled with , if we choose to have the Spirit change then we will be an organic church. I like that the author does not seem to suggest for the reader this is what you need to do and how you need to, otherwise it would have turned out to be another manual. Thank you for your great penmanship

Eye opening!! Must read for all Christians!!!

This book explains the history of how our modern church practices developed over time and how most of it is not biblical. It also lays out the pattern the New Testament established for the local body of believers and how Christ should be the complete head over all. This will make you rethink modern day organized church hierarchy and practice. You will long to be a part of a local church based on what was established by the early believers.

A must-read for Christians

This was a very informative and interesting read on the history of church traditions, practices and teaching. It may ruin your church experience in the best possible way.

Not for the secular community

Any additional comments?

This book seems very informative, and as an atheist, I'm happy there is a discussion about the true historic roots of many modern Christian rituals among those who wish to remain Christian/religious/etc.

My purpose for writing this review is to warn other secularist readers who are interested in the historical value of this book— it is fascinating to be sure! Be aware, however, that an equal portion of the book is essentially a sermon and philosophical argument from the author's very Christian point of view. I bought this book for the history behind Christian practices and wound up with a lot more preaching than I bargained for. If it doesn't bother you that this is a book by Christians for Christians, there's a lot of good stuff here.

Detail

I was very pleased with the content of this book.
From start to finish it is full of interesting information. Some books tend to have a certain amount of filler or wordiness to make them book size. This one has none of that. It is interesting and well read all the way through.

Fascinating, Thrilling, Enthralling, Perplexing

First, the positive: This is the history lesson I've been looking for. The authors run down the stories behind official paid church leaders, church buildings, the Lord's Supper and sitting for extended sermons, among other things. I was spellbound; I knew that Christianity had borrowed a bit from previous religions & customs, but I never knew paganism had soaked in _this_ deep.

The "perplexing" part--and the reason I only gave it three stars--is that Viola keeps jumping up on a soapbox about things ranging from trivial to just plain weird. He hates "individualism" with a purple passion and goes out of his way to attack it. Like, over and over again. Just the personal pronoun "I" in a praise song is enough to raise his hackles! (I wonder what he thinks of all the psalms that use the pronoun "I?") And while discussing proof-texting, he tells us to note the "individual nature" of the verses.(?)

After stressing the importance of interactive home gatherings throughout the book, Viola turns around and condemns a hypothetical man who has started just such a gathering. Why? The man's home church wasn't founded the right way, it was supposed to be planted by an itinerant church-planter who plants, and then makes himself scarce.(??)

The history lessons held me enthralled. But after finishing the book, I came away with the impression that Viola holds to specific, rigid ideas about how Christianity should be practiced, and he can't understand why everyone else doesn't think the same way. And he has little patience for said people.

There may be Christians, for example, who prefer a sermon over interactive discussion. Some may be blessed by a church's organ or worship team as opposed to people breaking out into spontaneous songs. And someone else might be more than happy to heed Christ's admonition to, when you pray, go into your room and shut the door, rather than doing it (and everything else) corporately with a group.

Listen to the book for the history. But as far as Viola's attitude, it reminds me of how Matthew Henry said, "There is a strange proneness in us to think that all do wrong who do not just as we do."

Shocked but not surprised

Reading this book has further open my mind to the understanding of Christianity and religion. What's crazy is that I've been telling people someone who thinks it is going on in this book in the church but people fail to understand that is paganism. Takes things to a whole nother level

Compromised excellence

The author hits on a very needed review the Christian Church needs to address, and yet in disassembling the things wrong with the church and it’s history the author commits the same errors of fallacy he points at so directly. Viola is a very good writer, though too often he repeats himself, and yet a book of this late authorship is lacking some key needs itself; all references are to men in leadership and never women, the author constantly warns against proof-texting, and then does it himself. That said, here is enough to be learned in this book to make it worth a listen, but pay attention to a bit of self-contradiction and filter it out.

Notion Shattering

No book up till now has ever shaken my notions of what a Christian life was meant to be as much as this one. Take heart that given prayer and some honest confessions about our shared mistakes, you too will hopefully find what I have : that within a very short space of time God will realign you with His loving.. beating.. heart.