Pagan Christianity

Posted on May 26th, 2008

Despite my eagerness in reading this book to find out about the origin of many of the practices of the modern church, I must say that book has left me wanting something different. I would have preferred a book that offered the historical developments and then a biblical portrait of what a church could look like. The book delivers well on the former, but fails on the latter. I wound up giving up on the book after chapter three.

I gave up after realizing that the authors were prooftexting their model of what the church should look like, selectively choosing from 1 Corinthians 14:26-33, with no explanation about why they leave out verse 34 from their model (the women be silent verse).

I hope one day to be able to read the other chapters. I think it is interesting to know how practices developed, but the authors are simply too interesting in damning anyone who thinks they can worship or honor God through them. I guess God cannot use cultural differences or developments to honor himself, at least according to Viola and Barna.

Tags: Book review, church practices, history, Worship
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