Witherington on "Pagan Christianity"
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The best kind of reviews not only critique, but also instruct. Such is the case with Ben Witherington's informative in-progress chapter-by-chapter dismantling of Frank Viola and George Barna's book, Pagan Christianity.
Thus far, see part 1 and part 2.
HT: James Grant
Thus far, see part 1 and part 2.
HT: James Grant
posted by JT at Tuesday, July 01, 2008
8 Comments:
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Witherington bowls down the ever popular anti-traditional sentiment of the new progressive Christian movement.
Thanks for linking to this, JT. I've been sending it to everyone I know. Witherington's analysis is a much needed corrective to the "church buildings are bad / liturgical structures are bad" mentality currently in vogue among faddish evangelicals. God help us.
Barna has been off the apple cart for years now in terms of his flawed ecclesiology, and this partnership with Viola hasn't improved his grasp of the Biblical or historical landscape.
Nice Work, Dr. Witherington.
I just saw this link on another blog and read it. http://www.paganchristianity.org/zensresponds1.htm
It's a pretty impressive response to Witherington by another scholar.
I just ordered this book from amazon, mainly b/c of the reviews and controversy surrounding it.
it really is nothing new, ppl have always had questions about he church as an institution.
we, as a western culture, have indeed adopted an eastern religion.
just as you can't take viola at face value, nor should you take witherington or the "church" at face value.
i think the lesson to be learned is that we all need to be able to hear what the Spirit is speaking to us.
if we take the Spirit out of Christianity and boil it down to debate, we have indeed lost the picture as a whole.
I appreciated much that Witherington has to say, especially in his critique of Barna & Viola's distortion of Church history and Scripture.
I have also been addressing a number of the distortions of Scripture in my series of responses to the House-Church Movement (with which viola, in particular, is associated) at the Reformed Baptist Blog. You will see that I have addressed a number of the Scriptural issues raised by Pagan Christianity.
http://reformedbaptist.blogspot.com/search/label/House-Church%20Movement
I welcome your feedback.
Keith
The sequel to “Pagan Christianity?” is out now. It’s called “Reimagining Church”. It picks up where “Pagan Christianity” left off and continues the conversation. (“Pagan Christianity” was never meant to be a stand alone book; it’s part one of the conversation.) “Reimagining Church” is endorsed by Leonard Sweet, Shane Claiborne, Alan Hirsch, and many others. You can read a sample chapter at
http://www.ReimaginingChurch.org
It’s also available on Amazon.com. Frank is also blogging now at http://www.frankviola.wordpress.com
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