Mark Driscoll and Team Take on Pagan Christianity
You may or may not be aware of the discussions taking place related to the book Pagan Christianity. I wrote a blog post a little over a year ago called My Problem With Pagan Christianity. In fact, I recently found out that if you google “Pagan Christianity Book Review,” my blog comes up with the top hit, which explains why I’ve been getting a lot more traffic lately.
Well, Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, and one of the leading voices in the church world recently decided to take on what they view as being inaccuracies and weaknesses in much of the book.
You can read the whole post here. I’d recommend downloading the pdf here, though, because it includes all the footnotes which can be quite valuable.
Here’s a preview of some of his conclusions, though:
Even with these qualifications and points of agreement this book as a whole is not recommended, and many of its arguments are to be outright rejected. The tone of the book itself is problematic, because the authors are so sure of themselves. When one finds that their biblical and historical claims, which were carried with such confidence, are not all historically and biblically viable, their certainties become almost comical. Suddenly the authors warning at the beginning of the book (“If you are unwilling to have your Christianity seriously examined, do not read beyond this page”) doesn’t sound so ominous anymore.
I encourage you to make up your mind for yourself, though.
[image by bkingr]
Related posts:
Kinda cool top two links when you google "Pagan Christianity book review" are both Adventist. You and then Shawn Brace at New England Pastor.
Ha! That's too funny…I never realized that!
Hey Rodlie, I saw this going on your blog. I glanced through this book at a bookstore a few months back and almost bought it but the tithes/offerings junk told me don't waste my money. So here is a question..Do we now declare Barna and all his research to be bias/prefabricated lies or do we continue to build new systems of approach via them? Your thoughts…? Cuz you and I can be honest and say that more remnant pastors quote barna from the pulpit these days than our lady we used to refer to as inspired.
That's a good question, Jared. I know that his reputation took a big hit for me when I read this book. Frank Viola is the primary author, but still, for Barna to put his name on this stuff was disappointing. I think Barna has written a lot of good stuff. But I know it would make me a little more doubtful now of some of the info, after reading this book.
I just got the book, and can’t wait to read it. I find it ironic that a mega Pastor would go to the trouble to get professional research for “he and his Pastor friends” to defend themselves/critique the book. It’s like the Democratic National Committee doing research to defend Obama. Hardly unbiased, and hardly without a conflict of interest! Ironic. I would suspect you would have a very hard time finding any large media Pastor who agrees with this book, regardless fact or fiction. This book calls into question the very life they live on a daily basis, undermines their authority, and marginalizes the very things they have built their reputation, fame, wealth, and authority on. I want to wait to make a judgement on the merit’s of the book itself until I actually read the book- but I did read the critique and found it somewhat hollow, predictable, and far from conclusive.
Admittedly, my starting point is that this book has some very valid points. I do extensive work around the world in the local church, and I can at least say from my own personal experience that the church in North America, specifically the US, is a unique bird to put it mildly. Pastor’s flying around in their private jets, buying media time competing against each other, basically following a celebrity script for their own marketing/media empire and spending countless hundreds of millions, hundreds and hundreds of millions of collective dollars on buildings and programs. It is not consistent with the church in the rest of the world.
It truly does harken historically to the time before the reformation, when indulgences were paid, the priests were the fat cats, you didn’t dare buck the system or risk alienation/being outcast, elaborate church building structures ruled the day, and the reality was that these priests did not lead lifestyles honoring Jesus outside of Sunday morning, if ever!
So Driscoll commissioning and posting this “critique” is akin to a powerful catholic priest in 1515 commissioning a study to defend the practices of the catholic church in terms of personal interest right or wrong, but certainly not without personal interest or objectivity.
JSLO
What did you end up thinking of the book?
check out the response to Driscoll’s critique – http://bit.ly/bAQRyv
Thank you. The response to the Driscoll critique is very well done.
Have you read Reimagining Church? Have you read any other stuff from Frank Viola? Ha. This guy graciously points out how the current Institutional church is a system. It is an organization and not an living organism. It is held up by pew watchers who pay their Old Testament tithe. Mega Church pastors hate these books because it undermines the systems they have built up. Frank Viola and George Barna make a point that scares all employed ministers because it show really how unbiblical these institutions are. Furthermore it scares them because it means they would be without a job… we can’t have that can we?! Reminder…”Upon this rock, I will build MY church.” What has happened is the opposite in these mega churches. They have built it, and called it Gods Church. Yet throughout his books Frank Viola continues to show love for the people who have built up these systems and honored the people. But he is not afraid of attacking a system that God has not built.