beaconchurches

Friends -

Biblical scholar Ben Witherington (a United Methodist who teaches at Asbury) has posted a lengthly review and rebuttal of 'Pagan Christianity' by Frank Viola and George Barna. You can find it at -

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Bottom line - the book relies on 'scholarship' that is weak, woefully out-dated and even hostile to a Christian view point. The bold claims that are made in the body of the text are then undercut by qualifications in the footnotes.

<>< Ron Troup

Thanks Ron!
I've scanned just the first installment, but already I think I have a feel for what is happening in the book. Part of me is some sympathetic in view of the grieving I have done over the institution known as ABC. (As opposed to the family known as ABC about which I am quite excited).

Given that Barna is quickly becoming the center of a developing (or emerging) institution, it is not surprising that he would be laying a foundation for how that institution should work. (In homes not in church buildings). The location does not mitigate the presence of powerful institution.

Also not surprising is the orientation against institution. As Western civilization stumbles into its last days, the institutions which have become corrupted will be perceived as the enemy of the very causes which formed the institutions in the first place. Toynbee calls this the age of decadence. (Not in the chocolate fudge sort of way). This is the time when demassification exposes all the negatives in civilization and they so out way the positives that nothing really is better than government's and institution's attempts to make things better.

Are we there yet? This review makes me suspect that Barna's book is evidence that we are.