{"id":1281,"date":"2024-05-21T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T14:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/earlychristianhistorymatters\/?p=1281"},"modified":"2024-06-23T11:10:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-23T16:10:14","slug":"historical-errors-in-pagan-christianity-by-frank-viola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/earlychristianhistorymatters\/2024\/05\/historical-errors-in-pagan-christianity-by-frank-viola\/","title":{"rendered":"Historical Errors in Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

"Pagan<\/a>

Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola and George Barna \u2013 Amazon.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Pagan Christianity <\/em>grabbed the attention of many Christians seeking to \u201cdeconstruct\u201d their faith since it\u2019s publication in 2012. Let me say up front \u2013 there are several points made Viola-Barna that I agree with, BUT this book seems to base many of it\u2019s ideas on historical blunders and misrepresentations.<\/p>\n

I am going to offer several articles showing clear examples of how Viola-Barna have misrepresented the history of early Christianity<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

OUTLINE OF THIS SERIES:<\/h3>\n\nThe use of \u201cscholarly footnotes.\u201d I will give very clear examples of serious flaws in Viola\u2019s footnotes. He has either purposely misled his readers OR he hung himself (like Haman) on his own scaffolding. [I know\u2026footnotes are boring. But Viola\u2019s use of footnotes is an important part of his ruse\u2026it is a failed rhetorical device.]<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\nViola claims that Christians only met in private houses and did not meet in (or build) church buildings until the fourth century. There are several historical data points and archeological facts that show this to be a ridiculous claim.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\nViola makes the case that early Christian pastors did NOT preach structured sermons, nor use rhetoric like the pagan Greek philosophers. I will give clear examples of how this is simple ignorance of early Christian writings AND reveals a serious lack of New Testament scholarship that hundreds of footnotes cannot overcome.<\/li>\nViola claims that primitive Christianity did not have hierarchy.** **\nI will use two excellent scholars and simply cite from the New Testament to illustrate the ridiculous nature of this claim.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\nFinally, Viola has a strong dislike of philosophy and states that Christian seminaries are \u201cbuilt on the Platonic idea that knowledge is the equivalent of moral character.\u201d Again, I will use early Christian history coupled with excellent scholars to show why Viola is wrong-headed in this attack.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nWhat Difference does it Make?<\/h3>\n**** ** ****I grew up in a mainline denominational \u201chigh\u201d church environment, but did not become a Christian until I was 17 yrs old in 1976. After my conversion I aligned myself with conservative, mostly charismatic-oriented Christians. Many of these Christians were fundamentalists. I knew NOTHING about the faith, so I learned the lingo, accepted the dogma and ran the race with great zeal. Until around 1985 I embraced the underlying assumptions made by Viola-Barna without question.<\/p>\n**** I knew NOTHING about the faith, so I learned the lingo, accepted the dogma and ran the race with great zeal.<\/em><\/div>\n**** ** In the late 80\u2019s my own knowledge base of the biblical text led me to question [deconstruct] many of the things Viola-Barna are claiming to be true. Almost all of the highlights in my spiritual life\u00a0 happened outside<\/strong> the formal \u201cchurch\u201d environment. To use Viola\u2019s jargon, my church preference to this day is \u201corganic.\u201d Small groups, house gatherings and parachurch meetings have been the environment for most of the serious spiritual input in my life.<\/p>\n ** I agree with many of the concepts<\/strong> Viola-Barna present\u2026HOWEVER\u2026 \nIn this series of articles I will focus attention on the numerous historical misrepresentations Viola makes in his book. His pseudo-academic presentation takes advantage of Christians looking for answers and gives them half-baked bread. Our shared Christian history is very important. Believe what you want, but please do not misrepresent history to support your beliefs.<\/p>\n ** ****In my opinion, Viola-Barna would have done far better to simply offer their ideas and observations\/opinions without attempting to cloak their presentation as \u201cscholarship.\u201d Several observations on the condition of the contemporary church have validity, but Viola has developed a predicate argument, a critique of early Christianity, and then feels the need to \u201cprove\u201d the predicate. The result is that Viola makes accusations and definitive statements from a flawed historical\/biblical context using hundreds of footnotes that cannot be trusted. He uses his \u201cresearch\u201d as a hammer\u2026and he is looking for nails.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way of fool<\/b>s seems right to them, but the wise listen to\u00a0a<\/b>dvice.\u201d******* \nProverbs 12:15<\/h4>\n ** *******After writing the bulk of my critique, I stumbled onto a four-part review of Pagan Christianity <\/em>written by Ben Witherington, Professor of New Testament at Asbury Seminary. Witherington is an immanent scholar. His work is excellent and I have used him as a resource in several of my research projects. Witherington offers some of the same criticisms of Viola that I make, but one comment speaks volumes:<\/p>\n I know Frank Viola, indeed for some years he has asked me loads of good and telling questions via email\u2026It is interesting to me that this book appears to take no notice of various of these answers which I have given, nor are any of my works found in the bibliography at the end of the book. Perhaps I have missed something in the minutiae of the truly minute footnotes at the bottom of each page, but now I am wondering why exactly I have answered all those questions over the years. It\u2019s a pity.\u00a0 <\/em>[benwitherington.blogspot.com<\/a>]<\/div>\n******* ** Viola had the attention of a world-class scholar who was trying to \u201chelp\u201d him understand primitive Christianity\u2026and he ignored the scholar!<\/p>\n ** *******Notice Witherington\u2019s final comment above, \u201cIt\u2019s a pity.\u201d When I read Witherington\u2019s comments I was saddened to realize that Viola made a choice: he turned his back on solid scholarship so he could throw bombs\u2026and make some coin selling books.<\/p>\n "DH<\/a>For those who have trusted Viola-Barna in their critique of the contemporary church, please know that they are using an old Protestant \u201cFree Church\u201d argument based on the premise:******* *******\nChristianity became distorted very soon after the time of the apostles.<\/em> Some will admit value to the second century church, but with Constantine the gospel was so corrupted that only a remnant survived until the Reformation.\u00a0<\/em>[this comes from my book review<\/a> of an excellent work by D.H. Williams,\u00a0Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism<\/em><\/a>.]\nWilliams lays out the case for how this old Free church model of early Christianity is itself distorted, much of it fueled by the eighth century forgery, the Donation of Constantine<\/em>.<\/p>\n My review of the Williams book will give you the main points, but I recommend this book for any serious Christian desiring to understand the early non-Protestant Christian faith.<\/p>\n Back to Viola and Pagan Christianity<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Ultimately I think this flawed \u201cFree Church\u201d model is (at least in part) what fuels Viola\u2019s understanding of Christianity. He repeats some of the flawed historical claims many Protestants have accepted for centuries. The only difference is that Viola had a rare opportunity to correct some of his misconceptions when he had the personal attention of Ben Witherington\u2026and it is a pity that he did not welcome that moment.<\/p>\n THUS\u2026I offer my criticisms of Pagan Christianity<\/em>\u2026.because,********* *********\nEarly Christian History Matters.<\/h3>\n See Part 2: Christian Church Buildings Prior To Constantine<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pagan Christianity grabbed the attention of many Christians seeking to \u201cdeconstruct\u201d their faith since it\u2019s publication in 2012. Let me say up front \u2013 there are several points made Viola-Barna that I agree with, BUT this book seems to base many of it\u2019s ideas on historical blunders and misrepresentations. I am going to offer several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4968,"featured_media":1284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHistorical Errors in Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pagan Christianity grabbed the attention of many Christians seeking to "deconstruct" their faith since it's publication in 2012. 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