Why does the pastor preach a sermon at every service? Why do church services seem so similar week after week? Why does the congregation sit passively in pews? Not sure? This book makes an unsettling proposal: Most of what present day Christians do in church each Sunday is rooted, not in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles. Authors Frank Viola and George Barna support their thesis with compelling historical evidence and extensive footnotes that document the origins of our modern Christian church practices.
Several years ago I visited my brother who was living in Boston. Never having been there before, I took a tour and learned that the majority of the city was built upon landfill or man made land--mud, sand, gravel, wood and trash. This blew my mind. One of the largest cities in the world was built upon and supported by...garbage?
I was just as surprised to learn how Christianity's institutionalized beginnings formed. Currently known as "the church," I wanted to know why we do what we do every Sunday, and where these somewhat odd rituals came from. While we sing that Jesus Christ is our one foundation, what about the buildings and pulpits and pews? Enter Viola and Barna's well-researched book, "Pagan Christianity?" It turns out one could make a similar claim that one of the largest religions of the world was not structured on the Bible or the earliest followers of Jesus, but built upon questionable man made ideas and cultural landfill, too.
"In AD 321, constantine decreed that Sunday would be a day of rest--a legal holiday. It appears that Constantine's intention in doing this was to honor the god Mithras, the Unconquered Sun...Almost to his dying day, Constantine still functioned as the high priest of paganism.' In fact, he retained the pagan title Pontifix Maximus, which means chief of the pagan priests! He was declared to be a pagan god at his death."
Jesus Christ may be the Christian church's catalyst, but it was none other than a man named Constantine whom put Christianity on the map to stay. Now firmly entrenched in what many of my colleagues and I refer to as the "Post-Christendom" era of the faith, perhaps we should not be at all surprised that the house that Constantine built is decidedly breaking down, like Boston's footings in a deep drought. I am not necessarily against Christianity's methods, but as one who spends his career invested in them, I'll be honest that I'm not necessarily for them either. This is simply the way things are and for leaders like me, you find ways to adapt. That said, if I woke up tomorrow and everything was different, well...you wouldn't find me lamenting that I wanted to go back and do things the way we always did them.
"The church buildings of the Constantian and post-Constantan era essentially became holy shrines. The Christians embraced the concept of the physical temple. They imbibed the pagan idea that there exists a special place where God dwells in a special way. And that place is made 'with hands.'
This is a great read for those questioning the church (which, at this point, should be just about everyone). You don't need to be a historian to see how the Christian religion has often fallen away from being an institution built on Jesus' love, compassion and grace to one a little too tempted to rule with power and attain popularity, often neglecting the poor in favor of self-preservation and prosperity. Viola and Barna simply wish to set the record straight that not all things are what they seem--the church, (specifically the place where church people gather and worship) may not be as "biblical" as perceived, assumed or proclaimed. I enjoyed the information presented here, even though it was crystal clear that their preference was quite narrow for how church worship and practice ought to be.
Perhaps church has gotten off course a bit from its origins, but culture, in every time and place, plays an enormous role not only in how the message of Jesus is shared, but in how we live our lives (hello, Halloween--where do you think that ritual came from?) For better and for worse, how Christians operate now was significantly influenced by paganism thousands of years ago. I'm no expert in paganism, but I suspect it's not all bad, either. Paganism was simply a very pervasive culture that existed and grounded the ancient world in which Christianity came to inhabit. And whether you like what happened to it or not, it was a religion that utterly captivated Emperor Constantine, who it turns out was much, much more vested in paganism than previously believed. Here are a few more quick highlights:
- As with other pagan customs that were absorbed into the Christian faith (such as the liturgy, the sermon, clerical vestments, and hierarchical leadership structure), the church building was borrowed from pagan culture.
- 3rd century Christians had two places for their meetings: their homes and the cemetery. They met in the cemetery because they wished to be close to their dead brethren. Contrary to popular belief, there is not a shred of historical evidence that Roman Christians hid in the catacombs to escape persecution. They met there to be close to the dead saints.
- In AD 327 in Jerusalem, Constantine's mother, Helena reportedly found the cross and nails that were used to crucify Jesus. It is reported that Constantine promoted the idea that the bits of wood that came from Christ's cross possessed spiritual powers.
- Under Constantine, tax exempt status was granted for all church property.
- Pews were unknown to the church building for the first thousand years of Christian history.
- It was the custom of the Roman emperors to have lights carried before them whenever they appeared in public...Taking his cue from this custom, Constantine introduced candles and the burning of incense as part of the church service. And they were brought in when the clergy entered the room.
- Christian clergy did not dress differently from the common people until the coming of Constantine. White was the color of the clergy (white = color of the gods according to Plato) for centuries before adopting the scholar's black gown or "philosopher's cloak" (4th century). The origin of the clerical collar goes back to 1865.
- Organs were found in Christian churches as early as the 6th century.
- Ministers were unsalaried for the first three centuries, instituted by Constantine.
- Passing offering plates (also known as alms dishes) officially began in 1662 and the first usher came with the reorganization of the liturgy of the Church of England (1533-1603)
So as people of faith celebrate the 501st year since the Reformation, I wonder what and how we're being called to reform again today? Change isn't all good nor all bad, but we are living in a totally different culture than the one that put Christianity on the map all those years ago. For me, this time of year is always a time to rethink and recommit to the cause - a cause I'd love for people of faith to exercise some brain power and thinking about when it comes to what and why we do what we do when we get together.
"Are we living in a culture that is so infatuated with change that we have forgotten that the church is about transformation, not mere change?"
Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash, Photo by Wendy Scofield on Unsplash
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