Ecclesiology Books

Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices

Frank Viola, George Barna

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 217 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Answers for questions not asked much 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Elke zichzelf respecterende kerk of gemeente beweert zich te baseren op Gods Woord, de Bijbel. Leer en praktijk worden met een beroep op de Heilige Schrift onderbouwd, verklaard en verdedigd. Kerkverlating omdat de gewoontes niet (meer) aanspreken, het haast slaafs volgen van tradities of het versterken van de eigen identiteit ten koste van omliggende gelovigen en denominaties zijn zo wat effecten. Zelf zoek ik al jarenlang naar de momenten en oorzaken in de kerkgeschiedenis die het prille begin van het christendom in het bijbelboek Handelingen hebben gemaakt tot de instellingen die we nu kerk en gemeente noemen, kortom het 'christelijke wereldje' uitleggen. Viola & Barna hebben met Pagan Christianity? de ongestelde vragen gesteld en zijn op zoek gegaan naar antwoorden. Niet om God en geloof af te vallen, integendeel, juist om te zoeken naar de bijbelse wijze van samenkomen van christelijke gelovigen. In hun analyse van de kerkgeschiedenis heeft het schrijversduo zich vooral gericht op de Protestante Kerk als instituut. Uiteraard zijn de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk in de eerste 15 eeuwen nodig voor het verhaal. En, waar menig evangelische gemeente of charismatische gemeenschap, Pinkstergemeente of andere denominatie zich nogal eens afzet tegen de 'gevestigde kerken', zijn ook deze instellingen niet schoon van menselijke instellingen en regels.

Genadeloos wordt afgerekend met de vele heidense invloeden die allerlei 'christelijke' instituties hebben gevormd tot wat ze nu zijn: kerkgebouw, verdeling tussen leek & kader, liturgie, preek, de dominee/voorganger, zondagse kleding, muziek in de samenkomst, tienden, betaalde kerkelijk werkers, doop en eucharistie, opleidingen theologie en bijbelscholen en de manier waarop de Bijbel wordt gelezen, uitgelegd en benaderd. Hoewel met 1100 voetnoten en een enorme schat aan achtergrondinformatie, willen de auteurs niet zozeer kennis overbrengen, informeren, maar harten aanraken. Nadrukkelijk staan ze aan het eind stil bij de 'En toen?' vraag. Een dergelijke reeks gewetensvragen aan de lezer vraagt om een reactie. Bewustwording wat door mensen ingesteld of ingebracht is, en wat werkelijk terug te voeren op de Bijbel, is een eerste begin. Het vervolg moet zitten in de manier waarop je met medegelovigen wilt, mag c.q. zou moeten samenkomen om God te aanbidden, geestelijk te groeien, elkaar te dienen en het evangelie bekend te maken in je omgeving.

Frank Viola zelf heeft goede ervaringen opgedaan met zogenaamde organic churches, gemeentes die wel lijken op het beeld, dat het Nieuwe Testament oproept van een christelijke gemeenschap. De profetie in Ezechiël 37 over het dal met dorre beenderen in gedachten hebbend, is het zaak een gemeente te laten geboren worden, niet zelf te maken. Immers, je zou heel makkelijk conclusies kunnen trekken uit het boek en vooral voor jezelf kunnen beginnen. Je huisgroep of wijkkring is zó tot nieuwe kerk gebombardeerd met jijzelf als hoofd. Dat is begrijpelijk, maar het is niet in lijn met de Bijbel.

Het boek zelf heeft al bij elk hoofdstuk een Q&A sectie, meer kun je vinden op www.paganchristianity.org. Ook behulpzaam is het vorige boek van Viola, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: An Extraordinary Guide to Understanding the New Testament, een chronologische herschikking van de verhalen uit de nieuwtestamentische boeken en brieven om je te helpen het grotere geheel te zien. Pagan Christianity is wat Viola en Barna betreft slechts één deel van de conversatie. Het vervolg uit september 2008 heet Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity. Een reconstructie van Gods oorspronkelijke bedoeling met de gemeente, het lichaam van Christus, een organisch, levend, ademhalend organisme. Een gemeente vrij van conventies, gevormd door een geestelijke intimiteit en niet opgesloten tussen 4 muren.

Editorial Review:

Have you ever wondered why we Christians do what we do for church every Sunday morning? Why do we "dress up" for church? Why does the pastor preach a sermon each week? Why do we have pews, steeples, choirs, and seminaries? This volume reveals the startling truth: most of what Christians do in present-day churches is not rooted in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles. Coauthors Frank Viola and George Barna support their thesis with compelling historical evidence in the first-ever book to document the full story of modern Christian church practices.

What's So Amazing About Grace?

Philip Yancey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 188 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Christian Manifesto 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

God if we could just live the grace filled lives of this book. This is without a doubt one of the all time greats

What's So Amazing About Grace? 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Aside from the Bible, this is the best book I have ever read. This is a life-changing book about a life-changing subject. I find Philip Yancey to be a tremendous communicator. Since reading this book, I have bought and given away as gifts at least 7 copies of this book.

secret to happyness 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I just read the first chapters but this book has really touched me inside. The gospel is not a story about how to go to heaven or how to avoid hell. The gospel is the most beautiful love story ever told, about how God, being God, denied himself everything for our sake. And now, being totally acepted in Him, we are not left with the rest of our time on Earth to only daydream about heaven, but to enjoy the privilege and happyness of sharing God's love and grace with one another in this world. God does not want us to pay Him something back, He has everything He needs, He want us living close to Him, enjoying His company, His love, His grace, happy to be with Him and being a channel of His love and grace to the people around us.

Editorial Review:

On the heels of Philip Yancey's best-selling The Jesus I Never Knew comes this equally insightful exploration of grace, the most powerful force in the universe and our only hope for love and forgiveness. Winner of the Gold Medallion Book Award, the Christian Book of the Year Award, and the Retailers Choice Award.

The Apostles

Pope Benedict XVI

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Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Through the Apostles, we come to Jesus himself." -- Pope Benedict XVI

In this fascinating and inspirational journey with the chosen disciples of Jesus, Pope Benedict XVI demonstrates a profound, unbreakable continuity -- built upon the foundation of the Apostles and alive in the succession of the Apostles -- by which Christ is present today in His Church.

"At the start of the third millennium, my beloved predecessor John Paul II invited the Church to contemplate the Face of Christ (cf. Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 16 ff.). Continuing in the same direction, I would like to show in this book how it is precisely the light of that Face that is reflected on the face of the Church (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 1), notwithstanding the limits and shadows of our fragile and sinful humanity. After Mary, a pure reflection of the light of Christ, it is from the Apostles, through their word and witness, that we receive the truth of Christ. Their mission is not isolated, however, but is situated wthin a mystery of communion that involves the entire People of God and is carried out in stages from the Old to the New Covenant." -- From The Apostles

Who Stole My Church?: What to Do When the Church You Love Tries to Enter the 21st Century

Gordon MacDonald

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Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Nice Read 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The author of the book does a good job at highlighting the cultural shift that is taking place and how the older generations in the Church are reacting to it. This is not an academic piece. This narrative reads as a fictional account of a Church going through the changes that postmodernity has brought and asks itself how to deal with it. I found it valuable and a joy to read.

I can thoroughly recommend it!

Editorial Review:

Has your Church been Hijacked?

Millions of people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies feel their churches have been hijacked by church-growth movements characterized by loud praise bands, constant PowerPoint presentations, and cavernous megachurches devoid of any personal touch. They are bewildered by the changes, and are dropping out after thirty, forty, or fifty years in a congregation. It's a crisis!

In this fictional story, pastor and author Gordon MacDonald uses topical examples and all-too-familiar characters to reassure readers that it is possible to embrace change, and to demonstrate how that change can actually be a positive influence in their church. The church, he says, has always been in a state of change; it has been changing for the last two thousand years. It is time to embrace that change and use it further the Kingdom of God

Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity

Frank Viola

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Best of Frank Viola 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Reimagining Church: Pursuing The Dream Of Organic Christianity is without a doubt Frank Viola's magnum opus of his numerous writings on the ekklesia. In this book, church is realigned with all the "strange" descriptions and practices that we read in the pages of our New Testament. It is church as we dream about it being, a going back to her 1st century roots as intended by her Founder.

Reimagining Church is in my estimation a constructive summation of "The Best of Frank Viola." In these pages we find a more mature, polished, and cleaner compilation of reworked earlier material found in, "Rethinking the Wineskin" and "Who Is Your Covering?" and the original "Pagan Christianity" was intended as the third book in this trilogy of early church practice.

The newly released, revised, and widely read (and debated!) Pagan Christianity co-authored with George Barna, was intended to historically demonstrate how far the contemporary church has strayed from its original roots. Reimagining Church is the natural sequel where Viola paints a compelling picture "where the body of Christ is an organic, living, breathing organism."

Even though I believe I have read most of the published writings of Frank, a lot of his earlier writings often have the feel of a radical zealot--a modern John the Baptist "crying out in the wilderness"--preaching repentance from a church gone far astray from its 1st century roots. Reimagining Church has come a long way to bringing the same challenging ideas expressed in these earlier ground-breaking works, for mainstream evangelical consideration and dialog. If I had a $1000 (and the book was in Spanish--hint, hint, Frank!) I would buy every pastor, servant leader, house church worker/planter, and missionary I know a copy. It is that good.

A good idea of what is between the pages can be seen in The Table of Contents:

Preface
Introduction: Toward a New Kind of Church

Part ONE: Community and Gatherings

1. Reimagining the Church as an Organism
2. Reimagining the Church Meeting
3. Reimagining the Lord's Supper
4. Reimagining the Gathering Place
5. Reimagining the Family of God
6. Reimagining Church Unity
7. Church Practice and God's Eternal Purpose

Part Two: Leadership and Accountability

8. Reimagining Leadership
9. Reimagining Oversight
10. Reimagining Decision-Making
11. Reimagining Spiritual Covering
12. Reimagining Authority and Submission
13. Reimagining Denominational Covering
14. Reimagining the Apostolic Tradition
15. Where Do We Go from Here?

Appendix: Objections & Responses about Leadership
Bibliography
Notes

The Lamb's Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth

Scott Hahn

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Total reviews: 149 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Lamb's Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent book to understand what we celebrate in Holy Mass and book of Revelation in Holy Bible.

Regards,
Manoj Devassy

Perhaps the most inspiring book I have ever read 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book changed my life. I read it in one weekend, and I was so excited about it that I kept reading parts of it to my husband. He found it to be so interesting and compelling that he did something I had been praying for (for a very long time). He got up the next Sunday and went to Mass with me. Six weeks later, he is attending every week. And we sit in Church and point out to each other the parts from Revelation. The Mass has turned into an amazing and exciting experience for us! By the way, God put this book into my hands. I had asked our local used book store to call me if they got any of the Scott Hahn books in - and this was the book that found it's way into my home!

Editorial Review:

Of all things Catholic, there is nothing that is so familiar us the Mass. With its unchanging prayers, the Mass fits Catholics like their favorite clothes. Yet most Catholics sitting in the pews on Sundays fail to see the powerful supernatural drama that enfolds them. Pope John Paul II described the Mass as "heaven on Earth," explaining that what "we celebrate on Earth is a mysterious participation in the heavenly liturgy."

The Church: The Evolution of Catholicism

Richard P. Mcbrien

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the struggles of the very first Christians to the challenges and scandals of today, the Catholic Church has wrestled with how to organize itself, express its beliefs, and nurture its members. The Church has grown from a handful of disciples in the first century to over one billion members in the twenty-first, resulting in profound changes that demand a theological response. In this sweeping history, renowned scholar Richard McBrien reveals the evolution of the Church's relationship to the divine, its leadership of the faithful, and its role as a global religion. The Church answers the questions raised by this extraordinary history, including:

• Where did the idea of the pope's infallibility come from?
• Why are priests celibate and women barred from the priesthood?
• What inspired the Inquisition?
• What was the position of the Catholic Church on Hitler's policies in World War II?
• What is the Church's relationship to Islam?
• How will the growth of the Church in South America, Africa, and Asia shape its future?

McBrien helps the reader understand the evolution of the Catholic Church's understanding of itself through the centuries, its leadership, and its relationship to national governments and world religions. From Jesus's apostle Peter to Pope Benedict XVI, The Church explains in layperson's terms the evolution of the Catholic Church, its power, its scope, its theology, and its influence.

What Happened at Vatican II

John W., S. J. O'Malley

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

During four years in session, Vatican Council II held television audiences rapt with its elegant, magnificently choreographed public ceremonies, while its debates generated front-page news on a near-weekly basis. By virtually any assessment, it was the most important religious event of the twentieth century, with repercussions that reached far beyond the Catholic church. Remarkably enough, this is the first book, solidly based on official documentation, to give a brief, readable account of the council from the moment Pope John XXIII announced it on January 25, 1959, until its conclusion on December 8, 1965; and to locate the issues that emerge in this narrative in their contexts, large and small, historical and theological, thereby providing keys for grasping what the council hoped to accomplish.

What Happened at Vatican II captures the drama of the council, depicting the colorful characters involved and their clashes with one another. The book also offers a new set of interpretive categories for understanding the council’s dynamics—categories that move beyond the tired “progressive” and “conservative” labels. As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the calling of the council, this work reveals in a new way the spirit of Vatican II. A reliable, even-handed introduction to the council, the book is a critical resource for understanding the Catholic church today, including the pontificate of Benedict XVI.

(20080714)

In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership

Henri J. M. Nouwen

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Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Quick Read 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a well written personal narrative about a Harvard Professor that experiences a renewal of faith when he leaves the academic world. As he gives up that which has given him security he remembers where real security comes from.

His experiences aren't profound; however, they do offer some simple reminders about the important parts of life.

Editorial Review:

Henri Nouwen was a spiritual thinker with an unusual capacity to write about the life of Jesus and the love of God in ways that have inspired countless people to trust life more fully. Most widely read among the over 40 books Father Nouwen wrote is In the Name of Jesus. For a society that measures successful leadership in terms of the effectiveness of the individual, Father Nouwen offers a counter definition that is witnessed by a "communal and mutual experience." For Nouwen, leadership cannot function apart from the community. His wisdom is grounded in the foundation that we are a people "called." This beautiful guide to Christian Leadership is the rich fruit of Henri Nouwen's own journey as one of the most influential spirtiual leaders of the 20th century.

Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community (Re:Lit)

Tim Chester, Steve Timmis

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Two pastors outline and apply a pair of overarching biblical principles that call the current body of Christ to a deep restructuring of its life and mission.

“Church is not a meeting you attend or a place you enter,” write pastors Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. “It’s an identity that is ours in Christ. An identity that shapes the whole of life so that life and mission become ‘total church.’” With that as their premise, they emphasize two overarching principles to govern the practice of church and mission: being gospel-centered and being community-centered. When these principles take precedence, say the authors, the truth of the Word is upheld, the mission of the gospel is carried out, and the priority of relationships is practiced in radical ways. The church becomes not just another commitment to juggle but a 24/7 lifestyle where programs, big events, and teaching from one person take a backseat to sharing lives, reaching out, and learning about God together.

In Total Church, Chester and Timmis first outline the biblical case for making gospel and community central and then apply this dual focus to evangelism, social involvement, church planting, world missions, discipleship, pastoral care, spirituality, theology, apologetics, youth and children’s work. As this insightful book calls the body of Christ to rethink its perspective and practice of church, it charts a middle path between the emerging church movement and conservative evangelicalism that all believers will find helpful.