Moving on, Viola describes much of the pagan origins of "church" architecture, the whole big giant pastor chair up front, the platform, the spacial "division" between "clergy" and "laity"...This is the first time I heard of this book, so I am not really sure which theo/ideological camp it is coming from though i have a couple of initial guesses. It was just something from my RSS subscriptions that seemed interesting. I guess I could wiki it, but I am too sleepy.
"The Christian building demonstrates that the church, whether she wanted it or not, had entered into a close alliance with pagan culture... This was a tragic shift from the primitive simplicity that the church of Jesus Christ first knew.....
I think more and more people within the Church get this. They know that the building is not the church, is not special, is not "holy." Not everyone- I understand. But more and more understand that the church is the people and can meet and worship anywhere. Yeah- anywhere- School Auditoriums (though that one personally makes me me shudder for aesthetic reasons), homes, pubs (yeah Pub Church!) and even... dare I say it?... "church" buildings.
In any event I have mixed feelings about the whole church is only a building thing. I really love churches. And I tend to heavily favor older churches, Catholic churches too, but just older churches. I love the stained glass, the art, the large and empty feeling of churches like that. At the same time the whole TBN wanna be thing is way too much in some churches. I don't like the feeling of being at a concert when at church. Eh.
Note to self: write post on how Jesus is not some where's waldo character. Purpose of that post? Who knows. Purpose of this blog: even more elusive!
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