Comments on: Holy Fools - Frank Schaeffer’s Crazy for God

By: Jeff Sharlet

Jeff Sharlet — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:37:18 +0000

Thanks for the link, Bene. In Guiness’ defense, he was cordial in a private email correspondence following that first comment. I thought it ironic, tho, that a man with a new book titled “On Civility” would blast me so carelessly. Oh, well. Saints will bring that out in the best of us.

By: Dave Trowbridge

Dave Trowbridge — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 05:25:30 +0000

Oops. Forgot to close the italics on the book name. Sorry!

By: Dave Trowbridge

Dave Trowbridge — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 05:24:29 +0000

I checked out Brent’s review, and have to say that the the criticisms he notes in Pagan Christianity sound a lot like what Quakers have been saying for 350 years or so. We’re not as polemical about what Fox and the rest of the Valiant Sixty called “primitive Christianity” as they were, but most of what he reports is in line with Quaker attitudes about the church and how it should function.

We abolished the laity right at the beginning, and our liberal and conservative branches still don’t have clergy, we don’t consecrate our buildings, “pulpits, altars, clergy vestments…, nuns, stages, sermons, performance-oriented worship, “sacred relics”, buildings named after saints” are unknown among us… the list could be considerably extended.

That said, I very much doubt the authors are basing their arguments on the same foundation as the Society of Friends. And certainly, few if any Quakers would insist that everyone else has it wrong–it’s just not the way we relate to God.

I’ll have to get a copy and check it out.

By: BD

BD — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:50:43 +0000

Bill, from your look at Pagan Christianity:

“I didn’t respond to Frank’s (Viola) writing the same way as Lloyd. Some of it may have been that at that time, I was flirting with the US megachurch world as a communications consultant. And I was being courted to join the staff of a particular megachurch (which I never joined). But my reaction was also a response to Frank’s writing style. He writes as a “true believer.”
The house church movement is the “right way” to do church and everything else is the wrong way. Let me be blunt. I find the writing style grating and arrogant. And even after losing my affection for the megachurch world a number of years ago, I still found Frank’s style off-putting. That style is alive and well in PC.”

By: Bill Kinnon

Bill Kinnon — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:45:20 +0000

Bene,
I’ve got Frank’s book sitting beside my bed - Frank Shaeffer that is.

I think Darryl’s and Brant’s reviews of Viola are the best - even if they come to different conclusions.