Truthfully, nothing in this book actually surprises me. When I try to analyze my dissatisfactions with Christianity and look at the description of the early church in the Bible, it is obvious that there are great differences between what we do today and the early church. No, they didn't get everything right as the letters to the churches show. Yet it is obvious that they had been infused with the Holy Spirit and despite widespread persecution, Christianity conquered the world.
Where did "church buildings" , professional ministers, and the artificial division between the clergy and the laity come from? If you think it is scriptural, you are wrong. The early church was participatory, not a spectator sport. Everyone had something to share. It was not a "performance". Words like "priest" and "saint" applied to every believer, not the chosen few.
Pagan Christianity traces the outside influences that have diluted God's church, making it inert and ineffective. The early church was a living representation Christ. It does not need to conform worldly values and pratices.
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