Customer Reviews

Paul's Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Cultural Setting, Revised Edition

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I am a youth pastor in a local church. I have often struggled with the current model we have of the American church. The traditions we hold so dear are so often not based on clear New Testament teachings. I have longed for a church where "one another" passages are lived out, where accountability is strong, where the pastor is not a CEO but a servant, where leaders are biblically chosen and where the Church is not divided on various theological camps. The only place to usually find this, sadly to say, is in cults (where the gospel is not preached in its power or truth).

Banks will offer you hope if you are like me and you are burned out on "church as usual." He will challange you to examine Scripture with fresh insights into house churches in their historical context. He will challange your notion of "Church" in our westernized thinking and will lead you to a biblical and fresh restoration of the true Church of Jesus Christ. We must move away from the Institutionalized church and return to the New Testament pattern that Banks gives in detail in this book.

This review applies to the revised edition of Banks' book.

Banks is convinced that Paul, though not the first to formulate the concept of "community," was a major contributor to the idea as it applied to the church. Paul's global concept of church/community of believers includes (but is not limited to)the following ideas, each of which are discussed by Banks: (a) church as a household gathering; (b) church as a group characterized by a 'radical new freedom' (independence, dependence, and interdependence--all Banks' words); (c) church as a loving family; (d) church as a functional body; (e) church as a diverse group (in terms of role and function), yet characterized by unity.

The book is very lucidly written and amazingly accessible for an 'academic' work. The way Banks writes makes obvious that he understands the minds and lives of lay people (he's a professor of Ministry and Laity). This book could even be used as a study in a small group setting, but there is no study guide, so discussion leaders would need to provide their own questions.

I recommend this book.

Robert Banks interpritation of the Apostal Pauls view of the Church is enlightening to the modern reader of the New Testament. Banks presents a contextual historical account of St. Paul's understanding of the Church of his day, which in return spurs the thoughts of the reader to contemplate the state of the Church in this day and age. This is an excelent book for those interested in understanding the historical beginings of the Church as well as what Paul understood the church to be. I recommend this book to all who are contemplating what the Church is called to be in this day and age, by looking at what it originaly was.

Banks' book does away with all arguments for the existence of the institutional church. Although this is not his stated aim, his work nevertheless communicates this truth.

I enjoyed Banks' investigation of other communal groups, his comparison of Judaism and the cults to what Paul was doing with the ekklesia. Banks' book reveals that Paul's idea of community was unique to anything in his day. Paul was intentional in his planting of house churches.

For those who desire to learn about the primitive church in the book of Acts, this book is for you! Banks covers many aspects of early church practice. He discusses the freedom of the Holy Spirit, the church as oikos (family), the gifts and ministry, the headship of Christ vs. the hierarchal leadership of man, and the role of the woman and slave within the community of believers. He discusses Paul's distinct use of words to describe the kind of community Christ desires for his Body.

I highly recommend this book.

I also suggest reading:
Going to the Root: Nine Proposals for Radical Church Renewal
The Centrality of Jesus Christ (Works of T. Austin-Sparks)
Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community
Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices

Professor Robert Banks' book "Paul's Idea of Community: The Early House Churches In Their Cultural Setting" is 233 pages long and divided into an introduction, 18 chapters, and some back matter. Its aim is to describe both the form and function of the early first-century house churches.

There are several strengths to this work. First, it is written by a first-rate New Testament scholar who has a working knowledge of the original Greek language, the social setting, the archaeological information, etc, that helps inform the discussion. Second, although this is a scholarly work, it is accessible to a wider audience. Even though it cannot be considered a popular level book, it is certainly suitable for diligent non-specialist "lay people." Third, the book deals with a variety of topics that give a well rounded picture of what the early church was really like, such as intellectual elements of growth, physical expression of fellowship, church as household gathering, women in ministry, the mission and the churches, etc. Fourth, virtually every page has footnotes so the reader can follow up on the Scriptures and other sources for deeper personal study. Fifth, an appendix is devoted to "The Drift of the Pastorals", which highlights the development over time of Paul's thought and the communities he founded. This is a good corrective of the mistake most Christians make when approaching the New Testament, which is that they assume the early church was "static", i.e. fully developed right from the start and never underwent change. Finally, the book will challenge Christians today to get back to a more apostolic/biblical approach to being the church and perhaps lead them to make systemic changes to the way church functions today.

The main thing missing in the book was an in-depth discussion of the "macro" aspect of the early church, i.e. household churches worked together in networks and sometimes met in large group settings for various purposes. This was done on local, regional, and empire-wide levels (Acts 2:41-47, 5:12, 5:42, 15:1-29, 20:20; Rom 16:1-16; 3 John 1:3-8). Although, to some degree, Banks tangentially touches on this in chapter 16, "The Mission and the Churches," an explicit examination of this issue is important since the household churches were not isolated groups but were interconnected with each other.

Overall, this is an excellent, scholarly, and must-have book for those interested in not only understanding the shape of the early church, but in seeing the church become more Scriptural and strategic today. It may be especially useful for those involved in house churches, cell groups, and church planting movements.

RAD ZDERO, author of LETTERS TO THE HOUSE CHURCH MOVEMENT and THE GLOBAL HOUSE CHURCH MOVEMENT

The book really helped me understand Paul's perspective on what the ekklesia was and should be and the cultural setting in which he was writing--which is both fascinating and enlightening. The book also explains the parallels and disimilarities between the OT understanding and practice of freedom and community and the NT understanding and practice of freedom and community. You can get a good idea of what is covered by the title chapters. Gender equality is not the main focus of the book but addressed as well. I HIGHLY recommend the book. It is scholarly while still be accessible.

Banks provides useful historical context in constructing Paul's understanding of community and early Christian interaction. The sum of his writing is a fairly concise vision of the early church presented with considerable breadth and above average clarity. If nothing else, Banks provides a readable summary of the issues at hand in the field. Sometimes, his conclusions tend to be unambitious: they do not seem to contribute much to the current field and many of the arguments and discussions he engages in are self-evident.
He does, however, prove to have some shortcomings. Primarily, I was offput by the complete lack of notes and extratextual explanations. Paul is complex and hundreds of years of commentary on the subject deserve more than (sometimes paltry) primary text citations and a by-chapter bibliography. The careful reader needs more to unlock the specifics of the theories presented and the definitions of problematic terms.
Other smaller issues also were apparent while reading. Acts was used to fill in the holes left by the spotty nature of the letters. That attitude, without explicity questioning the historicity of such a jump, is dangerous and presumptuous. More explanation of such evidence or the simple exclusion of it would have been helpful and more concise.
The last primary issue I had was that Banks, I think, does not extend his ideas far enough and reach into the motivating factors of Paul's actions. Why these types of communities? What motivated him? Why was it this way? These questions are not answered or distinctly addressed. Without that, we are left with a nonapocalyptic, watered-down version of the historical Paul that, while interesting, is not as rich or deep as it could be.

Dear potential readers, this book is great in that it highlights the community aspect of christians who gathered in the times of Paul. It is quiet academic linguistically but with a little patience you will get a very interesting picture of the first churches. Today we often think that church is very much church buildings and organisation/administration/marketing. However, here we see the family/community side of fellowship spreading from house to house.

While Banks provides some good insight into Paul's view of community, he overemphasizes a discontinuity with not only Paul's contemporaries, but with the OT teaching of community.

Also, He draws conclusions from texts about church size and gender role without considering the wider accounts. For example, in arguing for a house church-sized congregation he makes the statement "There is no suggestion that Christians ever met as a whole in one place" (p. 32). But he does not consider the claims of Acts 2 where thousands are gathered in one place. Nor does he address sufficiently the struggle to determine normative practice from descriptive conclusions.

Lastly, he glosses over meanings of biblical words offering questionable definitions without citation.

The result is a reconstructionist view of Paul and his view of community that I think falls short.

I was really disappointed by this book. It does little to enhance one's understanding of the early church.

It would be better to save your money and study the New Testament references to the church. I believe you would end up with a clearer concept of church than what you will read in this book.

One of the problems is an overabundance of caution. The author is very non-commital. He says that this could mean this, or this or this and often draws no conclusions and leaves you hanging in midair. I think that he feels it necessary to cover every possible explanation with impartiality and leaves the reader more confused than before.

Another thing that bothers me is that while the church is so alive, he describes it in such sterile, technical ways, as you might expect to find in academia. So be it. The book is probably best suited as a seminary textbook, but as a practical resource, it leaves me wanting more.