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

Rating:
Summary: Good, Not Great
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book on House Churches
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Crossing the interpritive bridge to the meaning of "Church"
Review: 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.