Robert Banks's widely read Paul's Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Cultural Setting is once again available to laypeople, pastors, and schol

This highly readable investigation of the early church explores the revolutionary nature, dynamics, and effects of the earliest Christian communities. It introd

Amid conflicting ideas about what the church should be and do in a post-Christian climate, the missing voice is that of Paul. The New Testament's most prolific

It is in Paul that the most profound and clearly developed understanding of community is found. Indeed, what the apostle has to say about community is relevant

Convinced that Paul s distinctive contribution to Christianity is his idea of community, Banks demonstrates how this notion informs Paul s instructions to his c