Wednesday, September 06, 2006

PAUL'S IDEA OF COMMUNITY chapters 1-9

Paul's Idea of Community
by Robert Banks
256 pages
Hendrickson Publishers; Revised edition (November 1, 1994)


Paul’s understanding of community actualizes God’s intention for his church and ought to be translated into church practice.
  • Chapter 1 describes the historical-cultural context for Paul’s understanding.
  • Chapter 2 grounds Paul’s understanding of freedom from sin, for one another, toward God, and by the Spirit.
  • Chapters 3 and 4 outline Paul’s understanding of ekklesia as the regular earthly gathering and continual heavenly gathering of the people of God.
  • Chapters 5 and 6 explain Paul’s family (relatedness) and body (participation) metaphors of the church.
  • Chapters 7 and 8 explain Paul’s understanding of the function of knowledge and fellowship practices in individual and corporate maturation.
  • Chapter 9 begins to unpack Paul’s understanding of the purpose and functioning of the regularly gathering people of God.

NOTE: This is a rumination ("1. The act of pondering; meditation. 2. The act or process of chewing cud." American Heritage Dictionary) in search of synergy ("1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.")

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“Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” http://www.esv.org/

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:12 PM

    Hi Laura,

    Greetings from out East.

    On the subject of ecclesiology, Banks allows that possibly the ordination of elders was an appointment of older men to the task of oversight rather than appointing persons to an office of elder.

    Fascinating, no?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Indeed. I know he does not think the pastorals were Pauline, so that shapes his notions of "elder".

    ReplyDelete