Meeks studies the earliest Christian communities established by St. Paul. Meeks acknowledges that in the minds of most people, the first Christians were poorer peasant and agrarian people, but the reality is probably different. While the gospel may have been first preached in such settings, the faith started in urban areas and spread first from one city to another, then to the countryside. While Meeks does mention many of the early Christian leaders in his work, his primary focus is on the writings of St. Paul and the day to day life behind these writings, since historically these writings are the earliest Christian sources.

Topics in the book include the urban environment of Pauline Christianity, social life of the early Christian community, the formations of churches, conflicts, rituals, and how belief shaped the lives of the early Christians. The book also has an index to help with information on specific subjects and a scriptural reference index for people who need to use the book for a quick reference for study or preparation of preaching.

Meeks has a scholar's attention to detail and provides a great deal of information in this work. He also has the reader in mind. Knowing that the work will be read both by scholars, students, and those interested in a deeper knowledge of scripture, the work is informative and readable.

While the information in the book is no longer new, it is still current. Students and those wishing further study will find Meeks' copious notes as well as his bibliography helpful for further study.

This book looks at social description of early Christianity, bringing in history, politics, sociology and philosophy in various degrees. Meeks is looking for the 'ordinary Christian' in the early church, something he claims we do not often find in the scriptures or other writings of the time. This requires that we know as much as possible about the general cultural setting in which early Christians found themselves, as their writings and practices handed down to us constitute a response, if not directly then at least indirectly, to their times.

Despite the pastoral setting of many of the gospel stories and parables, Christianity was largely an urban phenomenon in its earliest days (as would be true of most any sect or cult that would grow in early times -- it would take root in and transfer by movement between cities; indeed, Antioch, one of the major cities of the time, was where the term Christian was first coined). Meeks looks at the issues of city growth, from village to city to empire (it is no mistake that the Roman Empire derived its name from a city). Urban Judaism had unique traits that are examined here as influential in early Christianity. Meeks also explores different issues such as the role of women in urban society, mobility issues and the kinds of interconnections people in cities would make, intra-urban and inter-urban.

After this examination, Meeks continues to look at specifically church-related issues in urban, Pauline Christianity. These include the various rituals such as baptism and eucharist, governance and hierarchy issues in the early church (very different from later, imperial Christianity), and patterns of belief -- remember, this is a time when there was not only no set canon of scripture, but no creeds formulated yet, either. Meeks also explores briefly the unknown and controverted rituals -- how did the early Christians marry (or remarry)? How did they bury and mourn their dead (for we know it was of concern to many early Christians that people were dying prior to the return of Christ)?

Meeks provides ample footnoting citations, a generous bibliography of secondary sources (35 pages of this!), and indexes of biblical references, modern authors, and subjects. This is an excellent text for study and reference, and gives good insights into a world we take for granted often that we understand (due to our familiarity with the New Testament scriptures), yet really is foreign in time and space.

Since we are nearly 2000 years removed from the social context on the early church, a book such as this helps us to see what we have been missing.