Robert J. Banks (theologian)


Robert John Banks is an Australian Christian thinker, writer and practitioner. He is a biblical scholar, practical theologian and social critic, as well as an innovative educator and church planter.

Early life

Robert Banks was born in Sydney in 1939, raised and educated there, and studied arts/law at Sydney University. In 1959 he entered Moore Theological College and on graduating three years later married Julie Lonsdale Johnson. After ordination and ministry at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Adelaide, he completed an MTh at King's College in the University of London and a PhD in New Testament on Jesus' attitude to the Law at Clare College Cambridge University. In 1969 he resigned from the Anglican Church on the grounds of its status distinction between clergy and laity, its ceremonial view of the sacraments and its over-emphasis on its members serving the institution and activities of the church rather than fulfilling their vocation in and witnessing to the world.
Returning to Australia in 1969, he was appointed as a Research Fellow in the History of Ideas Unit at the Australian National University, Canberra. During this time he helped develop several home-based congregations in the city, was also a theological consultant to people of faith in the Public Service and started a theological program for lay people. In 1974 he became Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Macquarie University, Sydney. His publications during this time included books on early Christian idea of community, the tyranny of time, private values and public policy, and going to church in the first century.

Midlife

In 1989 he was invited to become Foundation Professor in The Ministry of the Laity at Fuller Theological Seminary, Los Angeles, where he introduced a Master of Arts in Christian Leadership for lay people and a Doctorate in Practical Theology. Three highlights of this period were helping to found a national Coalition for Ministry in Daily Life, serve on the Board of InterVarsity Fellowship's Marketplace Ministries and nurturing independent and denominational home-based congregations in Los Angeles and other parts of North America. In the mid-1990s he became the first Executive Director of the De Pree Leadership Center at Fuller Seminary, working among business, media and professional people as well as with church, para-church and missionary leaders.
His lifelong interest in film led to his becoming the first Director of an annual City of the Angels Film Festival, held annually at the Director's Guild in Los Angeles. This focussed on mainstream and independent films containing spiritual and moral themes. Along with books on the God as worker and re-envisioning theological education, he wrote and edited others on relating faith to work, leading with spirit, and Christianity in everyday life. Alongside being a Visiting Professor in theological institutions in Korea, Canada, Russia and Switzerland, he networked with facilitators of simpler, grassroots forms of christian gathering in a range of non-denominational, inter-denominational, and mainline denominational settings in overseas courses.

Later life

In early 1999 he returned to Australia where, shortly afterwards, his wife Julie died of a brain tumour. He then became the first Director and Dean of the Christian Studies Institute at Macquarie University, Sydney, which offered degree level courses to university students and professional development for Christians in the workplace. In late 2000 he married Linda Hope, who had been a Staff Worker for the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students and an Associate Pastor in a number of churches. In the following years he wrote books on everyday theology, religion in film, and apologetics. In 2004 a Festschrift was produced in his honour with contributions from fifteen scholars around the world, including Edwin Judge, John Drane, Miroslav Volf and James Dunn. Robert Banks: Prophet of the Everyday, Winter 143, 2019. In 2019, a special issue of the journal Zadok Perspectives, containing articles by a number of Australian christian thinkers was issued to celebrate his 80th birthday. He and Linda also created several biblically-based resource materials for small groups, and written three books on the contribution of female Australian missionaries to the emergence of modern China, a country for which they have developed a great love and to which they have made multiple visits.
He is presently an Adjunct Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, for whom he teaches courses overseas, at the Biblical Graduate School of Theology in Singapore and in the School of History, Philosophy and Politics at Macquarie University. In 2015 and 2016 he was appointed an Honorary Professor at Alphacrucis College, Sydney and an Adjunct Research Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture of Charles Sturt University in Canberra. In recent years he has addressed university and theological audiences, marketplace and non-profit organisations, more organic and life-engaged churches, mixed religious and secular audiences interested in the role of faith in contemporary society, in Asia and Europe as well as Australia. Several of his books have been translated into Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Danish, Chinese, Persian and German, and he has also won Book of the Year awards in Australia, Canada and the United States. He has been a member of the in England, and the international .

Major publications