Pauline Christianity

Definition and etymology

Definition

Pauline Christianity or Pauline theology, also called "Paulism" or "Paulanity", is the theology and Christianity which developed from the beliefs and doctrines espoused by Paul the Apostle through his writings. Paul's beliefs were strongly rooted in the earliest Jewish Christianity, but they deviated from this Jewish Christianity in their emphasis on inclusion of the Gentiles into God's New Covenant and in his rejection of circumcision as an unnecessary token of upholding the Law.

Etymology

According to Hans Lietzmann, the term "Pauline Christianity" first came into use in the 20th century among scholars who proposed different strands of thought within Early Christianity, wherein Paul was a powerful influence.

Marxist writer Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937), who stressed the similarities between Primitive Christianity and Marxism, used the phrase 'Christo-Paulinism' not only to indicate Paul's greater importance but also to distinguish between theological and ideological beliefs and the organization of the institutional Church.

The expression is also used by modern Christian scholars, such as John Ziesler and Christopher Mount, whose interest is in the recovery of Christian origins, and the importance of Paul for paleo-orthodoxy, Christian reconstructionism and restorationism.

Paul and the inclusion of Gentiles

The first Christians were Jews. According to Paul and the author of the Acts of the Apostles, he initially persecuted those early Christians, but then converted, and, years later, was called to proselytise among Gentiles.

Inclusion of Gentiles

An early creed about Jesus' death and resurrection which Paul probably used was 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3–5 (plus possible additional verses). Probably originating from the Jerusalem apostolic community, the antiquity of the creed has been noted by many biblical scholars:

There has been widespread acknowledgement of the view of W. D. Davies that the essential Jewishness of Paul's Christian perspective has been underplayed. In Davies' view, Paul replaced the Torah, the Jewish law or Law of Moses, with Christ.

In the view of Daniel Boyarin, Paula Fredriksen and other notable NT scholars cited by them, writing with lived experience of the Jewish context, Paul did not replace Torah or Halakha with Christ for Jewish believers, but simply taught gentiles that observing the noachide covenant as righteous among the nations was sufficient (along with faith in Christ), to merit a share in the world to come. This was a view shared by the Pharisees and taught in the Talmud and Maimonides (with the exception of the element of faith in Christ), but denied by (mostly gentile born) Judaizers who taught conversion to Judaism as a requisite for salvation. For example, his epistle to the Romans 13 teaches the obligations of a righteous gentile under the Noachide covenant, with Romans 14-15 expansive commentary on dietary ethics.

According to Christopher Rowland, "the problems with which he wrestles in his letters were probably typical of many which were facing the Christian sect during this period".

According to Krister Stendahl, the main concern of Paul's writings on Jesus' role, and salvation by faith, is the problem of the inclusion of gentile (Greek) Torah observers into God's covenant.Stephen Westerholm (2015), The New Perspective on Paul in Review, Direction, Spring 2015 · Vol. 44 No. 1 · pp. 4–15 The inclusion of Gentiles into early Christianity posed a problem for the Jewish identity of the early Christians. Many of the Jewish Christians were fully faithful religious Jews, only differing in their acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. Observance of the Jewish commands, including circumcision, was regarded as a token of the membership of this covenant, and the early Jewish Christians insisted on keeping those observances. The new converts did not follow all "Jewish Law" and refused to be circumcised, as circumcision was considered repulsive during the period of Hellenization of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Paul objected strongly to the insistence on keeping all of the Jewish commandments, considering it a great threat to his doctrine of salvation through faith in Jesus. For Paul, Jesus' death and resurrection solved this problem of the exclusion of the gentiles from God's covenant. 'Dying for our sins' refers to the problem of gentile Torah-observers, who, despite their faithfulness, cannot fully observe commandments, including circumcision, and are therefore 'sinners', excluded from God's covenant. Jesus' death and resurrection solved this problem of the exclusion of the gentiles from God's covenant, as indicated by Rom 3:21-26.

Paul insists that salvation is received by the grace of God; according to Sanders, this insistence is in line with Judaism of until 200 CE, which saw God's covenant with Israel as an act of grace of God. Observance of the Law is needed to maintain the covenant, but the covenant is not earned by observing the Law, but by the grace of God.Jordan Cooper, E.P. Sanders and the New Perspective on Paul

Split with Jewish Christianity

There was a slowly growing schism between Christians and Jews, rather than a sudden split. Even though it is commonly thought that Paul established a Gentile church, it took centuries for a complete break to manifest.

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, wrote in the latter half of the 2nd century that the Ebionites rejected Paul as an apostate from the law, using only a version of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, known as the Gospel of the Ebionites.

Influence

Paul had a strong influence on early Christianity, transmuting Jesus the Jewish messiah into the universal savior. This thesis is founded on differences between the views of Paul and the earliest Jewish Christianity, and also between the picture of Paul in the Acts of the Apostles and his own writings. In this view, Paul is to be taken as pro-Hellenization or Romanization.

Scholarly views

There are considerable differences of scholarly opinion concerning how far Paul did in fact influence Christian doctrine.

According to the 19th-century German theologian and Hegelian philosopher Ferdinand Christian Baur, founder of the Tübingen school whose view was widely influential, Paul was utterly opposed to the disciples, based upon his view that Acts was late and unreliable and who contended that Catholic Christianity was a synthesis of the views of Paul and the Judaizing church in Jerusalem. Since Adolf von Harnack, the Tübingen position has been generally abandoned.

Ultradispensationalists such as E. W. Bullinger viewed the distinction abhorred by the Ebionites as positive and essential doctrine.

Pauline Christianity was essentially based on Rome and made use of the administrative skills which Rome had honed. Its system of organization with a single bishop for each town was, in Bart Ehrman's view, the means by which it obtained its hegemony.

Michael Goulder wrote widely on a theory of Christian origins that sees a fundamental opposition between Paul the Apostle on one side and the Jerusalem Christians Peter and James, Jesus' brother, on the other. This has been seen as reviving Baur's hypothesis.

Distortion

Some literary critics of Christianity argue that Paul distorted the original and true doctrine, or claim that Christianity is largely his invention. The former include such secular commentators as the philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Bertrand Russell. Nietzsche's criticisms are based upon his moral objections to Paul's thought. Other writers, such as Slavoj Žižek and Alain Badiou, also agree with this interpretation, but hold much more positive opinions about Paul's theological influence.

Christian anarchists, such as Leo Tolstoy and Ammon Hennacy, believe Paul distorted Jesus' teachings. Tolstoy claims Paul was instrumental in the church's "deviation" from Jesus' teaching and practices, while Hennacy believed "Paul spoiled the message of Christ."

Criticism of the "Pauline Christianity" thesis

Christians themselves disagree as to how far there was tension between Paul and the Jerusalem Church. Roman Catholics, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East, and conservative Protestants, contend that Paul's writings were a legitimate interpretation of the Gospel. The idea that Paul invented Christianity is disputed by numerous Christian writers.

According to Christopher Rowland, Pauline Christianity is the development of thinking about Jesus in a gentile missionary context. Rowland contends that "the extent of his influence on Christian thought has been overestimated", concluding that Paul did not materially alter Jesus' teachings.

Hurtado notes that Paul regarded his Christological views and the Jerusalem Church's as essentially similar. According to Hurtado, this "work[s] against the claims by some scholars that Pauline Christianity represents a sharp departure from the religiousness of Judean 'Jesus movements'."

As a pejorative term

The pejorative use of the expressions "Pauline Christianity", "Paulism," or "Paulanity," refers to the idea that Paul's supporters, as a distinct group, had an undue influence on the formation of the canon of scripture. It is also sometimes used to refer to the notion that certain bishops, especially the Bishop of Rome, influenced the debates which determined the dogma of early Christianity, thus elevating a Pauline interpretation of the Gospel, to the detriment of other interpretations (including those held by the Gnostics and Marcionites).

Notes

References

; Citations to web-sources

; Citations to printed sources

; Printed sources

• W. D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism 2d ed., London, 1965

References

1. [[Stephen L Harris. Harris, Stephen L.]], Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. pp. 316–320. Harris cites {{bibleverse. Galatians. 6:11, {{bibleverse. Romans. 16:22, {{bibleverse. Colossians. 4:18, {{bibleverse. 2. Thessalonians. 3:17, {{bibleverse. Philemon. 19. [[Joseph Barber Lightfoot]] in his ''Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians'' writes: "At this point [{{bibleverse. Galatians. 6:11] the apostle takes the pen from his [[amanuensis]], and the concluding paragraph is written with his own hand. From the time when letters began to be forged in his name ({{bibleverse. 2. Thessalonians. 2:2; {{bibleverse. 2. Thessalonians. 3:17) it seems to have been his practice to close with a few words in his own handwriting, as a precaution against such forgeries... In the present case he writes a whole paragraph, summing up the main lessons of the epistle in terse, eager, disjointed sentences. He writes it, too, in large, bold characters (Gr. ''pelikois grammasin''), that his handwriting may reflect the energy and determination of his soul."
2. (2002). "The Early Christian World". [[Routledge]].
3. Thiessen, Matthew. (September 2014). "Paul's Argument against Gentile Circumcision in Romans 2:17-29". [[Brill Publishers]].
4. Seifrid, Mark A.. (1992). "Justification by Faith: The Origin and Development of a Central Pauline Theme". [[Brill Publishers]].
5. Tabor, James D., Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity{{. [[Simon & Schuster]]. (July 2023). ISBN-13 978-1439123324
6. Thiessen, Matthew. (2023). "A Jewish Paul". Baker Academic.
7. Fredriksen, Paula. (2018). "Paul: The Pagans' Apostle". [[Yale University Press]].
8. Lietzmann, Hans, ''History of the Early Church'' Vol. 1 p. 206
9. James Leslie Houlden, ''Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia'', Volume 1, ABC–CLIO, 2003, p. 595
10. Ziesler John, ''Pauline Christianity'' (OUP 2001) Zielsler comments "Pauline Christianity is the earliest for which we have direct documentary evidence..."
11. Mount, Christopher, ''Pauline Christianity – Luke, Acts and the Legacy of Paul'', Brill, 2002
12. see Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus—God and Man translated Lewis Wilkins and Duane Pribe (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1968) p. 90; Oscar Cullmann, The Early church: Studies in Early Christian History and Theology, ed. A. J. B. Higgins (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966) p. 66; R. E. Brown, The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus (New York: Paulist Press, 1973) p. 81; Thomas Sheehan, First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity (New York: Random House, 1986) pp. 110, 118; Ulrich Wilckens, Resurrection translated A. M. Stewart (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew, 1977) p. 2; Hans Grass, Ostergeschen und Osterberichte, Second Edition (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1962) p. 96; Grass favors the origin in Damascus.
13. Hodges, Frederick, M.. (2001). "The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome: Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos, Circumcision, Foreskin Restoration, and the Kynodesme". The Bulletin of the History of Medicine.
14. ''Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi'' (Eng trans. 1873–5)
15. ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' ed. F. L. Cross
16. "The Pauline Epistles. - Appendix to the Companion Bible".
17. Ehrman, Bart: ''Lost Christianities'' (OUP) p 175
18. See, for example, ''St. Paul versus St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions'' (London: SCM, 1994) and ''Paul and the Competing Mission in Corinth'' (Library of Pauline Studies; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2001).
19. Steven C. Muir. (26 June 2000). "Review of ''St. Paul versus St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions''". [[Review of Biblical Literature]].
20. "Articles - People Who Have Understood Paul is Anti-Christ's Teachings - Oneness - True Faith".
21. Tolstoy, Leo. (1882). "Church and State".
22. Hennacy, Ammon. (1970). "The Book of Ammon". Hennacy.
23. David Wenham, "Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity?"
24. L. Michael White, "From Jesus to Christianity"
25. F. F. Bruce, "Paul & Jesus"
26. Machen, J. Gresham. "The Origin of Paul's Religion"
27. (2002). "Pauline Christianity : Luke-Acts and the legacy of Paul". Brill.
28. (2012-01-01). "Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul?: A Narrative Approach to the Problem of Pauline Christianity". Baker Academic.
29. (1986). "Anti-Judaism in early Christianity. Volume 2, Separation and polemic". Published for the Canadian Corp. for Studies in Religion by Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
30. (2005). "Perceptions of Compatibility Between Christianity and Judaism in Pauline Interpretation". Biblical Interpretation.
31. (2009-01-01). "The Role and Status of the Catholic Church in the Church-State Relationship Within the Roman Empire from A.D. 306 to 814". Dissertations.
32. (2014). "Transforming teaching for mission : educational theory and practice : the 2014 proceedings of the Association of Professors of Missions". First Fruits Press.