Pauline Christianity

Pauline Christianity or Pauline theology (also Paulism or Paulanity[2]), c.q. Gentile Christianity, is the theology and Christianity which developed from the beliefs and doctrines espoused by the Hellenistic-Jewish Apostle Paul through his writings and those New Testament writings traditionally attributed to him. Paul's beliefs were rooted in the earliest Jewish Christianity, but deviated from this Jewish Christianity in their emphasis on inclusion of the gentiles into God's New Covenant, and his rejection of circumcision as an unnecessary token of upholding the Law.

Artist depiction of Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, 16th century (Blaffer Foundation Collection, Houston, Texas). Most scholars think Paul actually dictated his letters to a secretary.[1]

Christian orthodoxy, which is rooted in the first centuries of Christian history, relies heavily on these teachings, and considers them to be amplifications and explanations of the teachings of Jesus.

Since the 18th century, a number of scholars have proposed that Paul's writings contain teachings that are different from the original teachings of Jesus, the earliest Jewish Christians, as documented in the canonical gospels, early Acts and the rest of the New Testament, such as the Epistle of James.

Definition and etymology

Definition

Pauline Christianity or Pauline theology, also called "Paulism" or "Paulanity",[2] 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 deviated from this Jewish Christianity in their emphasis on inclusion of the Gentiles into God's New Covenant, and 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.[3]

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.[4]

The expression is also used by modern Christian scholars, such as John Ziesler[5] and Christopher Mount,[6] 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

See also: Jewish Christian and Paul the Apostle and Judaism

The first Christians were Jews.[7] According to Paul, he initially persecuted those early Christians, but then converted, and started 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:[8]

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve,...

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. 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".[9]

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.[10][11][12][web 1] 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.[13] The new converts did not follow all "Jewish Law" and refused to be circumcised,[14] as circumcision was considered repulsive during the period of Hellenization of the Eastern Mediterranean.[web 2][15]

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.[16] For Paul, Jesus' death and resurrection solved this problem of the exclusion of the gentiles from God's covenant.[17] '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.[18] Jesus' death and resurrection solved this problem of the exclusion of the gentiles from God's covenant, as indicated by Rom 3:21-26.[17]

Paul insists that salvation is received by the grace of God; according to Sanders, this insistence is in line with Judaism of ca. 200 BCE 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.[web 3]

Split with Jewish Christianity

See also: Jewish Christian

There was a slowly growing chasm 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.[19]

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

‘‘The fundamental doctrinal tenets of Christianity, namely that Christ is God "born in the flesh", that his sacrificial death atones for the sins of humankind, and that his resurrection from the dead guarantees eternal life to all who believe, can be traced back to Paul—not to Jesus. Indeed, the spiritual union with Christ through baptism, as well as the "communion" with his body and blood through the sacred meal of bread and wine, also trace back to Paul. This is the Christianity most familiar to us, with the creeds and confessions that separated it from Judaism and put it on the road to becoming a new religion.’’

— Professor James D. Tabor for the Huffington Post [20]

Paul had a strong influence on early Christianity, transmuting Jesus the Jewish messiah into the universal[note 1] 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.[note 2]

According to the 19th-century German theologian F. C. 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.[21] Since Adolf von Harnack, the Tübingen position has been generally abandoned.[22]

According to James Tabor, Paul led the church in its decisive break with the Ebionites, whose teaching contained the authentic teachings of Jesus.[23] Ultradispensationalists such as E. W. Bullinger viewed the distinction abhorred by the Ebionites as positive and essential doctrine.[24]

Robert Eisenman sees Pauline Christianity as a method of taming a dangerous sect among radical Jews and making it palatable to Roman authorities.[25] 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.[26]

Distortion

Some literary critics of Christianity argue that Paul distorted the original and true faith, or claim that Christianity is largely his invention. The former include such secular commentators[27] 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,[28] while Hennacy believed "Paul spoiled the message of Christ."[29]

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, 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.[30][31][32][33]

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,"[34] concluding that Paul did not materially alter the teachings of Jesus.

Hurtado notes that Paul regarded his own Christological views and those of the Jerusalem Church 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'."[35]

As a pejorative term

The pejorative use of the expressions "Pauline Christianity", "Paulism," or "Paulanity," relies in part upon a thesis that Paul's supporters, as a distinct group, had an undue influence on the formation of the canon of scripture, and also that certain bishops, especially the Bishop of Rome, influenced the debates by which the dogmatic formulations known as the creeds came to be produced, thus ensuring a Pauline interpretation of the gospel.

See also

• Antinomianism
• Authorship of the Pauline epistles
• Biblical canon
• Christian anarchism
• Development of the Christian biblical canon
• Hyperdispensationalism
• Jesuism
• New Perspective on Paul
• Pauline mysticism
• Pauline privilege
• Paul the Apostle and Judaism
• Proto-orthodox Christianity
• Law of Christ
• Paul and Gnosticism

Notes

1. In a wider meaning "catholic"
2. Among the most radical is G. A. Wells, a professor of German rather than of theology or history, whose view is that Jesus was a mythical figure and that Christianity was in good part invented by Paul.

References

Citations to web-sources

1. Stephen Westerholm (2015), The New Perspective on Paul in Review, Direction, Spring 2015 · Vol. 44 No. 1 · pp. 4–15
2. "CIRCUMCISION - JewishEncyclopedia.com". jewishencyclopedia.com.
3. Jordan Cooper, E.P. Sanders and the New Perspective on Paul

Citations to printed sources

1. Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. pp. 316–320. Harris cites Galatians 6:11, Romans 16:22, Colossians 4:18, 2 Thessalonians 3:17, Philemon 19. Joseph Barber Lightfoot in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians writes: "At this point [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 (2 Thessalonians 2:2; 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. Ide 1993, p. 25.
3. Lietzmann, Hans History of the Early Church Vol. 1 p. 206
4. James Leslie Houlden, Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1, ABC–CLIO, 2003, p. 595
5. Ziesler John, Pauline Christianity (OUP 2001) Zielsler comments "Pauline Christianity is the earliest for which we have direct documentary evidence..."
6. Mount, Christopher, Pauline Christianity – Luke, Acts and the Legacy of Paul, Brill, 2002
7. Hurtado 2005, p. 79-80.
8. 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.
9. Rowland 1985, p. 196. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRowland1985 (help)
10. Stendahl 1963.
11. Dunn 1982, p. n.49.
12. Finlan 2004, p. 2.
13. McGrath 2006, p. 174.
14. Bokenkotter 2004, p. 19.
15. 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" (PDF). The Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 75 (Fall 2001): 375–405. doi:10.1353/bhm.2001.0119. PMID 11568485. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
16. McGrath 2006, p. 174-175.
17. Mack 1997, p. 91–92.
18. Mack 1997, p. 88–89, 92.
19. Dunn 1991.
20. "Christianity Before Paul". Huffington Post. 2012-11-29. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
21. Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi (Eng trans. 1873–5)
22. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church ed. F. L. Cross
23. James Tabor The Jesus Dynasty (Simon & Schuster 2006)
24. "The Pauline Epistles. - Appendix to the Companion Bible". levendwater.org. Retrieved May 30, 2020.
25. Eisenman 1997
26. Ehrmann, Bart: Lost Christianities (OUP) p 175
27. "Articles - People Who Have Understood Paul is Anti-Christ's Teachings - Oneness - True Faith". www.wizanda.com. Retrieved May 30, 2020.
28. Tolstoy, Leo (1882). Church and State. This deviation begins from the times of the Apostles and especially from that hankerer after mastership Paul
29. Hennacy, Ammon (1970). The Book of Ammon. Hennacy. p. 475. Paul and the Churches
30. David Wenham, "Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity?"
31. L. Michael White, "From Jesus to Christianity"
32. F. F. Bruce, "Paul & Jesus"
33. Machen, J. Gresham. "The Origin of Paul's Religion"
34. Rowland 1985, p. 194. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFRowland1985 (help)
35. Hurtado 2005, p. 160.

Printed sources

• Bokenkotter, Thomas (2004), A Concise History of the Catholic Church, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-50584-1
• W. D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism 2d ed., London, 1965
• Dunn, James D.G. (1982), The New Perspective on Paul. Manson Memprial Lecture, 4 november 1982
• Dunn, James (1991), The Partings of the Ways
• Eisenman, Robert (1997). James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. ISBN 0-670-86932-5.
• Finlan, Stephen (2004), The Background and Content of Paul's Cultic Atonement Metaphors, Society of Biblical Literature
• Hurtado, Larry (2005), Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity, Eerdmans
• Ide, Arthur Frederick (1993), Battered & Bruised: All the Women of the Old Testament, Monument Press
• Mack, Burton L. (1997) [1995], Wie schreven het Nieuwe Testament werkelijk? Feiten, mythen en motieven. (Who Wrote the New Testament? The Making of the Christian Myth), Uitgeverij Ankh-Hermes bv
• McGrath, Alister E. (2006), Christianity: An Introduction, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 1-4051-0899-1
• Rowland, Christopher (1985), Christian Origins: An Account of the Setting and Character of the Most Important Messianic Sect of Judaism, SPCK, ISBN 9780281041107
• Rowland, Christopher (1985). Christian Origins: An Account of the Setting and Character of the Most Important Messianic Sect of Judaism. SPCK. ISBN 9780281041107.
• Stendahl, Krister (1963), "The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West" (PDF), The Harvard Theological Review, 56 (3): 199–215, doi:10.1017/S0017816000024779

Further reading

• Adams, Edward and Horrell, David G. Christianity at Corinth: The Quest for the Pauline Church 2004
• Bockmuehl, Markus N.A. Revelation and Mystery in Ancient Judaism and Pauline Christianity
• Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament 1997 ISBN 0-385-24767-2
• Brown, Raymond E. Does the NT call Jesus God? Theological Studies #26, 1965
• Charry, Ellen T. (1999), By the Renewing of Your Minds: The Pastoral Function of Christian Doctrine, Oxford University Press
• Dunn, James D.G. The Theology of Paul the Apostle Eerdmans 1997 ISBN 0-8028-3844-8
• Dunn, James D. G. The Apostle of the Heretics: Paul, Valentinus, and Marcion, in Porter, Stanley E.; Yoon, David, Paul and Gnosis BRILL 2016 ISBN 9789004316690
• Ehrman, Bart D.. Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew 2003
• Elsner, Jas. Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph: Oxford History of Early Non-Pauline Christianity 1998 ISBN 0-19-284201-3
• Griffith-Jones, Robin. The Gospel According to Paul 2004.
• Holland, Tom. Contours of Pauline Theology: A Radical New Survey on the Influences of Paul's Biblical Writings 2004 ISBN 1-85792-469-X
• Maccoby, Hyam. The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity 1986 ISBN 0-06-015582-5
• Kim, Yung Suk. Christ's Body in Corinth: The Politics of a Metaphor 2008 ISBN 0-8006-6285-7
• Kim, Yung Suk. A Theological Introduction to Paul's Letters. 2011 ISBN 978-1-60899-793-0
• MacDonald, Dennis Ronald. The Legend and the Apostle : The Battle for Paul in Story and Canon Philadelphia: Westminster Press 1983
• Mount, Christopher N. Pauline Christianity: Luke-Acts and the Legacy of Paul 2001
• Pagels, Elaine The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters Fortress Press 1975 ISBN 978-1-56338-039-6
• Pietersen, Lloyd K. Polemic of the Pastorals: A Sociological Examination of the Development of Pauline Christianity 2004
• Sanders, E. P.. Jesus and Judaism 1987 ISBN 0-8006-2061-5
• Sanders, E. P.. Paul the Law and the Jewish People 1983
• Sanders, E. P.. Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion 1977 ISBN 0-8006-1899-8
• Theissen, Gerd. The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity: Essays on Corinth 2004
• Westerholm, Stephen. Perspectives Old and New on Paul: The "Lutheran" Paul and His Critics 2003 ISBN 0-8028-4809-5
• Wright, N. T.. What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? 1997 ISBN 0-8028-4445-6
• Wilson, A. N. Paul: The Mind of the Apostle 1997
• Ziesler, John A. Pauline Christianity, Revised 1990 ISBN 0-19-826459-3

External links

• New Perspective on Paul
• The History of the Origins of Christianity. Saint Paul.