World Religions Essay: How did Paul Universalize Christ?

There were many attempts to authenticate Jesus’ teachings and historicity. However, it is considered to be a matter of personal perspective. Ancient and modern depictions of Christ reveal his life based on scientific and mystical facts.

We believe that the notion of a global, cosmic, and universal Jesus is a contemporary invention.

Some modern scholars attempt to re-envision Jesus. In order to convert to a particular view we need to consider current, past, and potential future issues concerning an evolving Christ.

The mythologized Christ is a reconstructed sacred hero. Numerous myths, legends were debated over two thousand years.

In legends and sayings we can find depictions of a divine pre-human existence, virgin birth, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ.

Christ inspired Christianity and he did not conceive it. However, Paul did. Due to his writings, people know more about Paul than about Christ. Nevertheless, Paul’s writings were edited and other people were attributed to him. His purported actions are interpreted in historical reports and legends.

Some theologians consider Paul to be a Pharisee and Roman. Being a Pharisee, Paul avowed mastery of Jewish law. He used the prophecies of the messiah to declare the continuity between Judaism and the coming of Jesus. Paul glorified the magnitude of his conversion to Christianity. Preserving Old Testament heritage Paul managed to create a new law that surpassed the old. At the same time some theologians believe that Paul denigrated Jews as executioners of Christ and adversaries of the emerging faith.

As Roman Paul accused Jews, pagans, and heretics and called them “agents of Satan”. He proclaimed himself to be a prophet of God and apostle of Christ and more than Jesus set the tone for Christian theology.

We can find rival profiles of Paul in the theological history. Some theologians don’t agree with his personality depicted in the letters and gospels. There are certain arguments that Paul wasn’t a Pharisee and converted to Judaism. Another point of view is that Paul got his Roman citizenship as an adult and worked for the High Priest as a henchman. Later he left the High Priest and got fame by founding a new religion. According to the Ebionites’ texts we can conclude that Paul distorted Jesus’ message and created a new religion which Christ himself would have rejected.

The uncertainty concerning Paul can’t change his clear portrait of Jesus. Paul proclaimed that Christ was born under God’s law and died for our sins. He stated that Jesus’ resurrection was a sign made by the God to promise to believers that eternal life awaits them.

Paul formulated Jesus’ role in the futuristic kingdom that would witness Earth’s destruction and the judgment of the unworthy. Paul supposed that his enemies were Christ’s, for whom he spoke. He never met Christ except his “blinding vision” on the road to Damascus. Paul usually mentioned Jesus’ life and events surrounding his death and resurrection. Paul’s own message contains tributes of love, trust, and hope, but it is also marked by intolerance and the threat of holy vengeance. Later the gospel writers mythologized Paul’s Jesus.

In conclusion we may say that due to controversial depictions of Paul’s attitude to Jesus, his teachings we find different attempts in describing Paul. Each depiction of Christ belies the convictions and agendas of its adherents. However, by ancient and modern accounts we know Christ emanating a compassionate and nonviolent nature. He teaches us to love unconditionally, forgive persecutors, not judge others, not fear death, and lead a moral life. Jesus taught his followers to find ways to understand God not as text but as a presence—one conveyed by mystics in all religious traditions. We believe that the Christology of Paul helped create and sustain a mythologized Christ. For Christianity to retain social and moral relevance, Jesus’ myths and message need to be re-envisioned. It emphasizes Christ’s teachings of love and forgiveness and releases the apocalyptic Jesus.

Bibliography:

• Kee, Howard. Jesus in History. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970
• Funk, Robert. 1991. “Jesus of Nazareth: A Glimpse,” The Fourth R 1/2 (1991): 17-20