An investigation into Christianity’s intellectual heritage cannot but begin with St. Paul, the man most singularly responsible for the spread of the nascent Christian religion outside of Jerusalem’s Jewish community. It is appropriate to begin a series of articles on great thinkers of the Christian tradition by giving special attention to this early Church leader because Pope Benedict XVI has named June 29, 2008 through June 29, 2009 the “Pauline Year” in celebration of the 2000th anniversary of the saint’s birth.
Born into a family of Pharisees in modern-day Turkey, he was originally called Saul by his parents. However, being a Roman citizen (unlike the other Apostles), he came increasingly to employ the Latin name Paul in his ministry to the Gentiles.
It is unlikely that Paul ever met Jesus Christ in the latter’s earthly life. He was originally extremely unwelcoming to the emergent Christian movement, participating in persecutions of Christ’s followers and was even vocally present at the stoning of St. Stephen, the first martyr.
En route to oppose the Christian community in Damascus, he had a revelatory encounter with the Risen Christ. Paul was knocked form his horse and, while temporarily blinded by a bright light, heard Jesus’ voice lamenting “Why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). In that instant, Paul was converted and the course of his life forever altered.
Benedict XVI reflects on that moment: “St. Paul was not transformed by a thought but by an event, by the irresistible presence of the Risen One, whom he could never again doubt, so strong had been the evidence of the event, of that encounter. The latter changed Paul’s life fundamentally” (General Audience Sept. 3, 2008).
Paul went on to become the church’s first great missionary, traveling throughout the ancient world to spread the message of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. The Greek-speaking former rabbi helped establish local church communities in Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica, Cyprus, Crete, Troy, Galatia, Macedonia and Rome.
Against the express desire of some of his fellow Christians, Paul envisaged Christ’s redemptive actions as universal. That is to say, he believed that the Logos had become Incarnate not only for Jewish Israel, but rather for all men and women who up until that point had not come to recognize the one true God.
As he said before the altar to an Unknown God in Athens, “What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:23-28).
Paul’s letters are the earliest written Christian documents, giving witness and testimony to Jesus’ central role in salvation history. Composed during Paul’s travels and captivity, they serve to strengthen believers of those early periods and lay the theological foundation for the Christian message. They center completely on the person of Jesus Christ whom Paul had come to know, love, and serve, the savior of the world “who loved me and gave himself up for me” (Gal 2:20).
Unrivalled in philosophical depth and pastoral leadership, the letters remain a preeminent expression of reflection and intellectual interpretation on the significance of Christ’s advent into history, mission, and paschal mystery.
Like so many early disciples, Paul’s preaching ended in his own experience of persecution. He was beheaded between Rome and Ostia during the reign of Nero, possibly on the same day Peter was famously crucified upside-down. The Catholic Church has always celebrated their feasts together on June 29.
Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls marks the traditional location of Paul’s martyrdom and may well hold his body in a recently discovered sarcophagus.
Michael M. Canaris of Collingswood is a Ph.D. candidate in systematic theology at Fordham University.