Pauline Christianity or "Paulism" Is More Common Than Many Think

[MineralMan]

If you're a Christian, or even if you're not, this is worth thinking about. Many Christian churches spend much more time teaching what Paul wrote in his letters to early churches and Christians in many places. Often, Paul's writings are stressed far more than the "red letter" words attributed to Jesus in the Gospels. In fact, Paul's letters make up the subjects of a majority of sermons in many churches.

Why? Well, when the Biblical New Testament Canon was assembled from whatever documents were available, the youngish Christian church and its nascent hierarchy was centered in Rome. It grew by attracting Gentiles to this new religion, and Paul's letters were primarily written to early churches made up of Gentiles. Thus, those letters make up a sizable portion of the New Testament.

In some cases, Paul's words in his epistles are clearly contradictory in some ways to the supposed teachings of the actual Jesus. But, since Jesus was talking to Jews and Paul was writing to non-Jews, the focus is more or less a natural one. So, when you hear Jeff Sessions justifying cruel treatment of migrant families and separation of children from their parents, you hear him quoting a letter from Paul to the Romans.

However, what that letter was talking about was real and sometimes deadly persecution of early Christians in Rome. He was advising them to follow Roman laws carefully so as not to be singled out for punishment. That's not what Jeff Sessions was talking about when he took one verse out of context. Not even close.

Want to know more about Paulism and Pauline Christianity? Start by reading this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Christianity

[MaryMagdaline]

1. If it's not the Sermon on the Mount

It’s not Christianity. All else is legalism.

[MineralMan]

2. I'd expand that, really to the words attributed to Jesus

in the Gospels, not just the Sermon on the Mount. But, those get less notice in modern Christianity than what Paul, the Roman, wrote.

[MaryMagdaline]

3. Agreed

[Major Nikon]

5. Perhaps to some

But the mainstream of Christianity doesn't think so. The reality is that Christianity was corrupted from its earliest days, and were it not for this corruption, nobody would even know who this fella Christ was because Christianity would have simply died out like so many other Jewish sects that just didn't pan out.

[OhNo-Really]

4. Good work, we must understand in order to craft counter messaging.

[Jim__]

6. A conversation on Paul and early Christianity.

The name of the podcast (it's actually a podcast with a photograph) is Paul and the resurrection, but the conversation is actually much more general. The conversation begins at about 5:40.

?list=PLS1pvrd_ENgoKsJh9DNS9E7i-OB2st-ou&t=37

[MineralMan]

8. Thanks. I'll try to listen to that.

[Act_of_Reparation]

7. Pretty much all Christianity is "Pauline Christianity"

Paul was successful in building an enduring church whereas James was not. The moral of that story is that siding with the Roman Empire against your own people ain't always the best tactic.

[MineralMan]

9. That's true, of course, but some Denominations are

even more focused on Paul's writings. In many, the only times that the Gospels are the focus are Christmas and Easter. The rest of the year, Paul's epistles are featured as the source material for liturgy. That varies from denomination to denomination, and from church to church, of course, but it was something I noticed even as a teenager.

Calvinism-based churches are especially prone to Paulism.