It is generally believed the St. Paul can be attributed for the spread of Christianity as know it as a global faith in the modern world. Paul never met nor was ever in the company of Jesus, yet was able to preach and capture the hearts and minds of many and have them follow a single faith. Dunbar (2003) (p. 7) believed that the core tactic used by Paul in order to spread his own interpretation of the Jesus’ work was to preach along common trade routes used at the time. As the first Christian, Paul institutionalized the perception that Jesus died for our sins and that Christ’s resurrection a likened God’s promise to those who believed that ceaseless life awaits them in the here after.
Paul emphasized and openly preached that Jesus was born under the law of God himself and that it was on God’s specific instructions that Jesus and the life that he in turn led, became into being (Galatians 4: 4-5). However Paul uttered very little of a virgin birth nor intimated Jesus’ divinity before the documented ascension, an occasion that Paul claimed made Christ divine. Interestingly, some scholars have argued that Paul sermonized a faith that Jesus himself would most likely have rejected (60). Despite this however, the faith of Christianity prospered into a universal faith and even force that we openly recognise today. As the first Christian, Paul institutionalized the perception that Jesus died for our sins and that Christ’s resurrection a likened God’s promise to those who believed that ceaseless life awaits them in the here after.
References
Dunbar, Dirk. (2003, July). Re-visioning Jesus
Eisler, Riane. (1988) The Chalice and the Blade p. 60 New York: HarperCollins
