Chapter Eight.

Faith and Culture in Saint Paul.

        The issue of renewal in Christian perspective cannot properly be treated only in the context and challenges of modern times. A holistic perspective must take into consideration all of the Church’s historical life, particularly its earliest period marked by the most dramatic changes when the Christian faith was seen as a new, subversive force threatening both Jewish and Gentiles traditions. Indeed, Christianity emerged as a powerful renewal movement from the matrix of Judaism and rapidly spread among Gentiles in the Graeco-Roman world already during the first generation of its adherents. By the middle 50's it had made what perhaps can be seen as the greatest cultural leap of its entire history, a remarkable transition from the Aramaic-speaking Jewish culture of Palestinian towns and villages to the cosmopolitan culture of the major hellenisitic cities of the East, such as Antioch, Ephesus, and Corinth, as well as of the center of the Empire, Rome itself. The amazing success of Christianity is eloquent testimony to its own internal vitality, its distinctive developing character over against both Judaism and Hellenism, as well as its capacity to adapt to new circumstances and to use both Jewish and hellenistic elements to its own advantage.

        In the eye of this dynamic and complex religious and cultural interaction stands the great figure of Saint Paul, Roman citizen (Acts 22:27-28), zealous Pharisee (Phil. 3:5-6), cultural Hellene (1 Cor. 9:21; Rom. 9:14), and most successful Christian missionary (Rom. 15:16-29). Far from being an individualist working in splendid isolation, as some have portrayed him in the past, Saint Paul consciously lived, thought and worked with the strongest, albeit paradoxical, sense of solidarity with Jews, Gentiles, as well as Christians. He is after all the one who said, “I have become all things to all that I might by all means save some” (1 Cor. 9:22). But he also said, “Neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal. 6:15), signaling his conviction about the new faith in Christ for which he fought both to disseminate and define with all his apostolic zeal, theological skill and pastoral capacity. The great Apostle epitomizes the dramatic interaction of faith and culture in early Christianity. In him we find evidence of powerful continuities and discontinuities between Christianity, Judaism and Hellenism. Furthermore, insofar as Saint Paul helped shape basic Christian perspectives during this most creative and canonical epoch of Christianity, we may also gain from him some challenging insights into the tumultuous interaction of faiths and cultures in our own times as we stand at the beginning of the twenty-first century.