A capacity crowd of more than 325 people recently attended a Personally Speaking Lecture in which James Tabor, professor of religious studies, spoke about the influence of the Apostle Paul.
“The foundations of Western civilization rest in a singular way on the heavenly visions of the Apostle Paul,” said Tabor. “In a way, we are the cultural heirs of Paul.”
Tabor, a leading scholar of the early beginnings of Christianity, is the author of "Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity." He noted during his 35-year career that he has been investigating the gap between two back-to-back statements in the Apostles’ Creed that “Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, dead and buried and on the third day, He rose again.”
The birth and death of Jesus came to define Christianity, and the emphasis originated with Saul of Tarsus, better known as the Apostle Paul, stated Tabor.
During the Personally Speaking talk, Tabor discussed five major points related to the Apostle Paul and his influence on Christianity. He noted that the context for the apostle’s view of slavery, role of women and other prohibitions rested in a belief of the imminent nature of the world to come – the Kingdom of God.
“Paul believes in the status quo and that all will be made right soon because of the world to come,” explained Tabor. “But we live 2,000 years on the other side of this prediction.”