Paul’s Theology is a modern Christian belief system based on the teachings of Paul, who initiated fundamental Christian doctrines such as salvation by faith and Jesus as the Son of God. Paul’s theology focused on reaching gentiles and contradicted Jewish teachings, becoming the cornerstone of New Testament views that denied the importance of Old Testament teachings for salvation.
Paul’s Theology is a collection of modern Christian religious beliefs as of 2011 that are based on the teachings of Paul or Saul of Tarsus, a Roman citizen and writer instrumental and missionary in the founding of the early Christian church from AD 31 to 67. It is Paul who is believed to have initiated the promulgation of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, such as the atonement for all human sins through Christ’s sacrifice, salvation by faith instead of works, and Jesus as the Son of God. Paul was a contemporary of Jesus, but not one of the 12 disciples, and instead a foundational presence in the early Christian church after Jesus’ crucifixion. The New Testament section of the Christian Bible contains 14 epistles or letters of Christian guidance and instruction as a basis for Paul’s theology, written by him to members of the early church. While only seven of these are definitively believed by theological historians to be attributed directly to Paul, three of the others are open to debate as to their origins and may even be in his hand.
Paul was a tentmaker by profession and a typical Jew of his time who nevertheless did not ascribe Jewish beliefs, especially after his conversion to Christianity on the road to Damascus during the period of the early 30s AD Among the core concepts of Paul’s theology there is that Christ was sent as the savior of all mankind, not just the Jews. His theological education for the early church, therefore, was focused on reaching gentiles, or non-Jewish commoners, in the Mediterranean region of the Roman Empire. Paul’s theology taught that, while Christ was the Son of God, he was subordinate to God the Father and the being through whom God the Father created all things and sustained all things. Paul also promoted new types of theology in the Church that did away with the biblical practices of Old Testament Jews, such as animal sacrifice, by substituting Christ’s perfect nature as a sacrifice to cover human sin.
Most of Paul’s theology directly contradicted Jewish teachings about the Messiah and led to growing divisions between early Christian beliefs and Jewish beliefs. As a direct result, few Jews of the time were converted to Christianity, although he offered eternal life to those who put their faith in Christ and in his sacrifice. Indeed, Paul’s theology became the cornerstone of New Testament views which, in large part, denied the importance or necessity of Old Testament teachings for attaining salvation. It depicted all of humanity as undergoing final judgment for their sins, with the only escape from judgment being forgiveness through Christ’s divine sacrifice for the good of the world.
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