Episode 45: What do we do with an Apostle like Paul

The More You Know

Lemuel: We have covered the negative aspects of Saint Paul, at least the aspects that have impacted Christianity as a faith.  We started this discussion with the question, “ Why are churches half empty, and a younger generation declaring themselves non-religious. I feel this is really due to an embrace of religious dogma and a conservative theology by the church at large. This is not the theology of Jesus, but the theology of Paul. 

We have seen how Paul has affected Christian thinking by laying strict rules, rather than the openness that Jesus taught. We have also seen how he assumed control from the church leaders that Jesus put in place. He was able to do this by appealing to the jewish communities, and the gentile christians, far from the church: Jerusalem.  He seems to be affecting the new church at a distance as well, from a distance of time.  With the attitude that the scripture is inviolate, and unchangeable, Paul’s words seem to be fixed into the Bible with no chance of removal.

Maybe this discussion can lead to a new perception of the scripture. An understanding that this collection of spiritual books was edited by scholars who thought they were preserving a part of the early church, when they may just have an outlier who became dogma through his selection. The most important thing is that with all Paul’s certainty about his palace in the church, Jesus was the founder of the faith, and his open  acceptance of everyone is more important than Paul’s prohibitions.

Topics: 

1. Vessels of Wrath: Paul’s strange explanation of Evil.

2. Women in the Church

3. Doctrines on Gay inclusion in the Church

4. Paul’s troubled relationship with Judaism

5. An overview to all that we have learned