Quote:
Originally Posted by kerry
To test out something I came across last night, I read, in chronological order, the epistles of St. Paul. It's true, none of those letters show any acquaintance with the teachings of Jesus, his travels, his history or his parables. Jesus appears as a dying and resurrecting god with the exception of the last supper which is obviously an existing ritual when Paul writes about it. It seems clear that Paul must not have read any of the materials that ended up in the gospels. Why didn't I figure this out decades ago? I think I must have been misled by the canonical order.
Give it a try someone, it's an enlightening exercise. Whoever the historical Jesus was, his life and teachings seem completely irrelevant to St. Paul. What matter is his death and resurrection. Not much else except the last supper.
Makes a person wonder why the gospels were written if all the churches Paul started got by without them.
|
One of my humanities professors back in college made a compelling case that Paul was the founder of modern capitalism. Paul was not interested in the teachings of Christ, he was interested in selling a product. He was the founder of salesmanship, and the first pioneer of advertising. Selling his product successfully kept him financially secure and popular, and gave him more and more power. His letters were nothing more than his sales brochures. And look at what he built - in modern times, he would have been known as a "multi-level marketer", he sold Christianity like Amway - now that you're completely sold on my product, you need to be a salesman for it too. At it's heart, modern Christian evangelicalism is simply an Amway game.