Christianity Without Paul

It's pretty safe to say that the Apostle Paul's influence on the Christian Faith is more significant than any of the other Apostle's (I'd argue that it's even more significant than Jesus himself), so the question becomes: what if Paul the Apostle stays Saul of Tarsus? What shape does Christianity take? Does it even get off the ground as a major religion, or does it stay a minor cult? What affect does this have on the rest of the world (or the Roman Empire, at the very least)?
 
Mary Magdalene might get a more accepted central role, since IIRC it was Paul that tried locking her out of the core group after Jesus died.

at least, thats what my memory says.
 
Hard to say. We know there were other missionaries running around (e.g. the church in Rome was founded independently of Paul); we even know some of their names, but we can't be sure how they differed theologically.

If Christianity retains the Jewish law (especially circumcision), then that will obviously massively affect its spread. It will still have followers outside of Judea when the Jewish Revolt happens, so it won't necessarily be wiped out, but beyond that it's hard to say.

EDIT: Mary Magdalene and Paul don't seem to have interacted at all in any of our sources. Indeed, Paul seems to have been at best tolerated by the Church in Jerusalem (the Letter to the Galatians is an excellent, although biased, account of Paul's interactions with the Church in Jerusalem at this time). Certainly there is no reason to believe he "kicked her out." Paul has an inconsistent attitude towards women, complicated by the fact that several of "his" purported letters (including the letters to Timothy and Titus, which are by far the most misogynistic) were probably written later by someone else, and other surviving letters show signs of editing.
 
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It's possible Christianity would remain closed to Gentiles, which would severely stifle its growth. Its spread westward wouldn't go nearly as far, leaving it pretty small. It would fade away over time.
 
It's pretty safe to say that the Apostle Paul's influence on the Christian Faith is more significant than any of the other Apostle's (I'd argue that it's even more significant than Jesus himself), so the question becomes: what if Paul the Apostle stays Saul of Tarsus? What shape does Christianity take? Does it even get off the ground as a major religion, or does it stay a minor cult? What affect does this have on the rest of the world (or the Roman Empire, at the very least)?

Without Paul, Christianity would probably stay a sect of Judaism, with a few gentile converts here and there. If Christianity ever gets off the ground, it will most likely still have many ties to Judaism, considering Paul was the pretty much the only apostle who wanted Christianity to completely divorce itself from the mother religion.
 
Personally I'm of the opinion that without Paul Christianity would have become an Eastern religion. Not unknown in the Med, but not overpowering local pagan religions either.

I personally see there being a big split between East and West brands of Christianity. In the West it becomes more of a local folk religion with middling influence, while in the East its a larger religion with a more organized group of worshipers once they're pushed out by the Romans they might fill the gap in Judea.

Someone could still come along though and change it to be a more acceptable religion to the Gentiles (I think at least one sect would crop up rejecting the Jewish roots and Peter was probably enough of a moderate that it could spread).
 
I'll echo what a lot of others have said. Without Paul, Christianity would have remained a sect of Judaism, centered around James, who was considered the leader of the movement in Jerusalem. It most likely would have remained a minor movement, probably to eventually become as extinct as the Essenes.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
But isn't there a place in first century Rome for an

But isn't there a place in first century Rome for an equalitarian (if not pacifistic) faith?

Obviously, Christianity had a tremendous appeal, or else it would not have grown as it did (and been the object of oppression); so that suggests there was a ready audience.

So absent Paul/Saul, it seems (human nature and the nature of proslelytizing faiths) that someone would step into the role of "the Apostle"?

Barnabas? John Mark? Silas?

I realize the evidence is thin, but power (spiritual and otherwise) abhors a vacumn...and it certainly seems like the old gods (Greek, Roman, whatever) were losing their appeal.

Best,
 
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It's pretty safe to say that the Apostle Paul's influence on the Christian Faith is more significant than any of the other Apostle's (I'd argue that it's even more significant than Jesus himself), so the question becomes: what if Paul the Apostle stays Saul of Tarsus? What shape does Christianity take? Does it even get off the ground as a major religion, or does it stay a minor cult? What affect does this have on the rest of the world (or the Roman Empire, at the very least)?

As others have said, without Paul Christianity probably just stays another obscure radical jewish sect. Paul was the one who really formulated the idea of Christianity as an egalitarian faith open to Gentiles on non Jewish terms as opposed to the others who still saw a Jewish identity (and Gentile converts adopting a Jewish identity) as central.
 

Art

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THAT . . .

SUTPID BUTCHER? ? ?

COME ON! !

Paul was a murderous jackass. . .


A Luap. . .

If you've EVER read Elizabeth Moon. . .
 
Christianity gets confined to Asia and North Africa outside of small pockets of adherents in European cities. However, the idea of monotheism catches on in Europe anyway, transforming existing theologies there over time, and leading the continent towads henotheism.
 
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