Did St. Paul Remake Human History?

 

                                                  

                                                                          Illustration by Laurie Avon

St. Paul Remade Human History. How Did He Do It?

New scholarship reconsiders the apostle who turned a Jewish sect into a world religion—and whose legacy remains contested two millennia later.

By Adam Gopnik April 13, 2026

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,  To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

                             the salutation from Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth

For a few decades those of us who were part of more "liberal" or "progressive" Christian traditions were encouraged to dislike the apostle Paul because he was deemed a misogynist. It was an unfair characterization I didn't really buy into because there is a fair amount of evidence that Paul regarded many women as partners in ministry and evangelism in ways that are ignored by lots of conservative Christians. 

So, I was intrigued by the Adam Gopnik lengthy article in the New Yorker which explores the influence of Rabbi Saul who became Paul the Apostle, arguably the founder of Christianity as a religion both related to and distinct from Judaism. 

In the piece Gopnik offers that "Wherever he appears, Paul is not a saint in his cell but a messenger at work—a man of close shaves, sudden escapes, and high-stakes debates." This is a wonderful sentence because it captures so much of who Paul was as a "ships, horses and sandal-leather" guy, seemingly always on the move until his incarceration and execution. He took full advantage of the freedom of movement his Roman citizenship afforded him. The letters he wrote which are now part of the New Testament were missives of encouragement and sometimes admonishment to the Christian communities he established across the Mediterranean region of the vast empire. 

I was taken by the evocative illustration at the beginning of the piece as much as the article itself. Laurie Avon has done a brilliant job of capturing Paul's evangelical zeal. So much to ponder in one image. 

I would agree that Paul remade human history, although I imagine he would give all credit to Jesus, the Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit. 

                                                            The Conversion of St. Paul -- Caravaggio