St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate (Icons)

by Karen Armstrong

At the heart of this proto-gospel is the Kingdom of God.20 This was not a fiery apocalypse descending from on high but essentially a revolution in community relations.

First, Paul was convinced that in the death of Jesus, God had already intervened decisively in history and that the general resurrection had begun when God had raised Jesus from the tomb. Second, Paul believed that God’s final deliverance would include the whole of humanity, not Israel alone, so that the ancient promise to Abraham that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed would be fulfilled.