Steward of God's Mysteries

One view that perennially springs up among biblical scholars is that
Paul was the inventor of Christianity, or that Paul introduced the idea of a
divine Christ to a church that earlier had simply followed the ethical teaching
of a human Jesus. In this book Jerry Sumney responds to that claim by examining
how, in reality, Paul drew on what the church already believed and confessed
about Jesus.



As he explores how Paul's theology relates to that of the broader
early church, Sumney identifies where in the Christian tradition distinctive
theological claims about Christ, his death, the nature of salvation, and
eschatology first seem to appear. Without diminishing significant differences,
Sumney describes what common traditions and beliefs various branches of the
early church shared and compares them to Paul's thought. Sumney interacts
directly with arguments made by those who claim Paul as the inventor of
Christianity and approaches the questions raised by that claim in a fresh
way.



Recommend € 27,90