Making Sense of Paul

 The scholarly literature on Paul is massive and exhausting.  There is no way I can read it all and come to scholarly conclusions of my own.  All I can do is scape the top of some of it and come to some tentative conclusions of interest to me personally.  Pauline have always disagreed amongst themselves. What can do?

Did Paul's calling as an apostle Gentiles lead him to forsake his background and therefore renounce Judaism in favor of Jesus---his goepel of Jesus Christ raised from the dead for our salvation in the soon to be establishment of God's kingdom on earth?  I say no.  Paul did not renounce Judaism for Jews.  Jews were going to be saved in the soon coming climax of history along with Jesus believers.

Did Paul know what he believed from the outset or was he feeling his way along trying to figure things out as he went along.  I say yes.

The traditional view of Paul is that he preached against the Law and Israel. I surely hope this view is wrong.

Paul did not become a Christian because the nascent Christian religion did not yet exist.

The current consensus is that for Paul his central was Gentiles and their place in the Jesus movement.

Paul was not a theologian of the universal human condition.

Paul has to be understood totally within the context of his personal historical situation.

Paul's world rapidly ended. His world is not our wold.