(930)   Mon 19 Jun 95 19:57
By: Hector Plasmic
To: Michael Hardy
Re: Re: invent
St:
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 MH>>> (and a stroke against Dan's inane Paul-invented-Christianity
 MH>>> premise -- if the gospels were written after Paul, and reflected
 MH>>> influence, surely someone would have invented a story to dramati
 MH>>> statement.)

 HP>> Saul didn't "invent" xtianity -- he simply took a Jewish subcult and
 HP>> modified it to suit the classical civilizations, thus assuring it cou
 HP>> spread outside Judea.  Why misrepresent Dan's position (shared by man
 HP>> scholars, BTW)?

 MH> I haven't misrepresented Dan's poistion at all.

Of course you have:  You state that Dan claims Saul invented xtianity.
That is patently not the case -- you've misrepresented him.  And now
you've lied about it.  Did the cock crow three times?

 MH> Scholars support this? Name some

Title:       Civilizations Past And Present
Book:        Chapter 5:  The City Of God
Author:      Wallbank;Taylor;Bailkey;Jewsbury;Lewis;Hackett
Date:        1992

The followers of Jesus, like their master, had no thought of breaking
away from Judaism.  They sought only to revivify their faith spiritually
and ethically.  Because they adhered to the requirements of the Jewish
law, with its strict dietary requirements and practice of circumcision,
the new message could not attract non-Jews.  Largely through the more
liberal and cosmopolitan preachings of Paul, this obstacle was removed.
Because of his influence, Paul has been called the second founder of
Christianity.

Title:       World Civilizations: The Classical Period In World History
Book:        Chapter 8: Rome And Its Empire
Author:      Stearns, Peter N.;Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.
Date:        1992

Paul's conversion to Christianity proved vital.  Paul was Jewish, but he
had been born in a Greek city and was familiar with Greco-Roman culture.
He helped explain basic Christian beliefs in terms other adherents of
this culture could grasp, and he preached in Greece and Italy as well as
the Middle East. Paul essentially created Christian theology, as a set
of intellectual principles that followed from, but generalized, the
message of Jesus.  Paul also modified certain initial Christian
impulses. Jesus himself had drawn a large number of women followers, but
Paul emphasized women's subordination to men and the dangers of
sexuality.  It was Paul's stress on Christianity as a universal
religion, requiring abandonment of other religious beliefs, and his
related use of Greek - the dominant language of the day throughout the
eastern Mediterranean - that particularly transformed the new faith.

--- Tear a new one
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