Paul and the Creation of Christian Identity (The Library of New Testament Studies)

Paul is traditionally viewed as separating from the churches of Peter and of Jewish Christ-followers to promote his own mission, eventually triumphing in the creation of a church with a gentile identity. In Paul and the Creation of Christian Identity, Campbell argues that the Pauline mission represents only one strand of the Christ-movement that should not be universalized to signify the whole. In conjunction with his gentile mission, Paul acknowledges Jewish identity as an abiding reality, rather than as a temporary, weak form of faith in Christ. Paul's gentile mission was not a reaction to his Jewish heritage, but a transformation based on his vision of Christ: thus the identity of Christianity cannot be that of a new religion.