The apostle Paul was a man who embodied the Christian experience before Christ had even been crucified. Starting out life as Saul the Pharisee, a self-confessed enemy of Christians, Paul had a life-changing experience on the road to Damascus and converted to Christianity, becoming the very picture of how even the most contrary sinner can be changed through an encounter with the Lord (McBirnie, 2008). Once converted, Paul became one of the most committed Christians in Jesus' time, preaching the Gospel and enduring imprisonment at Rome before embarking on missionary journeys (McBirnie, 2008). Paul is credited with writing a number of New Testament books, including Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, and some Bible scholars attribute the Book of Hebrews to him (Borean, n.d.). The preoccupation with the supernatural in these books demonstrates that Paul was a mystic in the sense that he was "a human being looking upon the division between earthly and super-earthly, temporal and eternal," a juxtaposition that is of the most intensive import to Christians (Schweitzer, Pelikan, & Montgomer, 1998). When Paul returned to Rome, he was believed to have been taken prisoner, along with the apostle Peter (McBirnie, 2008). Paul was martyred in Rome, when by orders of Emperor Nero, he was beheaded with a sword (McBirnie, 2008).
This paper will examine the apostle Paul, detailing who he was, from his identity as Saul the Pharisee up through his conversion, including his relationship with Christ. In addition, Paul's mysticism will be discussed. N.T. Wright, in his book, Paul in Fresh Perspective, notes that Paul "straddled at least three worlds," including Judaism, the Hellenistic culture, and the world rulers of Paul's day" (2005), but Paul also focused much of his attention on a fourth world(heaven. In 2 Corinthia...