"the letters of Paul are pastoral, missionary, and theological responses to existing needs and problems in the young Christian congregations. They are occasional in nature. Paul nowhere presents a systematic Christology or theology, and no one letter can be regarded as a comprehensive presentation."
Page 45 of"Pauline Christology" in
Christology: An Ecumenical, International, and Contextual Perspective by Karkkainen.
You might want to look at what it means to be "Son of God", as it brings with it the understanding of being God.
At the beginning of Paul's letters, Christ is exalted to an equal position with the Father - which certainly would not have been overlooked by the Jews.
Also note that Paul applies to Christ (as Lord) some of the OT passages that originally quite clearly referred to YHWH (such as Rom. 10:13 from Joel 2:32).
Paul clearly regards Christ both as a real human being and as a divine being. Paul believes in the preexistence of Christ (I especially love the Christ hymn in Philippians 2).
This is a short answer for me, but time is a bit limited right now. Paul doesn't spell it out all in one place - but that wasn't his purpose (see the quote above).
July 30, 2010, 06:40:07 AM
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