SONS THEN HEIRS KINSHIP ETHN LETT PAUL C

By extending Christ's redemption to those who were not ethnically Jewish Paul has long been credited with transforming Christianity into a universal ethnically-neutral religion. In this book Caroline Johnson Hodge challenges this interpretation through a detailed examination of kinship and ethnic language in Pauls letters. Arguing against firmly entrenched claims that Paul's Epistles eliminate ethnicity from Christianity Johnson Hodge claims the exact opposite: Paul treats ethnicity as a central element of the Gentile believer's entrance into communion with Jesus. Paul creates a myth of origins for Gentiles; through baptism Jews and Gentiles alike could share a common ancestor in Abraham. In Johnson Hodge's reading Paul does not combine Jews and Gentiles under a new homogenous group of Christians but instead sees baptism as a way of creating two separate but related lineages of Abraham.