Fujiko Suda: Worklife

But credit for the suc­cess of Chris­tian­ity in fact goes to an ortho­dox and pius Jew who never met Jesus. While his Hebrew name was Saul, he is bet­ter known to us by his Roman name, Paul. Paul’s life mis­sion was to curb Chris­tian­ity. He trav­eled from com­mu­nity to com­mu­nity per­se­cut­ing Chris­tians because they put Jesus, con­demned by the author­i­ties as a blas­phe­mer, on the same level as God. He used scourg­ing, ban, and excom­mu­ni­ca­tion to uphold the tra­di­tions and to force the deviants to adhere to Jew­ish law. Netherthe­less, accord­ing to his­tor­i­cal accounts, this fierce per­se­cu­tor of Chris­tians under­went a sud­den con­ver­sion in the year 34 and became the fiercest sup­porter of the new faith, mak­ing it pos­si­ble for a small Jew­ish sect to become the dom­i­nant reli­gion in the West­ern world for the next 2,000 years.