In the history of Christianity (q.v. for detailed discussion), "Pauline Christianity" is a term employed by non-Christian scholars to specifically identify the eventually dominant form taken by "official" Christianity, the "Gentile church" as it was organized by Paul and amended by the tradition of Johannine theology in the 2nd century and in the 4th century protected by Constantine and finally authorized by Imperial sanction in the Theodosian decrees of 391 in both the Eastern and Western Roman Empire.
In speaking of 4th century Christianity, especially after the Council of Nicaea (325), it is useful to speak of the continuation of this mainstream tradition as "Nicene Christianity", as opposed, for example, to Arianism.
In the first couple of centuries after the Crucifixion, in opposition to this Pauline tradition—the forerunners of mainstream Christianity—there were various rival philosophies and formalized churches evolving. An important figure presumed to be excluded from Pauline Christianity was James, the brother of Jesus, also known as James the Just. James was Jesus' brother according to the Gospels (Mark 6:3; Matthew 13:55-56) and Paul himself (Galatians 1:18). "James the Just" was the head of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, a "pillar of the church" according to Paul. There were other interpreters of the message of Jesus: the Ebionites and Nazarenes form one contrast to Pauline Christianity; the philosophies of Gnosticism form another.
Pauline Christianity is believed to have been organized by Paul, who declared himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles," and his circle. Paul and his followers denounced other formulations of the Christian oral tradition as heresies. For their part, according to Epiphanius of Salamis, the Ebionites denied that Paul was even born a Jew:
- They declare that he was a Greek....He went up to Jerusalem, they say, and when he had spent some time there, he was seized with a passion to marry the daugher of the priest. For this reason he became a proselyte [through the Saducee movement, hence his working for the Temple police] and was circumcised. Then, when he failed to get the girl, he flew into a rage and wrote against cirumcision and against the sabbath and the Law &mdashPanarion 30:16-19.
Some modern revisionists see Pauline Christianity as a method of taming a dangerous sect among radical Jews and making it palatable to Roman authorities.
Most Christians believe that "Pauline Christianity" is a tautology, that Paul's organization is the only Christianity. They also question the supposed division between Paul and James the Just. Other critics point out that the expression, like most historical designations, is an anachronism, not used by contemporaries.
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