Civil authority according to Saint Paul

Abstract

Our Lord's presence on earth brought with it the fulness of time to the Christian community of the New Dispensation. He is, moreover, rightly considered to have possessed the most remarkable personality that ever embodied a human being. This was by reason of the particular message He came to proclaim, the way He proclaimed it and the co-operation He expected of His listeners as regards their reaction to, and personal involvement in, such a message. For indeed it is proper to say that to most, if not all of His listeners, it was an unheard-of message, bordering on the revolutionary, regarding the programme of activity envisaged and the sort of commitment required. All this had to be enacted in the then prevailing social and political set-up. The leaders of the nascent Church were fully conscious of their Founder's behests. They were to exercise their ministry of evangelizing humanity in the then known world precisely in terms of those far-reaching and clear-cut behests. They must have found a source of moral strength and encouragement in Our Lord's own promise to Peter, their leader:" And I tell you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church and the powers of death shall not prevail against it."(Matt. 16:18) How this was enacted is fully portrayed in New Testament times. And to say the least, this appealed in a special way to Paul of Tarsus. He made a thorough study of it and was absolutely prepared to expound its contents to his converts. To show this is the purpose of this Dissertation.