Abstract

This short note underscores the pivotal part that the Apostle Paul played in promoting the socio-cultural heterogeneity characteristic of early Christianity: Without his role in the extension of evangelisation also to the Gentiles, Christianity, as a Hebrew “sect”, would have remained much more uniform, adhering mostly to the traditional way of life handed down from its ancestors (liturgy, rituals). Paul‟s missionary turn opened the way to many other, and also more “gentile”, forms of being Christian.