Theology of Paul

Paul gives two different accounts of the source of his theology. In Gal. 1:11-12 he insists that he did not receive it from men but "through a revelation of Jesus Christ," referring to his experience on the Damascus Road. But in I Cor. 15:3-8 he pictures himself as simply passing on the tradition he had received about Christ's atoning death, burial, and resurrection. Some scholars (e.g., Drane) maintain that two different Pauls are speaking in these passages: the former an enthusiastic individualist, whose theology was based on the immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit; the latter an older, more sober Paul, whose individualism has been curbed by the experience of conflict and the need to come to terms with the other apolstles' understanding of the faith. Others (e.g., Bruce) argue that Paul's acceptance of the radically new tradition about Jesus, in opposition to "the traditions of my fathers" (Gal. 1:14), was a direct result of the Damascus Road revelation, so that the one complements the other.