Paul's Conversion and the Collapse of the Sacred

Paul's conversion did more than change Paul's religion from Judaism to Christianity.  It changed Paul's underlying theological orientation of who God was and how God acts.  Prior to his conversion, Paul believed that God's purposes were achieved through persecution and domination of those who proclaimed false beliefs.  In persecuting Christians, Paul believed that he was mirroring God's intention to bring about holiness in the world through the extermination of the unholy.

In his conversion experience, God in Christ tells Paul that in persecuting Christians, Paul was persecuting God.  This is typically interpreted to mean that Paul was impeding the spread of the Christian message.  Paul's theology in his epistles suggests a much broader reading.  In the act of persecution itself, Paul's methodology itself was contrary to God's purposes.  Who Paul was persecuting was incidental; the very act of persecution prevented Paul from carrying out God's intention for the world.

Paul makes this explicit in his letter to the Colossians.  Paul says that God has brought peace through the blood of the cross.  Rome's ideology was that peace was brought through crucifying.  Paul was converted to an understanding that God brought peace by being crucified; through self-giving love in dying for the world.

Paul's conversion experience represented a collapse of everything that he thought was sacred and holy.  It brought Paul to a greater and deeper understanding of who God was.