> If I understand what Susan is saying, she is not claiming that Pauline Christianity was the recipient of some special divine favor or gift (charisma), but that charisma (the personal magnetism of Christ) was routinized, or institutionalized, through the New Testament, the Church, etc.
In other words, without this routinization of charisma, most people would have no means of relating to the charisma of Christ. From this standpoint, it would largely be irrelevant whether the New Testament (as variously constructed), the Nag Hammadi tractates, or other Christian literature had produced the routinization.
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Mark, If I understand what you are saying correctly, I think this is a very important point. Since we all agree that Jesus was the prophet of God, then the New Testament, in whatever form, did serve its purpose *perfectly* by routinizing the charisma of Jesus and establishing/proving Jesus as the prophet of God, to the people.
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