http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime.shtml
A long time ago, a man called Saul was travelling to Damascus when a light flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
This is the original Damascene conversion; one that blinded Saul and then transformed him from a persecutor of Christians into a founder of churches. We know him as St Paul.
The spirit of St Paul infuses Christianity still, but his life and his letters reveal the very early church; a community dealing with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without Paul’s energy, his encouragement and his ideas, Christianity as we know it would simply not exist.
Contributors
John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews
John Barclay, Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University
Helen Bond, Senior Lecturer in the New Testament at the University of Edinburgh
Listen to programme on BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00kjk8z/In_Our_Time_St_Paul/