A pacifistic Paul?

Paul is frequently portrayed as the paradigm of Christian conversion, both in Christian spirituality and in Western art. He is touted as the one-time persecutor turned proclaimer, which is of course true. Seldom, however, is his turn from violence qua violence (as opposed to his turn from persecuting the early church to promoting the faith) seen as a constitutive part of his conversion and new life, or as paradigmatic for, and therefore constitutive of, Christian conversion and new life generally. If the conversion of Paul grounded in the resurrection of Christ, is paradigmatic, it is paradigmatic in multiple ways, not least of which is his conversion from violence to nonviolence. Put differently, forsaking violence and embracing nonviolence is an essential part of Paul's theosis and of Christian theosis more generally.—Inhabiting the Cruciform God, pp. 158-159

<idle musing>
I like that view! But, then, I am a pacifist; it is nice thinking that Paul was one, too.
</idle musing>