Welcome to the University at Tubingen, Germany ... the school of many scholars, a number of them in theology and church history. Many Christian and Catholic scholars studied and taught at Tubingen. Among them these known theologians: Karl Barth, Dietrich, (Cdl) Walter Kasper, Pope Benedict XVI, Hans Kung. Recently, 2007, a recently retired Professor Emeritus, Martin Hengel produced a "slim volume" entitled "The Undervalued Peter." Hengel sifted through he letters of Paul and the gospels to develop a more informed understanding of Peter. In particular, Hengel focused on the early decades after the first Easter Sunday.
Dr. Hengel sees that Peter was not focused ONLY on a mission to the Jewish people as one might understand from the following words from Galatians 2:7:
On the contrary, when they saw I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised.
Rather, again as Fr. Byrne noted, Peter was the leader of a mission rather extensive in scope. The Gentiles found Peter's mission appealing. The Australian scholar is of the opinion that if Prefessor Hengel's investigations are correct, the difficulties between the two early Church leaders, especially at Antioch, became visible in two rival missions that created tensions in some of the cities of Asia Minor where each was proselytizing.
Byrne says that "while open to the Gentiles, the Petrine mission would represent the kind of closer continuity to the Jewish heritage, notably the Torah, that ultimately emerged in the gospel of Matthew."
Both of the saints experienced martyrdom in Rome, bringing an end to their missions. After a time, however, the words in Luke-Acts related each apostle's role in the Evangelist's writings. Luke repositions Paul more to the center -- where Peter stood. This positioning certainly would not have set easily with Paul. Fr. Byrne calls this the taming of Paul!
This ends the reflections on the charisms of Peter and Paul. Hopefully Fr. Byrne's insights and the works of contemporary scholars has helped you come to appreciate an aspect of Peter and Paul that does have some significance but which is not too publicized except in scholarly circles. But these charisms are important for the Church in understanding how it came to where it is today. Pope John Paul II once remarked that the Church has to breathe with both lungs --- Peter and Paul!
