Pope Benedict XVI has proclaimed the period from June 29, 2008, to June 29, 2009, as the Pauline Year. This is meant to commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of the apostle's birth: Although biblical scholars argue about the precise year of Paul's birth, the observance of the “Pauline Year” provides a good opportunity to reflect on Paul as one of the most important and influential figures in Christian history.

Next to Jesus, Paul is the most prominent person in the New Testament.  Of its 27 books, 13 are letters attributed to Paul.

More than half of the Acts of the Apostles is devoted to Paul's conversion and his apostolic activities in spreading the good news about Jesus around the Mediterranean world.

Paul is best described as a pastoral theologian. He perceived his apostleship as preaching the Gospel where it had not yet been heard and founding new churches. His letters were extensions of his pastoral work, and he formulated his theology mainly in response to problems and crises that arose in the churches he had founded.

The Paul who emerges from the New Testament is an angular character. He is energetic, committed and heroic. But he is also defensive, sarcastic and even nasty (see Gal 5:12 and Phil 3:2). His opponents dismissed him as weak in bodily appear­ance and contemptible in speech. Paul's greatness resided in his passion for the good news about Jesus and his desire to share it.