Today (June 29, 2009) is the last day of the Jubilee year of Saint Paul. To commemorate the year, I wrote a book entitled The Catholic Perspective on Paul and put up a website also called The Catholic Perspective on Paul (pauliscatholic.com) with a series of podcasts. (The manuscript is still under editorial review at Ignatius Press – Saint Paul pray for us.)

I’d like to close up the year with a question: Would Saint Paul twitter? For those not yet acquainted with Twitter, it’s a social networking site similar to Facebook but with just a simple status update. What’s so great about it? Well it is open source so a number of applications can be synced with it. By updating Twitter one can send links, information, updates to a number of places instantaneously. For example, when I send a tweet, it immediately posts at Twitter, Facebook, and my blog.

So that leads us back to the question: Would Saint Paul use Twitter?

I’m not sure that Peter would use twitter. Maybe John. However, I am convinced that Saint Paul would use Twitter for four reasons:

First Reason: Paul quotes pagan authors and is willing to engage his audience at their level whether they be Epicurean or Stoics or whatever. Full story in Acts 17. If Paul appropriated cultural language, he would also appropriate the means of cultural engagement through technology.

Second Reason: Paul was a mass communicator, always writing and sending letters. Over half the New Testament was written Paul and much of it is occasional correspondence about contemporary issues facing the Church.

Third Reason: Paul wrote several things that are similar to the short “bursts” that we find on twitter. The book of Philemon is one example. 2 Timothy is another.

Fourth Reason: Paul felt the need to be heard not only by church leaders but also by the laity. This is why he addresses his letters to the whole church and not just to leaders. He asks for his letters to be read aloud in church gatherings. He wants everyone to hear what he says: bishops, presbyters, deacons, laity.

Does anyone disagree with my conclusion that Saint Paul would use twitter? If so, leave some feedback and I’ll counter.

If you’re on twitter, please tweet this post and get the conversation going on Twitter. It could become interesting.

If you’re interested in finding fellow Catholics on Twitter, visit Matthew Warner’s brilliant site Tweet Catholic for a list of popular Catholic tweeple (people who tweet), and while you’re there sign up for flockNote – a Catholic networking community.