"up till the time of Augustine, the church knew what Paul actually dealt with"

-Krister Stendahl:

“It has always been a puzzling fact that Paul meant so relatively little for the thinking of the church during the first 350 years of its history. 

To be sure, he is honoured and quoted, but – in the theological perspective of the west – it seems that Paul’s great insight into justification by faith was forgotten . . .

 A decisive reason for this state of affairs may well have been that up to the time of Augustine the Church was by and large under the impression that Paul dealt with those issues with which he actually deals: 

• 1) What happens to the Law (the Torah, the actual Law of Moses, not the principle of legalism) when the Messiah has come? 
•  2) What are the ramifications of the Messiah’s arrival for the relation between Jews and Gentiles?

-Krister Stendahl, "Paul Among Jews and Gentiles," 83-84.