Multiculturalism and Christianity have a long historical association. Christianity originated as a sect of Judaism in the Middle East, as Jesus, the founder and central figure of Christianity, lived and held his ministry in the Middle East. Paul the Apostle, an ethnic Jew who was born and lived in the Middle East, holds such importance to Christianity that some call him the religion's "Second Founder". The greatest influence on Christianity after Paul, Augustine of Hippo, a Church Father, a Doctor of the Church, and an eminent theologian, was North African. Under the influence of Paul, Christianity soon spread widely among non-Jews (Gentiles) of the Roman Empire.