Relevant

Recommended Reading

This page offers articles and book links on various topics such as:

• Ingenious Design in nature;
  
• The History of Paulinism and the Problem of Paul; and
  
• Canon issues, salvation doctrine, Sabbath, etc.

My Articles on Paulinism

Famous Thinkers Critical of Paul/Paulinism

Kierkegaard: Critical Remarks on Paul & Paulinism (html)(added May 27, 2010). K. warns due to watering down by Paul, Christianity is now merely an opinion about Christ. However, if we look at Jesus's words, Christianity is present tense - it is action. The modern tragedy is that most of Protestantism has become Paulinism, a minimization of true Christianity. Paul is used to "criticize the Master." Kierkegaard explains Paul cheapened the price of salvation obviously to get adherents -- a cheapening process that continues today. Christianity is now "the religion of Paul, not Christ." This involves a "criminal offense against Christianity," and "every artifice" has been used "to cover up" this truth.

Kierkegaard: Influence on Bonhoeffer to Reject Pauline Salvation Doctrine (PDF)

Tolstoy, My Religion (1884) -- discussed in our webpage "Tolstoy Criticizes Paulinism." Tolstoy explains that Paul introduced into Christianity a separation of Jesus's doctrine from Christianity. Tolstoy says the old pilot Jesus has been replaced by a new pilot who has no rules. The old pilot must be put back in charge. Tolstoy endorses in effect Jesus's Words Only.

David W. Bercot (Texas attorney/Christian), Common Sense: A New Approach to Understanding Scripture [link to books.google] (1992) at 21-22 excerpted here on our site. Bercot is critical of the frequent primary reliance on Paul to the neglect of Jesus' teachings in the modern evangelical church (added May 10, 2010)

Renan, St. Paul (1869) at 326-30 - (HTML) or (PDF).  Renan teaches Paul was unimportant until the 3rd-6th centuries, and then was eclipsed for a long period until the Reformation. After 300 years, now Paul's "reign is coming to a close," and Jesus's is alive "more than ever." Renan closes: "True Christianity comes from the gospels, not from the Epistles of Paul."

Boulanger, Critical Examination of the Life of St. Paul (1823) (books.google.com) which we excerpt and summarize at this webpage. Paul was an apostate against the Law given Moses contrary to the message of Jesus, and thus was an imposter.

Jeremy Bentham, Not Paul But Jesus (1823)(books.google.com) - reformatted and edited -- pages i-11 (PDF) (work in progress). Everyone must choose between Paul or Jesus. They are not the same.

Horatio Woodburn Southworth, To Nazareth or Tarsus? (J.S. Ogilvie Publishing Company, 1901) - a collection of quotes on Paul's inconsistencies with Jesus are retyped at this html link. You can read the original book in the books.google.com version at these links -- pages 52-129 and 200-217.

Jefferson' Letters on Jesus' Words Only (PDF) [I disagree with his view of Jesus as a moralist and no more. Yet, Jefferson sees the variances Paul introduced against Jesus' teachings.]

H.G. Wells, Outline of History (1921) (html) - profound thoughts on how Pauline doctrine replaced the lessons of Jesus, and focused on belief for salvation, without a need for change in habits/actions.

Famous quotes critical of Paul which we collected during research.

Famous Rebuttals to "From Paul to Jesus" Movement

Bultmann in 1929 responded to the "From Paul to Jesus" movement of the early 1900's led by William Wrede. Bultman admitted Jesus' doctrine was "largely irrelevant to Paul." But Bultmann defended this because Paul taught in 2 Cor. 5:16 that we are "no longer" to know Jesus through His teachings when Jesus gave them "in the flesh." Only the post-resurrected Jesus -- whom Paul met at Damascus -- is our teacher. Bultmann then concludes the only way to know Christ is through Paul.  But Bultmann's argument backfired in 2 ways if he correctly read 2 Cor. 5:16 (which Origen ca. 200s's similarly understood) because then such an interpretation exposes Paul did not meet Jesus on the road to Damascus. See our webpage for why this would be true.

Books Critical of Paul/Paulinism

Mark Douglas Given, Paul’s true rhetoric: ambiguity, cunning, and deception in Greece and Rome (2001) provides proof of systematic guile used by Paul, and unabashedly so. Given collects admissions of these facts from leading reformers. For example, Calvin said about Paul's appearance before the Sanhedrin (Acts 22:30-23:11): "Paul's strategem, which Luke reports, seems out of keeping with a servant of Christ. For the astuteness he used was closely related to a feint, that was not far removed from lying." (Id. at page 81.) Given then quotes Calvin defending that this is not lying by Paul, but essentially Calvin means that lying for a greater good justifies lying, as Given explains. (Id.) There is an excellent book review of Given's book at this books.google.link.

Thomas Cosette, Hebrew Prophecies of the Coming of Paul (2007) - available via books.google.com. For my review and analysis, click this link.

Articles By Others Critical of Paul/Paulinism

Articles on Science

Articles on Church Practices and Canon