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.

Select Articles on Paulinism

4. Early Negative Church Views of Paul (html)(June 27, 2010)

Select Famous Thinkers Critical of Paul/Paulinism

1. Kierkegaard: Critical Remarks on Paul & Paulinism (html)(added May 27, 2010). Famous Dane who found fault with Pauline doctrine in church, advocating instead that Jesus's doctrine is paramount. See also my article - Kierkegaard: Influence on Bonhoeffer to Reject Pauline Salvation Doctrine (PDF)

2. Reverend Vincent Holmes-Gore -- book entitled Christ or Paul (C.W. Daniel: 1946) -- a serious Christian writer, Holmes-Gore bemoans the influence Paul has taken away from Christ's message. See my synopsis at Christ or Paul

3. Tolstoy, My Religion (1884) -- discussed in our webpage "Tolstoy Criticizes Paulinism."

4. David W. Bercot (Texas attorney/Christian), Common Sense: A New Approach to Understanding Scripture (1992) at 21-22 - Amazon link - excerpted here on our site. (Added May 10, 2010)

5. Renan, St. Paul (1869) at 326-330 - (HTML) or (PDF).  Renan largely defends Paul. Despite this, Renan is a JWO-enthusiast. He says now Paul's "reign is coming to a close," but Jesus' reign is alive "more than ever." Renan closes: "True Christianity comes from the gospels, not from the Epistles of Paul." And Renan adds, to make his point clear, Paul's writings represent a "hidden rock" that has caused many to fall away from following Christ. Id., at page 330.

6. Boulanger, Critical Examination of the Life of St. Paul (1746, reprint 1823) (books.google.com copy) which we excerpt and summarize at this webpage. Boulanger claims Paul was an apostate against the Law given to Moses which was contrary to the message of Jesus, and thus proves Paul was not a true apostle.

7. Jeremy Bentham, Not Paul But Jesus (1823)(books.google.com copy) - which we reformatted and edited -- pages i-11 (PDF) (work in progress). Bentham's thesis is everyone must choose between Paul or Jesus. They are not the same. (On critical reaction to Bentham's book, see our webpage.)

8. Greg Ludeman, Paul the Founder of Christianity (2002). Ludeman is a major New Testament scholar. Ludeman is professor of the history and literature of early Christianity at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Ludeman has written five major works. He regards Paul's doctrines now predominate in the modern era, and have supplanted the doctrines of Jesus which were far different. Ludeman believes Paul was subject to self-deception in his encounter with the light and voice, and did not seek verification from the twelve which led Paul into what Ludeman regards as the "Great Deception." Our latest review of this work is at this link: Ludeman: Paul the Founder of Christianity.

9. Macarius Magnes, 300 AD. In Apocriticus, Magnes is the oldest systematic critic of Paul from 300s who couched it in a debate, appearing to defend Paul, but not doing a very good job of it.

10. Famous quotes critical of emphasizing Paul which we collected during research: Carlstadt, Locke, Bentham, Morgan, Boulanger, Jefferson, Paley, Bauer, Renan, Kierkegaard, J.S. Mill, Tolstoy, Wendt, Wrede, etc.

See All Famous Thinkers Critical of Paulinism at this link. 

Articles Critical of Paulinism

See Examples of Paulinism Defended 

See Slanted Pauline Preaching (My Monitoring Churches).

Famous Rebuttals to Earlier Efforts at JWO Movement

Bultmann in 1929 responded to the "From Paul to Jesus" (JWO) movement of the early 1900s 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 supposedly our teacher. Bultmann then concludes the only way to know Christ is through Paul.  But Bultmann's argument backfires in two ways if he correctly read 2 Cor. 5:16. Such an interpretation would expose that Paul did not meet Jesus on the road to Damascus because the post-resurrected Jesus did indeed have flesh and nail-holes to prove it, but Paul in 2 Cor. 5:16 says, if Bultmann is correct, that he met a Jesus without flesh. See our webpage for further discussion.

Books Critical of Paul/Paulinism

See this link.

Articles on Science

Our Articles on Church Practices and Canon