Paul and Jesus: The True Story

Rating:
Summary: Jesus and Paul
Review: I first became aware years ago that St. Paul is one of the more problematic Christian figures when I came across an unpublished manuscript in the British Library written by the late eighteenth century utilitarian philosopher and gadfly Jeremy Bentham. Entitled "Jesus Not Paul," the long essay argued for a Christianity untainted by the arrogant and tortured Paul who, Bentham claimed, had substituted his own bad ideas (for instance, regarding sex) for the good ideas of Jesus. Thus was I introduced to the controversies that have followed Paul throughout the centuries. Was he a true follower of Jesus, his detractors ask, or was he an iconoclast who traded on Jesus' name to form a strain of religion distinct from the original message of Jesus? Were his omissions regarding Jesus' earthly life and teaching deliberate and malicious or explainable and honest? What was more important to Paul, explaining Jesus Christ or pursuing his own theological imagination?

Into this complex fray comes the Rev. Dr. David Wenham, Anglican priest and dean at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Approaching Paul from an evangelical point of view, Wenham carefully delineates Paul's indebtedness to Jesus in the development of his theology and, more importantly, as the basis of his faith. In answering questions of Paul's connection to Jesus, Wenham also offers a good overview of Paul himself, from his early life to his conversion and onto his missionary journeys. Following the pattern of his earlier work, Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity?, Wenham translates scholarly research and textual criticism for general readers into a readable defense of Paul. While he doesn't answer all concerns about Paul's thought in relation to Jesus' message, Dr. Wenham does make a convincing case for Paul, first Christian theologian, rather than Paul, founder of a religion subtly antithetical to the Christ.

Rating:
Summary: Offering a wealth of documented and supported insights
Review: Paul and Jesus: The True Story by the Reverend David Wenham (an Anglican parish priest and a researcher/teacher at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, England) is an informed and commendable attempt to address common negative views of the apostle Paul, who is often credited with changing or modifying Jesus' original ideas, messages and teachings, especially with regard to the role and status of women and sex. Presenting the true story of Paul and Jesus, and what the scriptures themselves tell a modern readership, Paul and Jesus is a straightforward, highly recommended, scholarly interpretation offering a wealth of documented and supported insights into the "Apostle to the Gentiles" and the true story of the two most influential figures in the establishment of Christianity into what would become one of the major religious movements the world would ever know.