Page "Pauline Christianity" Paragraph 24

As to his influence, there are considerable differences of scholarly opinion concerning how far Paul did in fact influence Christian doctrine.

Among the most radical is G. A.

Wells, a professor of German rather than of theology or history, whose view is that Jesus was a mythical figure and that Christianity was in good part invented by Paul.

More widely influential is the view of the 19th century German theologian F. C.

Baur, founder of the Tübingen school, that Paul was utterly opposed to the disciples, based upon his view that Acts was late and unreliable and who contended that Catholic Christianity was a synthesis of the views of Paul and the Judaising church in Jerusalem.

Since Harnack, the Tübingen position has been generally abandoned, though the view that Paul took over the faith and transformed the Jewish teacher to the Son of God is still widely canvassed.

It depends on a comparison between the books of the New Testament which cannot be made here, but see Paul of Tarsus, and the claims of Ultradispensationalists such as E. W. Bullinger who view the distinction abhorred by the Ebionites as positive and essential doctrine.

as the philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Bertrand Russell, whose criticisms are based upon their moral objections to Paul's thought ; others thinkers, such as Slavoj Žižek and Alain Badiou, also agree with this interpretation, but hold much more positive opinions about Paul's theological influence.