Between Jesus and Paul: where did it all go right?

The relationship between Jesus and Paul is much disputed. You will often hear people say that Paul turned the generous, kind, and progressive religion of Jesus into a monstrous theological and ecclesiastical system from which we are still recovering. Or that Jesus died for our sins and Paul told everyone about it. And started churches. Or some other misconception.

I will argue here that the overlap between the two figures is slight, for good reason, but that they are nevertheless connected by a deeply biblical logic.

What prompted me to address the question was a blog post by James McGrath: “What Paul Knew About Jesus.” He is discussing an article in The New Yorker in which Adam Gopnik asks how Paul “remade human history.”

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