Some Muslims seem have the theory that Paul is the true founder of Christianity and has somehow corrupted the teaching of Jesus. Here are some responses to this claim:

This is admittedly a complex issue which cannot be dealt with in a few short articles. One of the best books on this topic, being scholarly yet still accessible to the layman, is

David, Wenham
Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity?
Eerdmans, 1995, 468p, $22.00, ISBN 0-8028-0124-2

Wayne Meeks states regarding Paul's theology:

"Perhaps the most signficant discovery about Paul in this century's scholarship has been the recognition of his Christian precedents. Paul cannot be called the 'second founder of Christianity,' as Wrede named him less than seventy years ago. Christianity in the 'Pauline' form -- with sacraments, cultic worship of Jesus as Lord, Gentile members, and the doctrines of pre-existence and atoning death of the Christ -- had already been 'founded' before Paul became first its persecutor and then its missionary."

Taken from Meeks' article "The Christian Proteus" in the book THE WRITINGS OF ST PAUL, (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1972), p. 440.

(Note: Wayne A. Meeks is not an Evangelical Christian, but Woolsey Professor of Biblical Studies at the rather liberal "Religious Studies" Department of Yale University.)

Rebuttals to some specific anti-Pauline polemics by Muslims:

• Paul of Tarsus: The False Apostle According to Islam
• Paul of Tarsus: The Clear-Cut Hypocrite? The Apostle Paul Defended and Muhammad Exposed
• The Challenge (On an alleged distortion of the Torah by the Apostle Paul)

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