The most interesting story about the rise of the second great Abrahamic religion is not that of Jesus Christ—his birth, his miracles, his sermons, his execution—but that of Paul, who never met the founder but certainly founded his Church. With Paul, who was educated and a Roman citizen, and who wrote lots of letters to early followers, Christ becomes Christianity, and the mutterings of a transient preacher are universalized and form the foundations for a global institution, the Vatican. Ignore movies about Christ. Never miss one about Paul. by Charles Mudede