“No sooner had Jesus knocked over the dragon of superstition,” wrote George Bernard Shaw in ”Androcles and the Lion,” “than Paul boldly set it on its legs again in the name of Jesus.” Shaw’s line captures the outsize and frankly uneasy influence that St. Paul had on the early church. Though the apostle’s letters comprise almost a third of the New Testament, he remains controversial. Progressives in particular often hold Paul responsible for corrupting Jesus’ teachings and introducing starchy moral standards into the faith.