Jesus and Paul

I read a bit of Wrede and found some of his arguments and methodology interesting. In a nutshell he argues that because of the differences between the synoptic gospels presentation of Jesus and Paul's own preaching, Paul invented the belief that Jesus was divine and was messianic. Thus, Paul was the inventor of Christianity. What struck me is that he then says that John was influenced by Paul, so we cannot use him as a source for studying the historical Jesus. Clever, reject out of hand anything that could contradict your thesis.
Anyway since the point of this site is theology for the coffee shop let me say it is a concern to me that instead of this being an issue for the academy, this issue has now moved to be one exclusively located in popular literature. What this means is that the average pastor needs to be able to understand the arguments and be able to refute it intelligently.
It is time to get serious boys and girls! Heresy is not an issue far removed the Church, no it assails it from all sides!