The Apostle Paul (Saint Paul to Catholics)

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I'm of the opinion that the Apostle Paul had Asperger's.

Consider this - he was legalistic and rule-following prior to his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Subsequent to that, he was rigid in his opinions (Note his chastisement of Peter for daring to eat with his (Peter's) friends instead of sitting with the Gentile believers, as Paul wanted).

Paul was long winded, but he did not seem to carry on conversations, he preached a lot. He seemed to spend a lot of time alone or with a few companions. He was intelligent, good at languages, and well read. Finally, he communicated a lot through letters. (Just like preaching, communication in writing is one-way and doesn't require same time interaction with others).

I think that God has a special place for Aspies in his ministry. Too bad that so many of us have a visceral negative reaction to Christianity.

Paul likely had epilepsy. Source: Nerves In Collision book by Walter C. Alvarez, M.D. Also, Paul never knew Jesus Christ personally yet so much of the New Testament is written by Paul meaning that what is often called Christianity is really Paulianity. Paul ran his mouth off a lot about a person, Jesus Christ, a person Paul never ever met in person so a lot of people wonder as to how accurate Paul's preaching is. Paul is like a person in 2011 who claimed he knew Abraham Lincoln personally yet never met Abraham Lincoln. Is it possible that Paul had a few Asperger-like traits? In my view, yes, but I think it is a lot clearer that Paul had epilepsy. Was Paul an extremist Christian politician who was willing to die for his extremist political cause - Christianity? Yes. Paul continually wrote that God saved him from everything but in the end, the Roman emperor had Paul beheaded (like John the Baptist was beheaded in Israel years before).

- Politics, Philosophies, Religions

Never heard him called Saint Paul.

A bit of Aspie insight and wisdom, maybe ...

"And I, Sha’ul ... I who am indeed lowly when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent! ...
"... they say, 'His letters are truly weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech amounts to naught.' ...
"But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise."
(2 Corinthians 10, ISR)