Roman Faith and Christian Faith

Abstract

Abstract This study begins with the question why 'faith' (pistis/fides) was so important to very early Christians that the concept and praxis already dominate the writings of the New Testament. It argues that early Christian pistis owes much to both its Jewish and Graeco-Roman contexts, which makes it an intrinsically interdisciplinary subject of study. Drawing on recent work in anthropology, sociology, and modern history, the study seeks to understand the varying shapes pistis/fides takes in the Graeco-Roman world of the early principate, Hellenistic Judaism, and the New Testament. It develops a model of the relationship between pistis/fides, fear, doubt, and scepticism. It investigates where Graeco-Roman pistis/fides is represented as easy to practise and where difficult, where it is 'deferred' and 'reified' in practices such as oaths, proofs, and legal trusts. It shows that pistis/fides is more important in Graceo-Roman divine–human relationships than has been assumed, and investigates the shape of the Graeco-Roman divine–human pistis/fides relationship and the foundations on which it rests. The study argues that understandings of divine–human pistis evolve through the Septuagint, before examining pistis in different New Testament writers and its role in the development of early Christologies, soteriologies, and ecclesiologies. It also argues for the integration of the study of pistis with New Testament ethics. It investigates the interiority and emotionality of pistis/fides, and finally explores eschatological pistis: the shape of the divine–human community in the kingdom of heaven. Other topics include the interpretation of pistis Christou and the 'mystery of faith'.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Oxford University Press eBooks, 2015 · DOI ↗