This study by Nijay Gupta is much needed exercise in clarification and in bringing ideas into a creative conversation. On a smaller scale, but as a no less important work of exegetical and theological research and reflection, Gupta has done for 'Faith', some of what Barclay has done for 'Grace' as contested but key terms in Pauline discourse.
Gupta explores the use of the word family in the surrounding Jewish and non-Jewish culture, in the Gospels, and then in Paul. The result is a careful gathering and sifting of early Christian usage, and especially in the letters of Paul.
"Faithfulness of Christ and faith in Christ are not equal, but neither do they serve as opposites whereby one cancels out or substitutes for the other." (page 229) "Luther talked about faith as tethering of self to Christ through belief and trust." (Page 227)
I have a lot of such notes and extracts I want to hold on to, and examine more closely But as a sustained argument, this is a book rich in ideas, underpinned by even-handed research, and offering some positive alternatives to the defensive tactics of some scholars' who reduce theological and exegetical disagreements to zero sum games.
Gupta concludes that Paul's use of faith language can be translated and thus understood in several ways: Faith is more than but not less than belief – obeying faith, believing faith, trusting faith – and each of these implied in the call of God to a life of faithfully following after Jesus. I am much more comfortable with Gupta's more thickly textured approach to translation in which there is flexibility governed by context, and consequently a more nuanced and sympathetic understanding of what Paul was writing and saying when he uses the terms faith and belief.
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