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Evangelical Protestant Christianity is known for placing great emphasis on the Pauline doctrine of justification by faith within its soteriology. Even a cursory reading of the literature produced since the Protestant Reformation, reveals that this Pauline doctrine, occupies a central place in their spirituality. Firstly, the emphasis of this dissertation seeks to demonstrate that there is an obvious continuity between the Reformers thought on justification by faith, and conventional theology; there is an identifiable tradition of spirituality that has passed from generation to generation and been consolidated, especially within Evangelicalism, in the solid establishment of the doctrine. Consequently justification by faith is at the heart of our understanding in the Epistle to the Romans; I consider that Romans contains a trifold element whereby this doctrine plays a highly important role within Pauline theology. These three, in my viewpoint are justification by faith, relationship and servanthood/priesthood. In other words, they are intrinsically part of a whole as they form the very kernel of Paul´s intention in Romans (cf. Rom. 1–5; 5–11; 12–16). Secondly, in this thesis, a significant body of evidence is presented that shows how modern schools of thought in contemporary scholarship almost entirely subscribe to a view denying the doctrine of justification by faith as established in tradition. Hence, this thesis may serve to preclude approaches, of a more radical teaching which may compromise the Protestant traditional understanding. Thirdly, therefore this dissertation supplies resources that may be found useful in the wider Evangelical debate about justification by faith for the Portuguese-speaking theological academic world, where to date, a thesis of this nature has not yet been developed. I have concluded this thesis by pointing out that these findings could play a part in opening up a discussion of the Christological roots of Justification. Finally, I have attempted to combine the doctrine itself and its inherent link to servanthood and priesthood, integrating the Pauline thought, through an evaluation and validation of the role of justification by faith, with its intrinsic contribution to develop a personal, individual but also a collective and communal relationship with God.

This thesis is an investigation of the role of emotion in the rhetorical discourse of 1 Peter. It argues that taking a more theoretically and historically informed approach to emotions in a New Testament epistle, in this case 1 Peter, can open up new avenues for discussion, provide corrective tools, and aid us in our interpretation and understanding of an ancient text. Emotions have hitherto generally been neglected in New Testament studies, and so this thesis provides the first full-scale attempt to analyse the rhetorical use of emotions in a New Testament epistle. It demonstrates that the author of 1 Peter uses the logic of each emotion to value and position objects within the audience’s worldview, including the self and the other. Cumulatively, the emotions are used by the author to build an alternate view of reality. For the believers, this leads to a new understanding of the structuring of their world, encourages a reassessment of personal goals, and it ultimately aims to affect their identity and behaviour. The introduction details previous work on emotions in New Testament studies and 1 Peter. Then, using developments in modern emotion theory, it proceeds to establish the theoretical foundations and methodological approach of the investigation. The thesis then continues in three parts. Part 1 (chapters 2-3) focuses on ‘Emotions in Antiquity.’ Parts 2-3 (chapters 4-7) are exegetical, focusing on the ‘Present Experience’ and ‘Future Expectation’ of the audience respectively. Part 1 demonstrates that there is a close fit between ancient theories and recent developments in emotion studies and thus proves that the exploratory approach of this thesis is not anachronistic. Chapter 2 details Stoic philosophical theory of emotion and chapter 3 the rhetorical use of emotion. These both work at the level of a general theory of emotion. Parts 2-3, firstly, using primarily Stoic theory, define each emotion and thus identify the core characteristics of each emotion. Secondly, they seek to understand the contextualisation of emotion and accompanying rationale in both Stoicism and the LXX. Thirdly, using these insights, the use of emotions in 1 Peter is then explored comparatively. Chapters 4-5 investigate joy (χαρά) and distress (λύπη), with chapter 4 focusing on joy despite distress and chapter 5 examining joy in suffering. Chapter 6 looks at fear (φόβος) and hope (ἐλπίς); chapter 7 investigates shame (αἰσχύνη). In each of the exegetical chapters, the exegetical discussion is directed by key questions about emotions which were highlighted by modern emotion theory. The answers to these questions reveal which objects are being evaluated and how, and,therefore, what the author is communicating to the believers about the object and their own positioning in relation to it. The ethical, sociological, and therapeutic implications of this for the believers are then explored. The conclusion pulls together the findings of the exegetical chapters into a composite picture. It concludes that, consistently, the author promotes allegiance to God and Christ, fosters emotional distancing from the hostile other, and engenders a positive assessment of the Christian self. Figures of power within the audience’s worldview are repositioned and their relationship to essential goods is reinterpreted. This seeks to alter the audience’s goals and subsequent behaviour so that a Christian ethic is promoted and the believers are encouraged that they are on the path to flourishing. This aims to produce confidence in the believer, and reduce the inner turmoil created by persecution. Finally, the implications of these findings for our understanding of 1 Peter’s rhetorical and social strategy are explained.

This study examines Paul’s presentation of his gospel as a divine communication in the OT prophetic tradition. Despite the importance of the word of God to the OT prophetic vocation, Paul’s use of the phrase rarely refers to his gospel as a ‘word of God’. The phrase occurs once in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 and twice in 2 Corinthians (2:17 and 4:2). His reference to the gospel as a ‘word of the Lord’ is equally rare, occurring only in the Thessalonian Correspondence (1 Thessalonians 1:8, 4:15; 2 Thessalonians 3:1). Chapter one of this study presents a contextual word study of Paul’s gospel language, illustrating the functional distinction between Paul’s primary gospel language terms. A survey of Paul’s primary gospel language in LXX usage provides background to Paul’s use of the prophetic topos ‘word of the Lord’. This word study demonstrates the importance of the Thessalonian letters as a source for our understanding of the phrases ‘word of God’ and ‘word of the Lord’ as categories of divine communication to which the gospel belongs. Chapters two through five of this project substantiate a reading of 1 Thessalonians as source for Paul’s presentation of the gospel as a divine communication in continuity with the LXX prophetic tradition. Paul constructs a community narrative in 1 Thessalonians 1-3 central to which is the arrival of, resistance to and endurance of the gospel as a word of God / word of the Lord among the Thessalonian believers. The gospel as a word of the Lord proclaims and performs the eschatological hope of Gentile inclusion at the parousia. The gospel as a word of God emphasizes the divine origin and agency of the message, entrusted to and embodied by true apostles of the gospel of God. The prophetic tradition, in which a divine emissary embodies the word, is expressed in the cruciform embodiment of the gospel by Paul, Silvanus and Timothy. 1 Thessalonians provides a narrative source for Paul’s genuinely shared mission during the foundation of Gentile congregations.

This research attempts to interpret, in a semiotic manner, the Epistle of James from the viewpoint of the internality–externality type of synergism, according to which faith and action make an inseparable synergic unit. The first part of the thesis deals with emphasizing the synergic pairs of the book, observing, according to Dibelius, the fact that faith and action are seen by traditional Jewish religiosity as an indivisible unit. It also underlines the difference between Luther’s viewpoint of faith–works unity and a number of modern interpretations. The latter hesitate to take into account James’ synergism evoked in 2:22, and conceive a kind of faith, theoretical or intellectual, which consists in its structural separation from acts. In order to explain the tendency of some contemporary interpretations to differentiate between theoretical and practical faith, or to favour faith to the detriment of acts, and the other way round, this study will tackle, in the second part, Charles Taylor’s analysis of modernity and will take into consideration his proposition related to the correction of the modern paradigm. Consequently, my thesis will pursue the conjunction of C.S. Peirce’s pragmatic semiotics with Oliver Davies’ cosmological semiotics. The result of this synthesis will constitute the object of the third part of this paper, which will end up formulating a methodology that, first of all, confers a non-dualistic rationality from whose perspective I will approach the Epistle of James. Secondly, it facilitates a hermeneutics which will unify meaning and action by integrating, in a reflexive manner, the linear life of the reader within the interpretative proceeding. Thirdly, it puts semiotic-theological instruments of interpreting the epistle at our disposal. In the fourth section, I will pursue an interpretation of the epistle, which will conclude with the presentation of a possible purpose, structure and progression in James.

This study brings together insights from translation studies, linguistics, church history and biblical studies in a comparative analysis of keywords from the New Testament book of Galatians. The overarching question of this work is: how do concepts travel? The main theoretical catalyst for this research is Raymond Williams' "Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society" (1976), in which Williams recognises the importance of certain words in key debates and subtle connections between words that may exhibit ideological positions and worldviews. The subsequent research questions are: how are keywords translated to reveal ideological positions? And, how might the mapping and remapping of keywords from Galatians serve to reflect and indeed effect religious identities and inter-confessional relations today? Nine keywords are explored in terms of their mappings and remappings in both pivotal moments in Church history (such as the Reformation and the emergence of Liberation Theology and Pentecostal ism) and in the practice of contemporary Bible translation. The corpus comprises sixteen Bible translations written for a variety of purposes across French, German, Spanish and English.

This thesis explores the Pauline conception of faith in 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and Galatians. While most studies on this topic focus attention on Galatians and Romans, this thesis begins in letters less commonly explored while also looking beyond the word πίστις to explore conceptual cognates. By expanding the framework in these two ways, this study elucidates disputed passages in Galatians, while casting fresh light on significant debates in Pauline theology. The introductory chapter sets the discussion of faith in the context of contemporary debates on the centre of Pauline theology, the πίστις Χριστοῦ formula, and the relation between divine and human agency. In three chapters on 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians, respectively, we observe that faith, for Paul, is at once both self-negating and self-involving dependence on Christ. As a surrender to God, it is an active and productive mode of existence. In chapters five and six, on Galatians 2 and Galatians 3–6, we test this definition of faith in a number of important and contested texts, which as a result, elucidates three significant Pauline debates. First, we discover that Paul connects faith to both the concept of participation and the doctrine of justification; faith is an ongoing state of participatory dependence in the Christ-mediated process of salvation, not simply the entry point of justification. Secondly, on the interpretation of πίστις Χριστοῦ, the objective genitive is read in a way that preserves the theological priorities of those who advocate the subjective genitive reading while also conveying the vital role of human faith in Pauline theology. Finally, on questions of agency, we discover that divine and human agency cannot be reduced to a competitive relationship; God’s activity grounds and enables human activity as the believer unites himself or herself in a dependent relationship to Christ. In conclusion, several of the apparent conundrums in recent Pauline scholarship turn out to derive from an inadequate understanding of what Paul means by faith, which is the mode of self-negating participation in the prior gracious work of Christ.

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