Paul's application of Abrahamic faith to the Christian life : "The one who is righteous will live by faith" (Rm 1: 17; Hab 2: 4)

Abstract

Abrahamic faith is believing what is not seen, acting on the Word even though it is not fully understood, yet it is that hope that does not deceive but justifies. "The one who is righteous will live by faith". (Rm 1, 17; Hab 2, 4) Faith plays a fundamental role in our lives and how we live our religion, that is our 'faith'. This theme is important and relevant because as Christians, we who are the Church, are invited through the Word of God, the Living Word that is Jesus Christ, to discover him, to unravel and open this gift given to us and to Iive this dimension of faith that is foundational to a personal relationship with Him, "Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ" - St Jerome. The author of Hebrews tells us in 11, 1 "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" and again in 11; 6 "without faith it is impossible to please God". Trust in God was a predominant Jewish expression of faith in the Old Testament and the Gospels whereas assent to revealed truth is by and large the principal Christian form of faith in Church history. Protestants, Lutherans tend to emphasise the centrality of faith as trust, whereas Catholicism especially in the Counter Reformation era has tended to emphasise the centrality of faith as taught by Aquinas as assent to the doctrines taught by the Church, "the act of the intellect assenting to a Divine truth owing to the movement of the will, which is itself moved by the grace of God" (St. Thomas, 11-11, Q. iv, a. 2 ). 1 However regarding the question of the Law in the Jewish religion, in the Torah, Paul draws and expounds in his letters the importance of Abrahamic faith that justifies vis-a-vis the Law, using his reinterpretation of Abraham as a paradigm of faith. New doors have since been opened and it is only since Vatican Council II that the Word of God, through Protestant influence, was encouraged to be read and prayed with, followed and lived by Catholics. The appropriation of the hermeneutics of the Word according to the Pontifical Biblical Commission is "The meaning in which the human word and God's word work together in the singularity of historical events and the eternity of the everlasting Word, which is contemporary in every age. The biblical word comes from a real past. It comes not only from the past, however, but at the same time from the eternity of God and it leads us into God's eternity, but again along the way through time, to which the past, the present und the future belong". The intention of this dissertation is to highlight and bring to the fore a truth and dimension of a journey of faith that has not always been of common import in the Church and to show its central importance and relevance in the way we see and live our faith according to the Word of God. It is an act of trust and faithful surrender by which we do not rely on our own strengths or selves but commit ourselves to the power and guiding word of him in whom we have faith. The dissertation is written through research, exegesis, commentary, critical issues underlining the understanding and divergences of the topic in question. This will be done by delving into the Abraham narrative itself and its interpretation in Paul's letters to the Galatians and Romans. This author will also assimilate and delve into the use of Abraham as patriarch and the prototype of Jewish and Christian faith in those canonical books, namely the Gospels, Acts and letters wherein his influence has been pronounced.