The People of Israel and the Christian Church with particular reference to the logic of Pauline Theology: An Application to the Portuguese-speaking world

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.