Paul's Mediterranean Gospel: Faith, Hope, Love

Abstract

Paul's signature triad of faith, hope, and love carries significations that are at home in the domestic religion of Mediterranean culture. As such both the cosmology and the soteriology of the sonship of Jesus extend into domestic relations of subordination and obediential suffering. This inquiry into the Mediterranean understanding of faith, hope, and love reveals a corporate rather than personal meaning for the values, which Paul treats as standards for behavior in the evangelical assemblies.